Search Party (movie) - The SSL Review

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Search Party
We watched this movie called Search Party a couple weeks ago. It was there on HBO Go, and we took a risk, and that's how it happened. It's not the TV series 'Search Party' with Maeby from Arrested Development. I hear that series is pretty good, although I've never seen it. This movie was not great. It wasn't the worst I've seen by far, but I mean, I'm not out there recommending it either. Anyway, it's about some dude friends who have to deal with shenanigans gone wrong in relation to a wedding. It's got all the tropes for that kind of comedy but it's only got a few actually funny parts, the plot doesn't really even make sense most of the time (and not in the hilarious way that comedy plots can make no sense), and if I remember correctly there is some hella bad green screen work that was clearly unintentional, but seems like maybe Tim and Eric did the composite.

SSL Reviews - An Update
I'm writing about this movie, obviously, because there was a something in it I want to SSL Review. An SSL Review, of course, is a critique of a depiction or discussion of female masturbation or female orgasm in a piece of media. I focus on the realism of the depiction/discussion and also what it adds to the larger cultural discussion about lady-gasms and female sexuality. An SSL Review is just about those depictions/discussions. The movie could be fab overall and have a bad SSL Review or vice versa. I'm not Siskel and Ebert here. I don't review in thumbs. I review in vulvas.

This brings me to a new phase of the SSL Review. I am adding another element that is technically eligible for SSL review: discussion of the clitoris. It doesn't have to be discussed in relation to orgasm or masturbation - just any old mention of the ol' clit will do. It,like the penis, is absolutely integral to its owners orgasm, yet we rarely hear the word in media, so I think it's mention is fully worthy of an SSL Review. That is where the SSL reviewable moment in search party sets. Normally I would say this isn't technically SSL reviewable, but I want to t review it anyway. I've done this with mentions of clit enough times that this change of rules seems fully warranted and by golly I'm excited for this new chapter in the SSL Review rulebook.

On to the review.

Wedding Song About The Utter Sexual Boredom of Marriage 
There are 2 weddings in this movie, both for the same couple. The first gets stopped in the middle of it, and the other goes through and is the final resolving point in the movie. In the first wedding, there are 2 women with a guitar, presumably friends of the bride, that sing during the ceremony about how 'everything is better because I get to do it with you.' It actually touches on some insecurities of the groom and is a bit cheesy and there for comedy and such. Anyway, in this instance it is a little wierd, but it's clearly meant to be an actual part of the ceremony.

However, the second wedding is the end of the movie, and these bridesmaid and their singing just start during the ceremony. They are in the back of the church and then we see them in differnt places as they continue the song, like outside the church and in front of the gift table at the reception. It's kinda like an ending credit song played for humor although it's just before the credits roll.

Anyway, here's the lyrics. The first couple lines are sweet like actually might be sung at a wedding.

...two hearts united in wedded bliss. As you say your vows remember this:
He's got the last penis you're ever gonna see. The last penis you'll feel inside your mouth. I hope he touches your clit not just your heart because he's the only one who will to death do you part.
She's the last woman you'll ever be inside and last mouth you'll have wrapped around your dick. she'll find you less attractive as the years go by, but that's the only vagina that will ever make you come until you die. So congrats to the man and wife for only fucking each other for the rest of you life.

Respect for Repping Clit
I have to say, I didn't love the movie, but I love that they repped the clit...and not only do they rep the clit, but they speak of it in the same way they speak of the penis. It gets the same status - as it well should. They are making jokes about how getting married means you don't get to enjoy any other person sexually for the rest of your life, and what is beautiful about this is they didn't focus that enjoying of sexuality for a woman on her vaginal canal and on intercourse or on her man's penis. They focused it on her clit just as they focused the male enjoying of sex on his penis.

Men generally (and correctly) get their sexual needs focused on their organ of sexual pleasure, the penis  - i.e. the thing that needs stimulated to give them an orgasm. Women, however, often incorrectly get their sexual needs focused on their vaginas and more specifically on how a penis or phallic object stimulates their vagina. This  - both stimulation of the vaginal canal and specifically the stimulation of the vaginal canal with a penis - does not cause orgasm. There is literally nothing in scientific literature that shows physical orgasm is caused by stimulation on the inside of the vagina.

Now, stimulating a vagina with a penis does often cause orgasm for the penis, and that, we can all assume, is why we so desperately want to believe it causes orgasm for the vagina too. Which is probably why we tend to focus - in media, sex ed and sex advice - women's sexual needs inside their vagina instead of where it should be focused - her outer clitoral vulva area, and that's why I appreciate this simple little song so much. It puts credit where credit it due.

But Why Leave Out the Eat Out?
HOWEVER, it does do one annoying thing. It speaks in the lady section how his is the last penis she'll have in her mouth, and you'd think they'd reciprocate that by saying in the man section that her clit is the last he'll have in his mouth, but they don't. Instead they say it's the last mouth he'll have wrapped around his penis. So, they speak about the couple only having oral sex with each other from that point on, but they basically limit the oral sex to dick in mouth and completely ignore that the poor woman will only get his stupid mouth on her junk for the rest of eternity. I mean, getting eaten out right is for real important, and worth a line in this dumb song if you ask me.

Vulva Rating
So I like that the vagina in this song is used as it should be - as a top-notch stimulation device for making penises come. I love that it gave props to the clit as the organ needed touched for lady-pleasure - just as the penis was given props as the organ needed touched for male pleasure. I didn't love, however, that there was both a bride and groom perspective about blowjobs but no mention at all about the most important type of oral sex to clit-bearers - cunnilingus.

So, this has some progressiveness because truly, the clit is almost never mentioned in movie at all, much less in relation to sexual pleasure for women and rarely without also giving equal (and undeserved) props to the vagina. It gets some points removed for focusing of blowjobs over clit-tonguing though.

This movie gets 4 of 5 vulvas
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