Unsuitable for A General Audience

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a short story for a contest sponsored by the city library system. Most of the rules dealt with length and formatting, which were easy enough to follow.  The instructions on content were more problematic. All they said was “Stories should be suitable for a general audience.” That leaves a lot of scope for interpretation. In the movie rating system, "appropriate for all audiences" means "no violence, offensive language, or sexual activity.” The vast majority of animated Disney movies which were made before the new millennium like the Lion King, the Little Mermaid and Aladdin fell under this category and were rated G or GA.

What constitutes G-rated entertainment today, however, has changed to include content that is violent, suggestive or both. An online article from November 2005 (https://www.today.com/popculture/what-does-g-rated-mean-these-days-wbna9889136) references the Disney movie Chicken Little, which includes violence and sexual innuendo. 

So what is a general audience? If I categorize it by age, it would include babies to senior citizens. Stories geared towards a pre-school or pre-teen audience would not have the same subject material or appeal for a more mature audience. A general audience would also include different ethnicities, religions, political ideologies, sexual orientations, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The content would have to be relatable to everyone in those categories. That’s where I’m having a problem. How can one story satisfy everyone's preferences?  

My story is written in English, which may not be understood or appreciated by people for whom it is not their native language. It does incorporate a foreign language because of the setting of the story but any unfamiliar terms are translated into English. I have written stories that draw upon my religion and cultural heritage in the past. My story does not reference any particular religious orientation although it does have a mythological component. Because it is not set in modern times, the language is deliberately formal and precise and utilizes complex vocabulary, which may not engage teenage texters or people who are used to more colloquial English. 

The male protagonist is an alpha male, which may be offensive to feminists, but the female protagonist, while sheltered, is not weak. The characters, like the dialogue, are true to the setting and conform to classical Western norms of appearance and behavior.

There are no physical contests, fights or battles, no races or weapons in the story so the average boy may not find it exciting. But it does include my perspective on the characteristics of a gentleman, which is a lesson that very few young boys get to learn these days. There is a hint of innuendo, but nothing as blatant as the Fifty Shades trilogy.I am an idealist at heart who believes that anything related to themes about love and sex should be portrayed as tender, nurturing and strengthening rather than dramatic, unconventional and combative.

 I don’t think that the trend of "more permissive social values" in modern entertainment has had a positive influence on relationships between men and women as the today.com article points out. A poster on an Etsy chat forum comments, “In American primetime, we have Victoria's Secret commercials that are pretty risque, Viagra commercials, commercials where men and women treat each other like dirt...Really, I'd rather have a felt [sic] penis flash across the page and quickly hit the back button with my child in the room (or my dad) than sit through a VS commercial or a commercial about erectile dysfunction.”  

 But if I am writing for a modern general audience which has been largely desensitized by graphic images and pornographic content, a story that doesn't create shock value by conforming to the popular expectation would be viewed as dull and insipid and fail to hold the attention of its audience.

I have heard profanity being used frequently in movies, songs, television, and the news and seen it in stories I have read as a way of demonstrating conviction or strong emotion.  In the past, it was used to identify a character who is not educated or cultured, but today  I see nothing beneficial or enriching in using profanity as a narrative device, or even a way of making a point in a debate or speech. To me, it just means that the writer or speaker doesn’t have the proper tools to create a good story or support their viewpoint, and the wrong tools only weaken the structure.

One of the lessons that I learned from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, is that the best stories are the ones that are based on your own experience. Growing up in a Western culture I am familiar with its traditions, so I made that the background for my story.  Professor Bhaer  tells Jo “to write what would be of benefit to the mind, heart, and soul,” advice which is reinforced by blogger Trix Wilkins, who says “It’s when we feel, that we write passionately, from the heart – and that is where the compelling story begins.” So maybe that means that it’s time to go against the tide, to write a story that is not suitable for general audiences, but for discriminating audiences, who hold the writer to a higher standard. A story where the reader can learn about a variety of subjects from history to geography, art, culture, and psychology, where the humor is subtle rather than vulgar, a story that employs sensuality rather than sexuality, one which makes the reader both feel and think. A story like that may not satisfy everybody, so it may not reach a wider audience. But at least it will have bolstered the mind, heart, and soul of its first audience: its creator.