I feel compelled to review #Female Pleasure because it’s so important and I worry that people will be turned off by the title, which may not accurately express the gravitas of the subject matter.
Barbara Miller’s must-see documentary opens with a voiceover saying, “We are obsessed with women’s vulvas and their sexuality,” while we’re assaulted with images of misogynistic ads featuring naked and semi-naked women being, well, assaulted — just like we are every single day.
“We live an environment where women are constantly judged on everything,” says one woman.
#Female Pleasure reveals that dangerous culture by focusing on five women from very different backgrounds whose stories prove that being female is a universal problem. I want to tell you a little about each one so, in case you can’t see the movie, you still absorb their harrowing stories, which are way more common than you’d like to believe.
There’s Deborah Feldman, who finally left the Hasidic Jewish community in New York after being forced into an arranged marriage, which — despite the fact that it wasn’t her choice to give her body to a stranger — resulted in a child. Her family shunned her and she made her story public through a book, Unorthodox, which enabled her to keep her son.
There’s Leyla Hussein, who’s fighting to stop female genital mutilation, which she underwent as a child in Somalia. “It’s about oppressing women and controlling their bodies,” she says. When she shows a group of people, including young men, graphic photos of the procedure, they break down in tears and vow to fight against the barbaric procedure performed under the guise of “tradition.” This is why it’s so important to talk about this: when you know better, you do better.
There’s Rokudenoshiko, a Japanese manga and performance art who was arrested and charged with obscenity for her vagina-themed art. Although Japan proudly puts on a penis worship festival every year, the culture expects women to be invisible. Rokudenoshiko faces two years in prison, and is fighting for her artistic freedom.
There’s Doris Wagner, who joined a convent in Bavaria at the age of 19, where she was raped by a pastor during her nun training. She left the order, earned a graduate degree in theology and a doctorate in philosophy, and is now fighting to support people who have been abused by the Catholic Church and ecclesiastical cults. She is working to change the thinking of the highest authorities and make them take responsibility for their crimes.
There’s Vithika Yadav, who explains that “growing up as a girl child in India means being touched, being groped and being sexually assaulted at any given time in any public space.” She started hating herself for being a girl, and, determined to break the culture of silence, founded the award-winning “Love Matters,” the first digital platform in India to give real information about sex. Rape is rampant in India, where Yadav is fighting back against the “boys will be boys” philosophy.
Then, there’s you. What’s your story?
See how #Female Pleasure changes your perceptions, and inspire you to help change others’.
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