A Manifesto Regarding Sexually Explicit Movies and Modern Medicine – by Gary S. Smolker

Updated November 3, 2014

Our Challenge

Our challenge is to answer the following questions:

1. What drives “demand” for sexual content in movies?
2. Why are people so hungry to see “sex in movies”?
3. What are the action implications, ramifications and impact of having sex, drugs, alcohol, and sexually explicit dialog and visuals in movies?  What does having those elements in a movie tell us and tell future generations about how people feel, what people want, and/or what is currently going on in the world?
4. What are the impacts of modern medicines/movies on mental state, sex drive, creativity, human health, human conduct and relationships?
5. What do recently released movies show us about human culture, the state of society, what is going on today and the history of mankind?
6. Are current movies a mirror of our times?
7. Are movies propaganda?  Are movies being used as propaganda?
8. Are movies medicine?
9. How do movies impact behaviors?

Consider the following possible answers:

• People are interested in sex.
• People like sex.
• Sex is a basic human instinct.
• “Having sex” is a basic human need.
• “Sex” is a robustly marketable commodity.
• Sex is evident in almost all behavior with regard to how all people live their lives.
• Sex is critical to life as we know it.
• “How would you like your sex?” is an important question to persons “selling” a product or service or ideology.

Consider the Role (Being) Played by Western Sexually Explicit Films in Provoking and Inflaming the On-Going War Being Raged by ISIS in The Middle East

Consider the social and political ramifications of sex in the movies, i.e. consider the possibility that a large population of Arab/Muslim men in the Middle East are in a constant intense rage against the depiction of sex and sexual freedoms in Western Movies because they fear that women in their countries will become “sexually liberated” as depicted in American movies.

People everywhere can’t resist watching sexually explicit movies because (a) men and “their women” are sexually insecure and/or (b) men and “their” women are sexually repressed, and/or (c) men and their women are horny.

Consider the Role Being Played by Western Sexually Explicit Films in Promoting the Woman’s Liberation Movement and/or the Feminization of Men

Also consider the possibility that the biggest current things happening in Western Civilization – which are totally repulsive to many people – are (a) the realization by women that they don’t “need” men and (b) the feminization of men in Western countries.

Relatedly, consider the possibility that the thought that women don’t need men is having traction among women in economically depressed Arab and Muslim countries where men can not support (their) wives or families and young men cannot pay for shelter for themselves and have to remain living at home.

In economically depressed Arab and Muslim countries, as well as in many Western developed countries, women have to “work” to earn enough money to pay for food for themselves and other members of their family.  Some of these women are coming to the conclusion that men cannot support them or their children and therefore they do not “need” men.

The Role of Evolution

Assuming a “feminization of men” is taking place in Western societies, is the feminization of men in Western societies part of an evolutionary process leading to the “modernization of the human species” through a long-term evolutionary selection of less aggressive and more “family” oriented men by women which will turn humans into a more cooperative species?

Roles Movies Play in Society

Lastly, ask yourself the following three additional questions:

1. What functions do movies perform?
2. What purposes do movies fulfill?
3. What process do movies further?

Then, consider the following potential answers to those three questions:

Movies (can) do more than entertain us.

Movies are evidence. What a movie depicts is a historical statement (a clue) of what is going on in society.

Movies can positively enrich and further human development.

Insight

With respect to movies we watch and everything else in life, all of us need someone with enough expertise, knowledge and intelligence to tell us what we are looking at but can’t see or understand.

My Challenge

My challenge for the past month has been to figure out the social message(s) film makers such as Chris Rock and Seth MacFarlane are conveying in their movies, “Top Five” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”

About three quarters of the movies I have seen in the past two months had graphic sexual content, albeit not one of those movies was a “girly” or “sex movie”, nor did I go to any of those movies to see a depiction of sex in any movie. I believe no-one went to any one of these movies to see “sex in a movie.”

My Personal Big Picture Questions

Sexually explicit dialog in movies doesn’t seem right to me.

I have asked myself:

1. Why is that?
2. Why has the sexually explicit dialog in current movies I have seen in the last two months seemed “wrong”?
3. What are the action implications and ramifications of the extensive amount of sexually explicit dialog and sexually explicit visuals in movies I have seen in the past two months?

Are We In the Midst of A Third Sexual Revolution?

One friend has written:

I think the sexually explicit dialog is an old thing, just getting much worse now, unfortunately, maybe some reaction will come against it.

Less than a year after we were married I was away for 3 weeks at a training course soon after starting with the State of North Carolina.  That was very early in the days of MASH.  I watched one episode that I thought so full of sexual innuendo that I never watched it again; now the shows and movies are much more explicit.  Anyway, MASH became so popular that it became part of the culture that I missed.  Someone once said I reminded her of Radar and I had no idea what she was talking about.

Another friend wrote.

This is so funny – several of the longest lasting TV shows such as MASH and FRIENDS and perhaps CHEERS (hum all one name shows) don’t have much sex in them at all, re movies go back to “Star Wars”, “Spaceballs”, “Wizard of Oz”, “Gone with the Wind” and others … no to low sex … who says its wanted anyway?  Might be just a bunch of sales hype.

That is the past.  Now is now.

