Censorship and Teen Sexuality

How is adolescent sexuality approached in different types of cinema? Is it shamed, explored, or normalized in some studio forms rather than others? This paper will explore this using; the Hollywood film American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999), the indie film Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012), and the Spanish film Y Tu Mama, Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron, 2001) . All are very different approaches to the topic. Exploring each and the ways that they reflect real life and the way audiences, who are meant to see these films, may receive the subject is an interesting take in dissecting and comparing them.

Adolescent sex conversations started appearing most in the 1980s, although very “immature” (Shary, Timothy, and Robin Mcinnes, 2005). Appearing in the 90’s most sexual content was family friendly “curiosity” until Kids (Larry Clark, 1995). This film reached audiences and showed teen sex in a raw, unfiltered way that basically said: Sex is bad. It addresses the emotional and physical effects that sex can have when kids are active. “Inflaming” instead of being more subtle, Shary says in Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen. Subsequent films also start to feature sex in a more problematic light.

Hollywood films are generally easy to digest. American Beauty is a satire film that addresses teen sexuality. The main character’s daughter and her friend are the two sexualized adolescents in the film. The daughter is the quinistental “teen girl,” with an attitude problem and her friend is the popular “slutty” one. The daughter’s sexual experiences are in the form of a physical and emotional relationship with a strange boy next door. He is not a good influence and encourages her bad feelings harbored for her parents. Even planning to run away with her. The friend who seems loose and sexual, is really a virgin. She comes to want sex with the main character, a middle aged father, due to her insecurities.

The catalyst for the main character’s motivations start with his attraction to this teen cheerleader. The film addresses the common fetisization with the big breasted cheerleader who in all reality is still a little girl. They show this through a scene where she comes on to the main character and shows a very vulnerable and innocent side of herself. He realizes this and does not deflower her. On the other side of the spectrum it shows his daughter wishing death upon him, having sex, and being rash. The film contributes to this idea that teens are not empathetic, especially when they think they are in love. That they are more likely to make bad decisions when sex and relations are involved, probably because, like the cheerleader character, they are playing adult.

Playing adult. That is a term that comes to mind with the indie film Moonrise Kingdom. The film features two kids who run off to be together. There is no sex in this film between the kids, however the relationship and the attention to the sexuality of kids is made. Specifically there is a scene when they strip down to their underwear and kiss and dance. The characters are not sexy cheerleaders or muscular jocks, they are in puberty 13-14 year old kids. Watching the specific scene between these two at first seems uncomfortable, but that goes away. The film goes on to focus on their relationship, and ‘sticking it to the man’ but it is adventurous and despite the kiss and them getting “married” it is rather pure.

The film seems to normalize the sexuality of the kids. The relationship is not set ablaze by the movie to tell kids “you are too young!” It ends with them being able to be together despite all the adversity with their runaway. The book Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents addresses the importance of showing characters “choosing to delay sex.” Although the characters did not have sex, Moonrise Kingdom did not seem to be trying to send out a message for kids to wait so that they can have a long lasting relationship. The kids were more so were testing curiosity when the sexual situation came about, and it was treated as a passing moment not a defining moment.

The most explicit film, besides maybe Kids is Y Tu Mama, Tambien. This film is the story of two teen boys who take an older woman on a beach trip, hoping to get lucky, while their girlfriends are away for the summer. The whole film the boys are shown to be very sexual, the opening being a sex scenes with their girlfriends. Another scene they masturbate in the same pool on seperate diving boards. The film is filled with unspoken truths. For instance, one friend does not touch the toilet in the other’s house because he lives “below” him. After both have sex separately with the older woman, jealousy arises and the boys confess they slept with each other’s girlfriends. After high tensions and many drinks, one says he slept with his friend’s mother too. The woman has a threesome with boys in which they end up kissing each other heavily. The scene is oddly beautiful, although the audience can feel the weight of lines being crossed. The end scene shows the audience that they do not remain friends after the trip.

This film explores the boys relationship to each other and themselves. Sex is vital to them and how far do all the unspoken things go before it breaks the friendship? The ending shows that their exploring and finding a potential bisexuality is something that was too heavy to be able to be friends and be unspoken. More so than even sleeping with each other’s girls, or mother.

Y Tu Mama, Tambien does in a way that I have not seen an American film, Hollywood or indie, really explore adolescent sexuality and identity. After the trip there is almost all indication that what happened was an occurrence that would not be spoken of again, and it was easier not to deal with it internally if they were not friends. This film not only does not demonize sex in teens, but it actually seems to show the very real effects that sex can inspire in young people. That it can show them qualities within themselves that maybe they have not admitted to. Whether that be that they are more selfish than they think, or even that they may like men as well as women.

The difference in approach in these films are all dependent on the purpose of the characters. American Beauty showed the audience that kids are not always reliable in making their own decisions when it comes to sex and that ultimately it is up to adults to “save” them as the main character does for the cheerleader. Moonrise Kingdom shows the pure curiosity that is involved in adolescence and that it being explored will not always lead to getting lost. Y Tu Mama, Tambien is a film that shows the reality of kids exploring themselves and having to face things they may not want to accept. Based off of the aforementioned films Hollywood films definitely have a tendency to be safer. They want to put out content that parents will want their kids to see, while indie and foreign films tend to reach a bit further, and present more artsy or some may say “progressive” ideas forward.

Works Cited

Mendes, Sam, director. American Beauty. DreamWorks Pictures, 1999.

Anderson, Wes, director. Moonrise Kingdom. Universal, 2012.

Cuaron, Alfonso, director. Y Tu mamá, también. 20th Century Fox, 2001.

Clark, Larry, director. Kids. Shining Excalibur Films, 1995.

Jordan, Amy B., and Daniel Romer. Media and the Well-Being of Children and

Adolescents. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Shary, Timothy, and Robin Mcinnes. Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen.

Wallflower, 2005.