about age ratings

patanor is written for an adult audience, but with the understanding that teens might read it too. Most pages are rated 14+ and some are rated M (roughly 16+).

linked & referenced content

I don’t think it’s fair to discuss a piece of media and then say, “oops, sorry kid, your parents probably shouldn’t let you watch that.” So I rate in-depth criticism and analysis to match the media I’m talking about.

There is content that mainstream culture thinks is appropriate for minors while I disagree. I may discuss those works in moderate detail under an an M rating.

language

I’m a low-class, salty-ass New Englander and use blunt and vulgar language more freely than might be appropriate in your culture. All readers are expected to be mature enough to not get themselves in trouble at home or at school.

But I don’t like hate-speech; there’s a difference between “dumb-shit” because we’re all dumb-shits sometimes and tearing someone down because of race, disability, &c. If I write a character who does that it’s gonna rate M. Pages rated 14+ might mention slurs but only in an educational way.

propaganda, advertising & morals

Teens are pretty smart, but they’re not full-grown graduate of the school of hard knocks smart. At at 14+ rating I expect goodness to show up but not necessarily win. Stories that are heavily cynical or promote self-serving attitudes, lifestyle advertising, authoritarian propaganda, that kind of thing; those rate M.

M-rating is not the same as “this should be forgotten.” I have a particular interest in US–Japanese WWII propaganda, for example, but remembering those things requires a great deal of compassion and repentance.

doom

Some stories, fiction and non-fiction really do seem to cross a line from dealing with real problems to trying to push people into spiraling. Too-damn-real, retraumatizing scenarios rate M.

nudity & objectification

Stories that show people as people first and foremost may show skin and rate 14+ here. Media, especialy visual media, that reduces people to a collection of sexy parts pretty quickly rates M.

US culture, both as a grassroots level and pressure from algorithms/monetization, often disapproves of women with bare chests so I give fair warning about that. But I object to rating women and men by different standards.

sex

Sex may be acknowledged at 14+ but the rule is to respect the privacy and dignity of real people and fictional characters. Harassing and forward behavior rates M unless very light and doesn’t invite the reader/viewer to empathize with it.

M allows for frank discussions and may allow the reader/viewer to be present in a sex scene, but details are kept sketchy.

violence & horror

14+ allows violence but is skeptical of presenting cool bad-assery as a good thing. Graphic injury is kept to a moderate level. Psychological violence counts as violence — and in prose it’s the psychological stuff that comes across most explicitly.