Another friend recently told me:

We are now witnessing the feminization of men in Western civilization. (a) As women in the west realize they don’t need men for financial support – that they can and/or will need to support themselves – they come to the realization that they (women) don’t need men.  (b) Men need women more than women need men.  Men in the West realize they need to be more attractive to women.  In order to be more attractive to women men in the West are being “forced” to become more feminine.  (c) Male chauvinism among educated people in the West is in the process of becoming extinct.

“A Million Ways to Die in the West”

The big name establishment critics panned “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”

I have nothing but praise for “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”

As a comedic documentary “A Million Ways to Die in the West” is a work of genius.

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” is not merely a comedic work of art.  It is also a social study.

In “A Million Ways to Die in the West” the main woman character (played by actress Charlize Theron) has (the stereotype) characteristics associated with males  and the main male character (played by Seth MacFarlane) has the (stereotypical) characteristics associated with females.

The social point this movie makes is that men and women both have the ability to succeed in business and to stand up to bullies.

In “A Million Ways to Die in the West” the main male character (a sheep farmer named Albert Stark, played by Seth MacFarlane) is dumped by his long time girl-friend Louise (played by Amanda Seyfried).

The main character (Albert) is a coward who is “dominated” by Anna after he has been dumped by Louise.

Anna becomes Albert’s new girl-friend as a result of a series of events that result in experiences they share with one another.

Anna has all the characteristics normally associated with male “stars” – i.e., she is a noble, strong, talented, intelligent and brave person.

Anna is like Malala Yousafzai, the woman who just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In many clever ways, “A Million Ways to Die in the West” is an extremely clever parody of women’s liberation, the women’s lib movement and of liberated women in Western society.

It is a dramatic presentation of the on-going feminization of men in Western societies.

The main character’s best friend’s girlfriend Ruth (played by Sarah Silverman) is a prostitute.

Ruth works in a saloon where she has sex with ten different customers on a slow day, but hasn’t had sex with her boyfriend Edward (played by Giovani Ribisi) because Ruth and Edward are Christians who believe it would be wrong for them to have premarital sex with one another.

This movie makes the point that weak people take drugs to increase their courage.  During the course of this movie, cowardly sheep farmer Albert Stark (played by Seth MacFarlane) takes drugs to increase his courage before a scheduled gun fight is to take place.

This movie also makes the point that women are often “trapped by conventions.”

In that regard, in one comedic scene, the weak main male character Albert asks his strong new girlfriend Anna: Why did you marry him — referring to the main bad guy in this movie, he man outlaw Clinch, played by Liam Neeson?  She [Anna/Charlize Theron] replies: “I married him when I was nine years old because I didn’t want to be a fifteen year old spinster!”

Although the things that happen in this movie are implausible, they make sense.

The characters in this movie are plausible and charming characters.  In their own magical way they are each likable and engaging.

If you watch this movie, at all times you will want to know what will happen next.

In many ways, this film accurately portrays how life in the United States was lived in the past and how life in the United States is lived today.

Recent Sexually Explicit Main Stream Movies

I attended the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, 2014.

The movies I saw at TIFF were made by film makers from all over the world:  USA, Belgium/France, South Korea, France, Canada/Germany, China, Jordan/Qatar/United Arab Emirates/United Kingdom, and United Kingdom.

Three hundred ninety-two films from seventy-nine different countries were shown at TIFF.

Eighteen of the twenty films I watched at TIFF had significant sexual content.

“Top Five”

Among other sexually charged films, I watched the world premier of Chris Rock’s USA movie “Top Five.”

“Top Five” turned out to be a film about the sex life and career of a character played by Chris Rock (Andre Allen) who is a successful comedian and comic.

The story in “Top Five” revolves around the interaction between a female New York Times critic (played by Rosario Dawson) who savages Andre Allen’s work and Andre Allen.

Andre Allen “discovers” himself (learns that he can be a creative artist and a funny comedian without taking drugs) and also learns about the New York Times’ critic’s sex life while she is interviewing him.

“Top Five” is also tangentially and gratuitously about Andre Allen’s reality show star fiancee (played by Gabriele Union) who wants Andre Allen to boost her reality TV show.

“Top Five” boasts scenes which are obscene to me.

However, each one of those scenes are a representation of the current state of human affairs and a statement regarding the current state of our culture in America.

I don’t know what audiences’ (including black people’s and hip people’s) reaction to those scenes will be.

Will audiences think those scenes are obscene, false and insulting – a slander to the dignity of black people and/or a slander to the dignity of the comedians and entertainers showcased in that movie – or, will audiences think those scenes are erotic or will will audiences understand that those scenes are a social criticism, a parody, a satire about fame, sex, family, making money and insecurity in America or will audiences have a different reaction to those scenes?

I think Chris Rock did a good job (a) of making fun of making money, (b) of making fun of  reality stars, reality stardom and reality shows, (c) of making fun of “sex” in America, (d) of making money in America, and (e) of the on-going feminization of men in America.

My Philosophy

My philosophy is: For a movie to be a (financial) success it must first be a moral success.

I prefer movies that have a message, an idea and/or information that makes people think and talk – movies that say something to me.

I love learning:  I like to come away from watching a movie knowing more than I knew before and I like to come away thinking about something I never thought of before and/or thinking about something in a new way.

Movies that have screenplays like that lead to actors so immersed in the proceedings that they seem to forget themselves at times and to become so real as to be almost unreal.

Just as an embalmed mummy in a museum tells the tale of ancient Egypt, so will our movies portray human conditions to future generations.

 

 

Copyright © 2014 by Gary S. Smolker