Unpop Culture

Last week, we looked at Hollywood’s underground culture of sexual abuse : how actors are routinely coerced into violating their consciences by performing nude scenes and/or sex acts on screen. While audiences have grown comfortable with watching such scenes, actors are often uncomfortable (or worse) with filming them. Isn’t it true, though, that some actors willingly undress for the camera? The simple answer is, of course, yes. But it’s an answer that requires at least two clarifications. And since women are the majority of the victims in these circumstances, we’ll focus on women for the rest of the article. First, it’s not as easy as you might think to discern the difference between willing and unwilling performances. Take just one example (or, rather, an example in several parts) from recent history, all involving a “willing participant.” Actress Margot Robbie recounts how her audition went for the movie The Wolf of Wall Street . She showed up for the audition in her us...

Several years ago, Kate Beckinsale was conned into signing a movie contract that required nudity—something she didn’t want to do. With her acting career in jeopardy, she found herself browbeaten by the director. “I was really disturbed and I was sobbing and begging,” she said . At long last, she gave in to intimidation and performed the nude scene, which made her feel “violated and horrible.” Afterwards, she secretly urinated in the director’s thermos in revenge. In the realm of television, actress Ruta Gedmintas faced her first sex scene for the HBO show The Tudors . “I was absolutely terrified and had no idea what was going on,” she later said . “I cried afterwards because I was thinking, ‘This isn't acting, what am I doing? My mum's going to see this.’” Would you believe me if I told you that stories like these are numerous? Sadly, it’s true. The amount of pressure and intimidation Hollywood places on actors—especially women—to undress for the camera is commonplace...

I tend to be a fairly methodical person. When Shannon and I were dating, a close friend of mine asked her, “What does it feel like to have everything planned out three months in advance?” Yes, I’m one of those guys who likes to schedule his spontaneity. And what does a methodical person do to prepare for parenthood? Why, read a small library of child training books, of course. (What a silly question.) After all, plenty of godly men and women have walked the path of parenting before us, so sitting down at their feet seemed like a no brainer. To be sure, our reading proved enormously beneficial. We have discovered some great resources that we’ll return to in the years—heck, decades—to come. We’ve learned many wise principles and practices that will benefit our attempts at child training. But after reading all those books, I decided to turn to the source of all that godly wisdom: the Bible itself. I wanted to compare the words of Scripture with the books we had read to see w...