Our Indy Premiere, A Good Review, SSL Streaming, and Masculinity/Femininity Movie

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Three things today.

1. The Indianapolis Premiere of Science, Sex and the Ladies was about as awesome as I could have hoped for. Although Indy is our hometown, and it's good to be on home turf as far as turnout goes, we already had the cast and crew screening way back in February, and people had been having small private shows (our small screenings) around town for months. So, most of our core audience had seen the movie, and frankly you never know if you can bring people out to a movie more than once. However, we had a kick-ass turnout. Over 200 people. We packed the house, and I honestly didn't know over half the people there - at all, which was super duper awesome. We got great feedback too, and even scheduled some more small screening from people there who wanted to show friends and family - gotta love that.

Only 1 couple left during the movie out of, well, being appalled - at least as far as we can tell. I saw them leave, and then I heard later from someone sitting next to them that the guy started kinda freaking out a little when the vulvas came on screen, and then both the guy and gal started looking really uncomfortable, and then they left not too far into it. I say those are good leaving-in-an-appalled-huff numbers for an event that had 6 foot vulvas on the screen. The only other bad thing that happened was I drank the wrong beer from Scarlet Lane all night.

2. SSL is streaming for free until the end of the date November, 14th 2014! You can get to it through a really great review of SSL that was done on the blog Science, Sex & Nature. The woman (also the author of that Slippery When Wet book I mentioned in the last post), who wrote it asked if she could give her readers access to it for a short time, and it coincided with the Indy Premiere, so we said sure. We thought that along with reaching her readers, it'd be a nice thing to do as a thank you for all the support we got from the people here in Indy...and you non-Indy readers get the benefit too. So, check out the review and get a look at Science, Sex and the Ladies HERE.

3. I saw a movie called Masculinity/Femininity at the 2014 Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival today, and I thought it was worth a quick shout out. It's an experimental documentary, and it's investigating (you might have guessed) masculinity and femininity - thus the name of the film. The styling of this movie is not everybody's cup of tea, but it's the kind of thing I like to see at a film festival - something unique that takes liberties a lot of other movies don't or won't. I mean, I think the best thing about a film fest is the chance to see what's happening in parts of the film community that I can't access in the regular ol' theaters or on Netflix. So, I'm glad I saw this, and I think there were some interesting contemplations on gender. If you are into avante garde movies or into thinking more deeply about masculinity and femininity, check this movie out. Here's their Facebook page so you can keep up with where it shows next.

SSL Bonus? One of the people interviewed was Sophia Wallace, the artist who created Cliteracy, and you know I think the Cliteracy campaign is for real on point. Also, one woman (and forgive me for not remembering - I didn't have my notebook with me to take notes) speaks about how she was taught as a teen that not having sex with boys was absolutely imperative to making it in the world - and that sex=babies=fucked up your life. It matches the cultural predicament discussed in the book Dilemmas of Desire by Deborah Tolman (a fantastic book we discuss in Science, Sex and the Ladies - I highly recommend it), about girls having more struggles with their desire because they often feel that since they (and not boys) have to be the ones to stop sexual encounters before they get to the baby-making stages, then they have to suppress their desire in various ways so they don't let themselves get out of control and ruin their lives before they begin. Point is there are definitely some intersections between this movie and SSL.

Mad Men S1 - The SSL Review

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I resisted watching Mad Men for a long time. I don't know. I guess I just didn't like all the oooing and aaahhing over the era. However, I had been hearing good things about it, and it is my belief that if one waits too long to watch a movie or TV show, it loses something. Especially if it is leading the way in style or content or something, The punch of the new dies when you watch a show's copycats first. So, I figured since it's coming up on its last season, I should get in and catch up.

So, here I am in Season 4 of Mad Men. As happens with all series on which I binge, it literally bleeds into my dreams and the characters's names pop up casually in me and Charlie's conversations. I'm not complaining though, I am enjoying it. I love TV.

To SSL review something, it needs to discuss or depict female sexual release or female masturbation. I then tell you all if I deemed it ridiculous or sensible and/or how I feel it contributed to our cultural understanding of female sexuality. That's how this works. This isn't on HBO or Showtime, so there simply isn't a lot to review, but what I do have to review is subtle and about female masturbation.

Season 1 Episode 11 "Indian Summer"

Depiction 1
This one's simple. It's classic even. Picture it. A 1960 housewife has a young, persistent and somewhat attractive sales man come to the door. He almost convinces her to measure windows upstairs, but then she decides it's too dangerous/tempting and asks him to leave. It gets her juices flowing though, and when she gets too darn close to her jumpy washing machine, she starts to fantasize about this young salesman while she rubs up against the vibrating machine. We don't see her move too much or make a big porn-inspired show of her orgasm. This isn't HBO, but we assume, oh we assume.


Depiction/Discussion 2
Oh, Peggy Olson - what an episode you had! She got the rather important opportunity (she's really just a secretary at this point) to write advertising copy for a weight loss device that's supposed to somehow work the fat off the ladies. Well, turns out this thing is a harness that you step into like panties and it vibrates, and as soon as Peggy tries the device, at home and comfy in her PJs, she clearly gets what its actual selling point is...and immediately takes them off, appalled. Long story short, she, discreetly as possible, does a great presentation to the other copywriters for this device. It was a good day, and in the final scene, we see her again comfy at home in her PJs, but this time she willingly puts on that vibrating harness - fully aware of what it might do to her...

It also needs to be noted that before the company enlisted a woman to work on the copywriting, and thus when they still thought it was just a shit weigh loss device, a few of the guys in the room had their wives test it out. One dude's wife liked it and thought she'd use it again. Well, unsurprisingly, upon learning during Peggy's presentation that this device provides women "the pleasure of a man without the man," one guy in the room begins making fun of the dude who's wife was into it. That pissed the husband off hardcore and a fist fight had to be stopped.

Thoughts
Now, the idea that a husband's dick must not be doing the job if his wife likes a vibrator on her clit is certainly relevant for the time, but it's also not so foreign now. Same goes for Peggy's initial reaction to masturbation. Yeah, it seems like women of the 50's would be more against the idea of jiggling their junk, but it's not like women of this time are totally cool with it either. Check out the 2005 book Dilemmas of Desire, you'd find of the 34 teenage girls that were interviewed, very few thought masturbation was a normal thing for any girl, much less themselves, to do.

What I'm saying is I worry that this "oh 1960 was so different and funny!" perspective Mad Men - especially during this first season - takes could downplay the extent to which these problems still exist. I mean, in 2014, I can still write a blog that is like, "wow - I saw female masturbation depicted in this movie/TV show! Yay! We don't get to see that nearly as much as male masturbation!"

Gals doing it is still more stigmatized than guys doing it. There are plenty of women and girls who still flat out see it as inappropriate for ladies. There are still plenty of men who feel like they are not doing their job when women work their own junk. Our cultural view of female masturbation might be better in ways, but it is still a problem. All that said, I don't think this show set out to downplay this problem in modern times or anything. There was no harm intended, and my criticism is so subtle anyway, so I will focus on the basics. What it did do was heavily insinuated that 2 quite normal women masturbated. It also created somewhat realistic scenarios - in terms of whether the masturbatory actions these women did could actually cause orgasm. A vibrating harness against one's vulva? Why, yes, that should work just fine. A horny-ass woman rubbing her vulva against a warm gently vibrating machine? Well, the positioning may be a bit tricky, but sure, that could work too! In 2014, that kind of dive into the world of lady-bation is still revolutionary.

So, Mad Men Season 1 gets 4 out of 5 vulvas!
(!)(!)(!)(!)