Discuss “Executive Privilege”
An image of a penis half inserted into a vagina, like something that could be found in a medical textbook, appeared on screen in Scaife Hall 125. Instantly, the people around me — about 50 sophomore and junior social and decision science majors — erupted into childish giggling. I sighed to myself and thought, “Aren’t we more mature than that?” But as the group continued to react to various scenes in the movie, my minor irritation grew into absolute dismay, embarrassment, and confusion.
Last Wednesday evening, I watched the film Kinsey for the class Empirical Research Methods. The movie is a portrayal of the life of Alfred Kinsey, the first scientist to study human sexual behavior. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, discussion of...
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Feb 15, 2006 at 07:18 PM
I disagree with your interpretation of the audience reaction in these movies. You are vastly oversimplifying human emotion and sexuality to classify giggling at a hard core shot as "childish" and disgust at a gay scene as "outrage" and "homophobia".
Why do you perceive giggling at a picture of a penis and vagina as immature? Aren't those reactions spontaneous? Scientists have shown that this reaction of giggling and blushing is normal to those with less exposure to such subjects. This is not to place a value on innocence or the lack thereof, so much as to say that it was what created the giggling.
Some have even proposed the theory that blushing and giggling are ways that people who are not yet ready for sex express their discomfort with the idea: it is an unconscious mechanism for protecting themselves.
You conveniently omitted that the gay scene was more than just two guys kissing. As I recall, penises were shown, and I would describe the scene as raw and heated [they were spontaneously confessing their feelings for each other in a hotel room], not "tender". It seemed pretty clear to me from the context of the movie that Kinsey's relationship with Martin was strictly sexual, not romantic.
I think the expressions of disgust you heard during scene with Kinsey and Martin were instinctual reactions, and cannot be read as a condemnation of homosexuality. Presumably, many of the men watching Kinsey were straight. I think it's logical to assume then, that for some, seeing a gay sex scene will be a turn off, perhaps to the point of deep disgust. Disgust for a gay sex scene and disapproving of the GLBT movement are two entirely separate things. Who are you to judge the turn-ons and turn-offs of people? Just because the turn-off is mainstream, doesn't make it less valid. I've heard of plenty of gay people being disgusted by straight kisses, and that's ok, too.
To insist that decent people not giggle or be disgusted at sexual imagery is to strip those images of their meaning, and to deny the sexual backgrounds of those who are either modest, or so straight that they find gay scenes disgusting.
If you weren't prepared and suddenly saw images of say, urolagnia or coprophilia wouldn't you also find yourself suddenly repulsed? There are a whole host of other activities that consenting adults could do which the majority of campus would find either humorous or disgusting. But this is not to say that we disapprove of the rights of consenting adults to practice these activities, just that we don’t find it sexy to see.