Controversial statement of the day

[andrewducker]

From the IMDB:

Spanish siren Penelope Cruz has controversially claimed her character in new film Don't Move is "a little pleased" at being raped. The girlfriend of Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise plays a destitute woman who becomes involved with a high powered doctor in the Italian movie, which is directed by Sergio Castellitto, who also plays the medical expert. And Cruz says of her character, "Her father has been raping her since she was 12-years-old, and that's why, when (the doctor) rapes her, she is even a little pleased because he is a surgeon. A man from a higher social class." The movie - Non Ti Muovere in Italian - has just begun shooting in Rome.

Ouch. I can just imagine the fuss that that is going to cause. If it's handled well it'll be fantastic, but it's still bound to offend a good many people.

Comments

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a variation on the old classic :
"Relationships are the price men pay for sex. Sex is the price women pay for relationships."
If the girl never expects to enjoy sex (or to have any choice about whether she has it, which has presumably been her experience) then it's not unnatural that she's focusing on the peripheral social aspects of the situation.

Yes, that's going to need to be very carefully handled. It could say a lot about the power dynamic in male-female relationships, but equally it could degenerate into a rape-fetish film.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I understand what she's saying, but I have some doubts that it'll come across on film. Especially given the actual quote from IMDB: that first line totally misrepresents what Cruz said, and that probably reflects how many people will choose to interpret it (pro and anti).

[tisme.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. Journalists, eh?

*hides*

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

I can work out what she means about the character, but there isn't a concise, accurate way of putting it. It's not a character that I'd sympathise with, I don't think.

[tisme.livejournal.com]

And let's not even mention the fact that rape is a common female fantasy...

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Well, that can probably be put down to the fact that in many places there's a huge social pressure on women to deny that they want sex.
If it's taboo to say yes to sex, and even more taboo to ask for sex yourself, then there are bound to be problems.

[tisme.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely. Which makes it all the more amusing/sad to me when people are horrified at the thought of it being such a _common_ fantasy....

After all, if you want sex, you're a slut, and if you don't, you're frigid. Rape seems like the automatic solution to me.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

There's a discussion of that issue in The Women's Room by Marilyn French.

Presumably, as with most fantasies there is a big difference between people who enjoy the fantasy as an intellectual fantasy and the much smaller group of people who would actually want to act it out in any way.