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My assessment of the movie

Posted by Dissident on Monday, April 21 2014 at 08:33:18AM
In reply to It's portrayal of youth and sex... posted by AK47 on Sunday, April 20 2014 at 3:51:22PM

In my opinion, I think this film was a mixed bag. I think the director and screenwriter's main purpose was shock value, plain and simple, i.e., a "wake up call" to society about how our kids act when adults aren't around to supervise them 24/7. Of course, the shock aspect was only possible based on the greater society's denial of youth sexuality, and the misguided belief that by censoring or outlawing any expression of it whatsoever, it will somehow "go away." You know, like how similarly creating a wave of suppression against open expression of homosexuality in cinema from the '20s to the '60s made homosexual behavior go away completely. Oh, wait... it didn't! And I think this point, whether intended by the creative crew or not, is made clear, even if the average person is too shocked and morally revolted to "get it" after viewing.

For one thing, the main male character, Telly, was indeed an atrocious example of a young male, as he and his buddies deliberately set out to be "players." This image is pushed among males in our culture - especially young males - because these traits are mistaken for signs of strength and virility in a male.

Depicting all girls as reluctant to have sex, and ambivalent about it in a general sense, is the result of the opposite culturally-derived attitude being instilled in them: That their ability to refrain from having sex with anyone at all, regardless of what they may actually want in any given situation, is a sign of inner strength and moral fortitude that increases her value and worth as a female.

This is the entire basis of Telly's atrocious behavior, and the equally stereotypical behavior of the girls that he and his homeboys sought to "deflower": The idea that virginity should be seen as a prized possession by girls that their moral worth and desirability as a good relationship partner depends on maintaining. Whereas the "player" attitude is encouraged to find a girl's virginity as a "challenge" to overcome, as if convincing a girl to part with this societally-perceived priceless treasure for him means that he must be a major "stud" in the eyes of himself and his judgmental male buddies.

This mismatched, double standard type of attitude is rooted in Victorian morality, and is heavily ingrained in our own culture. Young men are shamed and ridiculed for being virgins, because their ability to acquire sexual partners and the expectation to constantly seek them out is a sign of their virility, which their perceived worth as a "man" is dependent upon. A man is considered a joke if he is unable to satiate his sexual desires virtually at will. Conversely, girls are shamed and ridiculed for not holding on to their virginity, as traditionally in our culture their worth and value as a woman is dependent on their chastity, since traditionally that is the only real value they can have. Hence, she is devalued and scorned as a "slut" for her inability to keep her natural sexual desires inhibited at all times.

This creates an inherent social conflict between the sexes that carries over into most aspect of their lives. Both genders are subject to strong expectations that are mostly diametrically opposed.

This movie, while intentionally or not, highlighted this sad fact. It also made it clear that young adolescents are strongly encouraged by these warped and gender-conflicting cultural values to adopt them.

I would argue, however, that the depiction of sexual desires expressed by kids was indeed realistic. The way they talked in the privacy of each others' company is generally the way they talk with each other when they are "free" to do so (i.e., when no disapproving adults are around to tell them that their natural desires are inappropriate for discussion between people their age). These kids essentially had no adult guidance because adults usually go out of their way to make kids fear approaching adults for this sort of guidance and advice. Those adults with direct power and authority over them will likely punish them or deny the validity of what they are expressing. And adults who lack this direct power and authority over them would likely get arrested if they allowed kids to confide in them about this topic, and gave them value-neutral advice in return.

That, I believe, is the two root causes of this type of behavior we saw amongst Telly and his cohorts in this film: 1) The conflict between having natural desires, and not being allowed to express them openly or seek guidance for the feelings, thus causing them to go "behind the scenes" to express them; and, 2) The inherent social conflict between males and females being expected to adhere to diametrically opposed moral and cultural standards, which makes them see each other in an adversarial capacity every bit as much as mutually desirable partners.

That being said, I do remember at least one scene where a group of the girls talked to each other very frankly about enjoying sexual contact with boys they truly liked, including gleefully bragging about what they did and had done to them with their consent. I've been told by many independently minded adult female friends that girls and women often talk to each other that frankly when they are in each others' company. But when boys or men are around, these conflicting social expectations make them compelled to act reluctant even when sexually propositioned by a boy they share an attraction with; to play "hard to get"; and to take offense at such a proposition, shouting famous mantras like "I'm not a slut!" or "That's all you boys ever think about!"

Well, it's not true that this is all boys ever think about, but they are encouraged by peers and cultural attitudes to think of little else; and it's also not true that girls are inherently chaste and do not think about it as much as boys do, but in the company of male peers, they feel they have no choice but to go along with cultural expectations and pretend to be virtually asexual, and to pretend to find sex as an offensive topic to them.

Moreover, men and women certainly know that they act this way as much as kids do, but acting as if only kids make all the mistakes that go along with such behavior; and the corresponding belief that kids lack the "maturity" to rise above it; makes adults feel inherently superior simply for being older. Of course, that makes as much logical and moral sense in lieu of the evidence as if senior citizens decided that wearing false teeth somehow made them intrinsically superior to anyone with their real teeth intact, but bigotry isn't required to make sense.

I think the movie did a good job of making these points clear, even if its graphic frankness was so "in your face" that it made many viewers - both open-minded and close-minded alike - miss many or all of them, and only react to the shock value and incessant gender and ageist stereotypes.



Dissident





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