Week 3-Censorship and Scary French Movies

A few weeks ago, in one of my other classes, we watched this French movie called Baise-moi. It was incredibly graphic, sexually explicit and violent and we all walked out of class completely traumatised by the film. But you know what? I still think it's wrong that this film was refused classification in Australia.
Yes, there was sex and violence and guns and blood and even a rape scene at the beginning, but absolutely none of this was gratuitous or intended to be the slightest bit erotic. The film needed the rape scene to show exactly what drove the girls to go on their killing spree, how they felt like they desperately needed revenge on a society that marginalised and oppressed them. I actually thought it was a really powerful feminist statement-showing people exactly how women are treated by some misogynistic guys without cutting corners or sugar-coating it. We just watched it and went back to our lives, but for so many women, this is their reality. I'm not saying all guys are misogynists/rapists like the ones in the movie, but honestly, if guys watched this movie and saw rape through a woman's eyes, they would think twice about the way they treat women.
The film was shown in America with only, like, two seconds cut out. It was shown in America, the country that created purity rings, televangelism and The Jonas Brothers, for crying out loud. The only reason it got banned in Australia is because we have all these retarded, extremely right-wing politicians like Fred Nile and Steve Fielding who have heaps of influence in the Senate.

I get the whole classification thing, even if I don't always agree with the classifications that movies get. Like, an M rating for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a tad excessive. Obviously if kids are reading the books they're picturing similar stuff to what's actually being shown on the screen...although having said that, Harry Potter fans have usually grown up with the books- like, I was 10 when I first started reading Harry Potter, but I was 17 when the last book came out. But unless a movie actively promotes questionable ideologies 

( like rape or murder or whatever) it shouldn't be banned and people should have a choice about what they can and cannot see. If Baise-moi glorified the rapists, then yes, I would support the ban. But it doesn't advocate any of the crimes that take place- I didn't feel the need to go out and murder somebody after watching it. Quite the contrary actually, I was horrified and had my eyes shut for most of the movie.