For much of the last decade, a paradox has been brewing: newspaper headlines and current affairs programs decry the sexualisation of children, while objectification reigns supreme in a host of other media. Journalists turned directors Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus delve into this growing contradiction in their debut documentary, Sexy Baby, examining the impact of this new sexual landscape on three diverse women.
Their protagonists vary in age and location, yet are linked by their exposure to the saturation of evocative and explicit content that has become the new norm. By telling their tales through personal storytelling, the documentarians strip away sensationalism from their topic, ensuring the individual consequences and choices of those navigating the increasingly titillated cultural climate are exposed.
In New York City, 12 year-old Winnifred attempts to enjoy an adolescence influenced by suggestive pop stars and the omnipresence of social networking, while wisely recognising the difficulty in balancing her peer-pressured actions with her precocious awareness that she should know better. Her progressive parents are also torn in trying to reconcile their protective duties with an environment that didn’t exist when they were growing up.
The film’s other subjects may be older and more experienced but they embody the same struggle in their own ways. In North Carolina, 22 year-old kindergarten teacher Laura is determined to surgically alter her vagina to resemble those of porn stars, a decision she contends is essential to her future happiness. Florida resident Nichole is one of the many who may have contributed to Laura’s notion of the ideal body, but at the age of 32 the award-winning pole dancer and former porn star is now trying to stake out a normal suburban life.
Winnifred’s may be the more compelling tale, as well as the one afforded more screen time, however Sexy Baby is purposeful in intercutting the three women’s stories to reinforce its message about eroticised media content shaping mindsets and actions. The end result is neither subtle nor sophisticated, and is certainly not objective, but it nonetheless paints a provocative picture of modern sexuality.
The use of teenage males describing their preferences in female anatomy as a transitional device between segments is less effective; an example of the film’s often clumsy execution and inability to probe beneath the surface of the issue. Yet, like the central narratives, they are honest and earnest – and it is in its authenticity that Sexy Baby is best served.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Sexy Baby
Directors: Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus
USA, 2012, 84 min
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
3 – 6 January
Unclassified 18+
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