Saturday, September 12, 2015
Kimberly Peirce's Remake of Carrie Struggled With Vagina-Phobic Execs Who Couldn't Say "Vagina"
io9.com: When Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce remade Carrie in 2013, everyone dismissed her version of the film as an unnecessary do-over. But Peirce had some ideas for how to make her version stand apart—including an awesomely weird ending, which freaked out studio executives who couldn’t even say the word “vagina.”
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As disappointing as this story is, it doesn't surprise me at all. I've had many experiences in which both men and women are afraid or even amused by discussions of a sexual nature. In the article the director said that she had previously been able to produce almost-pornographic material before with no issue. Women's bodies have been sexualized by the media for decades, yet as soon she wanted to show a woman giving birth it became a problem. People have been conditioned to accept media that depicts women's bodies sexually, but to be shocked by biological acts such as birth. Of course it was a lot more graphic than how birth is typically depicted, however movies have been green lit before with extremely graphic sex scenes. This incident also reflects the larger problem of the lack of sexual education in the United States, as grown men should be able to say the word vagina without giggling like middle-schoolers. Immaturity like this can be prevented if people become more comfortable discussing issues related to sexuality.
Seriously? Cooter? The euphemisms people use when describing genatalia, especially female genatalia, are ridiculous to me. A man should not be allowed near a vagina if he can't say the word out loud without feeling embarrassed. It'd be different if this wasn't a very serious and important moment of the film, and it's great that they eventually gave her the resources to do it, but in our culture there is a barrier around female genatalia.
In a documentary called This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated, it was shown that generally, films that show a man orgasming or his penis receive a standard R rating. Fine. But, a film that shows a vagina (breasts and butts are fine) or a woman orgasming more often than not receive a deadly NC-17 rating. Why are we more comfortable with male sexuality? Why is male sexuality not weird and foreign to us like female sexuality is? As Megan pointed out, we are way more okay with naked women if they are viewed sexually rather than just, normal. But even then, the type of female sexuality society seems to be okay with is only if it is catering to a male view and focusing on the experience of the male in relation to that woman. The woman is rarely the subject, she is the instigator to a mans reaction.
I regret to say that I have actually seen this remake and it was horrible. It was corny and boring, I would agree with critics who said it was pointless. I had no idea that there was so much that was supposed to be added to it, and I think that is a huge shame. When I saw the film it was almost like the director was trying to make a horror film, but was not quite up to the task so it was pretty much a PG film which is disappointing (especially as a horror film fan). As for the weird me who couldn’t say the word vagina, that is really stupid. In the entertainment industry where nudity is not uncommon people should really not have such a hard time being professionals and just say “vagina”. It is WAY worse when they say crap like, “Vajayjay” because that just shows a level of immaturity and I don’t know how comfortable I would feel working with someone like that. In fact I have worked with people like that and it IS unpleasant.
The double standard for males versus females in the film industry is ridiculous. In plenty of R rated movies from Steve McQueen's Shame, to even Forgetting Sarah Marshall, we see penises and no one bats an eye. It is sexy, funny even. But when a vagina is brought into the picture, suddenly it is intimidating.In a scene like this,in a movie about a woman with power, a vagina would represent power, and perhaps that scared the male executives. But I definitely applaud Peirce in her efforts. However it does seems sort of a cop out, with her trying to blame her failure of a movie on this. But, perhaps she is right that it was the executives fault.
Like Mean, I was not at all surprised by the behavior of the execs. Quite frankly, it is shameful how society, and the media, portray female sexuality. The film industry's bashfulness around the vagina is just a result of a culture where women have long been considered to exist for men. How are we, as a society, uncomfortable with birth, an experience all of us share, when we are fine sexualizing young girls and dressing them in tight shirts and short skirts. Pre and young teen girls are already accustomed to being viewed as sexual objects and have been told countless times to be modest (no boy wants a skank) and that other girls are your competition. I blame this on the astounding lack of education. Coming from an abstinence-only high school (don't do that to your kids) I bought into all the fluff about "natural modesty" and "wait till marriage" until I realized that myself and the girls around me had no control, or even information, about our anatomy. Several girls from my school were unaware that women could masturbate, or even orgasm. Until society corrects the mountain of misinformation being shoved down our children's throats, films (ad film execs.) like these will continue to exist. Carrie has been one of my favorite books/movies/plays for a long time because of how Stephan King displays his characters as sexual beings. I look forward to the release of the director's cut since it might, for the first time, actually capture the complexity of the characters.
I fully agree with this article. The original Carrie was such an amazing movie to see. It was a disturbing horror with very little amount of blood. It was also very tasteful with it's story line. However, this new Carrie that came was a semi-good idea at first, but then it came out horribly wrong. The issue may have been the cuts of the movie, but just the whole thing wasn't interesting. The movie was so overdone and tried to be too comedic when you're supposed to feel something for Carrie. This is why I hate when Hollywood decides to remake everything. They always lose sight of what was important about the original and what made it famous. If you want to recreate Carrie in a different way then they should've written a different story with a similar plot and relate it to Carrie. A good example would be a bunch of high school students wanting to recreate the event of Carrie on stage. This was a disappointing movie to watch. Hopefully Peirce will fully commit next time she directs a piece this extreme and will actually stick to the true meaning instead of making up her own.
Why are vaginas so scandalous? Penises are everywhere yet a vagina is somehow this magical item which no one understands and must be hidden? I understand laughing the first time; I would do the same since I have the mind of a 12 year old boy, but after seriously talking for more than five minutes, what is the issue? I thought that the ending with the birth scene was much more powerful than the released ending. Given the fact that there were no genitals present in the ending, why was it not used? If the film industry producers are that scared of a human body, maybe they should go into a less “risqué” industry. I’m really tired of being told that a woman’s body is either a piece of property, or so sacred that wearing anything remotely revealing is considered vulgar. If men can walk around shirtless, so can I. If men can walk around in their underwear, so can I. People are all walking chunks of meat. I cannot fathom why people are still acting as if we are in the middle ages and women’s bodies can’t be shown on screen in fullness.
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