UK Raises Age Rating on ... 'Mary Poppins'?

On Friday, the British Board of Film Classification upped the Disney movie’s cinema rating from U, meaning it contained “no material likely to offend or harm,” to PG for “discriminatory language.”

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In a statement to Variety, a BBFC spokesperson said that the film “includes two uses of the discriminatory term ‘hottentots.’"

"While ‘Mary Poppins’ has a historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U," the spokesperson said. "We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language.”

Ed Morrissey

Come on, man. This is absurd. Although I must admit I never knew what 'hottentots' were until today. I did know that it wasn't a term for the ubiquitous Midwestern tater-tot casserole, but that's as far as my knowledge of the term ran. And I'd bet that children wouldn't know the definition of this term either, which makes this pointless. This is about the film board's virtue signaling, not about an actual content issue for small children. 

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