Is it My Job to “Rescue” Women Who Undress for the Camera?
Your argument robs adult women of
agency because it says outright that they
are not consenting and implies they
cannot consent. It infantilizes adult women and asserts that they can only
be protected by men with a white knight impulse. We’re getting into an area
where women are regarded as little more than sheep, being led by whatever crook
is nearest.
As regular visitors know, over the past few years I have
focused much of my blog’s attention on how the entertainment industry places
pressure on actors to perform nude and/or sex scenes for audiences. It’s a
problem that is at once both tacitly acknowledged and blithely ignored. I have
argued further that those who suffer most under this burden are actresses.
With my emphasis on women, some readers have responded with
major concerns. I am both thankful for and alarmed by this feedback, because
the quoted critique above is not what I have meant to communicate. Not at all. I
offered a partial answer in a previous
blog post, but I would like to give my critics more than just a passing glance.
They deserve direct eye contact and a measured response.
UNIVERSAL VS. PREVALENT EXPERIENCES
I can see how some readers might get the impression that I
think all actors are coerced into nude and/or sex scenes, and that women
(especially) are always forced to do something they would never do otherwise.
After all, I’ve addressed this issue largely in general terms.
In reality, it is true that not every actor experiences
shock or shame when faced with nude/sex scenes. These experiences, while not
universal, are prevalent. That has been my point.
This distinction is critical, and maybe I have not effectively communicated it. Not every actor feels violated by these situations, but a significant amount of them do. There’s a difference between all and many. In focusing on the experiences of the many, I do not mean to imply that it is the experience of everyone.
This distinction is critical, and maybe I have not effectively communicated it. Not every actor feels violated by these situations, but a significant amount of them do. There’s a difference between all and many. In focusing on the experiences of the many, I do not mean to imply that it is the experience of everyone.
Some men and women do indeed seem to be fine with the nudity
and sex acts required of them. Some actors even appear at times to gravitate
toward the challenges included with such roles. Kristen Stewart is one example.
In commenting on a recent film of hers that required nudity, she said, “I’m pretty open. I think people are a little too f—— weird about it,
to be honest, but that’s kind of why I was like, ‘I’ll do it.’”*
THE ROLE OF CONSENT
To quote once again from the person who wrote to me:
Part of [the job of an actress]
includes pretending to be someone else who is in lust or love with a
make-believe person that someone else is pretending to be. Those are the terms
of the job, and the actress knows that going into it. She has consented to it. She may have trepidation,
just as the school teacher may not enjoy teaching fractions and the brain
surgeon may not enjoy suturing. But that doesn’t mean the women aren’t acting
of their own free will.
There is much here that I actually agree with. I have not
intended to argue that consent is completely out the window in the filming of
sex scenes. I agree that women (and men) agree to do such things. It is in the nature of the agreement (where
intimidation, or coercion, or societal pressure, is involved) that troubles me.
Furthermore, the above comparison between acting and other
vocations doesn’t completely work. There is a huge difference between the
violation of a person’s comfort zone and the violation of a person’s
conscience. The challenges involved in teaching fractions, for example, may be
intimidating, but not morally problematic. At times, intruding on a person’s
comfort zone may be thoroughly appropriate. Intruding on one’s conscience,
however, is never appropriate.
Besides, is it not at least possible that certain individuals
enter the acting world hoping that they’ll never have to do a sex or nude
scene? Or that they think they’ll be able to avoid such things simply by saying
they don’t want to do them? Or that they’ll never be asked to do such things to
begin with, so they don’t even worry about it? In such cases, they may end up
facing an ultimatum weeks or months or years down the road: do this sex/nude
scene or lose the role/job/career. Such situations do indeed happen.
And then there are the situations experienced by those like
Jennifer Lawrence during the filming of Passengers.
She’s an A-list actor with a large amount of freedom to accept or reject the
projects offered to her. She was not forced into filming Passengers against her will. She signed up for the movie knowing
there would be some on-screen sex. It appears that her conscience really didn’t
bother her until the actual filming of the scene.
Yes, consent was a real factor in Lawrence’s whole
experience. That does not negate what I’ve been saying—that there is real
cultural/societal pressure placed on actors to sexually act out for the camera.
Sometimes the pressure isn’t felt immediately. Sometimes actors don’t fully
realize where the cultural current is taking them until the trip over the edge
of the waterfall is imminent. Then it forces actors to either downplay or deny
the fact that a stomach-churning descent has taken place.
The bottom line is that consent and coercion can coexist. It
is possible for an acting experience to involve both factors. The presence of
one does not necessarily or automatically negate the presence of the other.
WHITE KNIGHTS…OR SOMETHING ELSE?
When it comes to gender representation, Hollywood is a
largely homogeneous subculture, in that it is run primarily by men. In 2013, film studio executive positions were reported as being 100% male. Whatever the percentage is now, the truth
remains that a large portion of our entertainment industry’s output is based on
male preference and perspective. My emphasis on the ill treatment of women in
particular isn’t based on deficiencies in women, but on the prevalent role of
men in the industry.
To a large degree, men are the cause of the problem. They are the main ones writing, filming,
directing, and producing much of the content I have critiqued. It is no secret
that sex sells, and men are typically the ones wielding their power and
influence to sell their products in a way that appeals to the male sex drive.
When I focus on the abuse and objectification of women, it
is not a call for men to be the guardians of the entertainment galaxy, as if we
are the only ones who can rescue these poor damsels in distress. Rather, my
focus on women is, at least in part, a call for men to stop contributing to the
problem. We will not self-identify as white knights if we rightly see ourselves
as the dragons. If we men will take responsibility for the evils we have
overlooked, encouraged, or participated in, it won’t make us heroes; it will
mean we’re doing what we should have been doing all along.
FLESHING OUT MY ARGUMENT
There is more I’d like to say, but this piece is long enough
already. As I continue down this rhetorical path, I may need to make more
clarifications on what I have already said, as well as address additional and
related issues about which I have said little or nothing.
To those who have provided me with the constructive
criticism quoted above: thank you. I would ask that you continue to engage with
me and help me see things from different angles and vantage points. Your input
is valuable and appreciated.
* It is interesting to note that Stewart’s own family acts “f—— weird” (to borrow her words) about
her sexual scenes. After her parents watched one of her movies (which had
explicit sex), she avoided talking about those scenes with her dad altogether.
And another movie that required nudity was, as she put it, “just not something
that [my parents and I] engaged or talked about.”