drug misuse, domestic abuse, discrimination, sex references, language

Shining a light on the titular singer’s meteoric rise to fame, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody also explores the devastating impact of addiction and abusive relationships on Houston’s health and career.

Key classification issue: drug misuse

Our guidelines at 12A/12 permit some depictions of drug misuse, but these should generally be infrequent, not glamorise the activities or give instructional detail.

In Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, there are visual references to various drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, as well as sight of drug paraphernalia, including bongs and pipes. The film is careful, however, not to illustrate the use of stronger drugs. For example, characters are seen rubbing their noses after implied off-screen cocaine abuse, avoiding more detailed or explicit depictions.

Cannabis smoking does occur on-screen, but it is brief and without undue focus or glamorisation. Our research has also shown that people are more accepting of incidental cannabis misuse at 12A/12 than other drugs.

A challenge the film presented is whether the drug misuse is glamorised, as Houston’s use of drugs escalates with her burgeoning success. Associating drug misuse with wealth and celebrity may lead content to receive a higher rating, but in the case of Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Houston’s addiction problems have a clearly detrimental effect on her health, relationships and career, ultimately leading to her death. In the full context of the narrative, the presentation of drug misuse is unquestionably aversive, and participants in our guidelines research were supportive of a 12A rating.

We classified the film 12A for drug misuse, domestic abuse, discrimination, sex references, language.