More euphemisms: "pervasive language"

[Joel S. Berson]

 From the capsule attached to a review of the movie "21 Jump Street"
by Wesley Morris in today's Boston Globe:

Rated: R (crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug
material, teen drinking, and some violence)"

About 1,520,000 Ghits, the first few asking (and alleging) what it
means but many referring to other concepts.  And apparently standard
-- part of the code?; other newspapers use the same phrase about the
same movie (GNews).  The phrase seems to go back to about 1994 in
this context (GNews), but is hard to trace for this sense in GBooks.

So Morris did not mean "perverse".  Perhaps he meant "persuasive" --
influencing someone into underage sex.  In a movie about the Catholic
Church, "pervasive language" would be repeated exchanges of "Bless
you, Father;" "Bless you, my son".

I also wonder what is R about "drug material".  Surely more than just
seeing it.

Joel

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