Oshimas in the Realm of the Senses - Essay Example

30 March Pornography Redefining Pornography and Obscene in Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976): The difficulty in defining the term pornography becomes evident from the statement of Supreme Court Justice, Stuart Potter, who admits that it is not possible for him to define this term but he goes on to add that “he knew it when he saw it” (Malamuth 27). Similarly, defining the term obscenity is also a cumbersome proposition. However, the fact remains that people perceive such terms differently according to their cultural norms, religious backgrounds and beliefs. The movie, In the Realm of the Senses (1976), directed by Nagisa Oshima, has kicked off a sandstorm of controversy in the wake of its release. It narrates the story of the passionate and obsessive sexual affair between Kichizo Ishidaa, a hotel owner, and Sada Abe, a prostitute turned servant who works for him. By portraying the unusual relationship and obsessive love between the couple, through several sequences of sexual acts, Oshima subtly redefines the meaning of pornography and obscenity. The movie depicts an “extended repertoire of graphic sex acts” that are typical of porn movies and due to stringent censorship laws in Japan Oshima has done all the post production work in France (Williams 183). Many critics have discounted the movie as pornographic but some, including the movie’s director, defended it on the grounds that it radically attempts to extend the possibilities of pornography and challenges the “very notion of obscenity” (183). The main objective of Oshima seems to be to show the audience what they wish to see but have so far forbidden themselves from viewing. He further contends that when the audience feels that all that they wanted to see is “revealed” the element of “obscenity disappears” and, therefore, the authorities should authorize the screening of pornographic movies (183). In her critique of the movie, writer and critic Linda Williams endorses that despite the graphic sexual acts depicted in the film, it does not “negate art” (184). People usually associate pornography and obscenity with the concept of devouring on sexual acts that people watch merely for the purpose of excitement or as a deviatory pleasure. Thus, the general notion is that pornography solely seeks to elicit erotic feelings and arouse the people who watch or read such materials. However, through the portrayal of a strong, obsessive love affair between a servant and master that finally entails in jealousy out of possessiveness, Oshima pushes the boundaries that define the term pornography and obscenity and attract the attention of the audience to new dimensions of the term. Linda Williams attributes the film to be “too real, too hard-core” but also “too beautiful to fathom” (184). On the other hand, she further mentions the scary connotation of the castration in the movie’s climax is a befitting end, which reflects the “Lacanian allegories” of the times when the movie was made (184). Thus, Oshima has traversed beyond the normal realms of pornography and obscenity through the depiction of the tumultuous affair between the man and the woman in his movie, In the Realm of Senses. A Critical Analysis of Linda William’s Definition of Obscenity: Human cultures and civilization have evolved with the passage of time as people keep changing their perspectives based on new information and knowledge. The definition of the word “obscene,” as the humans perceive it now, has also undergone a lot of interpretation as well as transformation before it has acquired its current dimension. In the conservative American society the word obscenity refers to any sexual representation in any art form that has been included in it simply “for sex’s sake” without adding any value the content; or in a sense it encompasses the notion of what should be “off (ob) the stage (scene) of representation” (Williams 165). Linda Williams in her essay titled, Second Thoughts on Hardcore: American Obscenity Law and the Scapegoating of Deviance, explores the impacts of what she calls the “historically unprecedented on/scenity in the context of current attempts to define and prosecute an elusive hardcore of obscenity” (165-166). Linda Williams further finds that though the concepts about pornography and obscenity has changed drastically, the trend has shifted its focus on branding some sexual acts as deviation and scapegoating such sexual behaviors as perversion and obscene. Subsequently, people started attributing the blame of certain crimes on such deviant behaviors. So far the definition of the term “obscenity” goes, in the landmark case of Miller Vs California (1973), the judge has ruled that any artistic works that depict sexual acts in a “patently offensive way” in which the element of “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” will be “judged as obscene” (166). In this context, Williams claims that by the 80s this concept of obscenity has changed and a new notion has emerged that while certain sexual acts between heterosexual partners can be termed as obscene, behaviors such as “homosexuality, flagellation, sadomasochism, fellatio, cunnilingus and the like” fall under obscene (167). Since Linda Williams perceives that labeling deviant sexual acts equals to scapegoating of such behaviors, it can be construed that she takes a more lenient view on such acts and rather excludes them from the confines of obscenity. No matter how humans pretend to be refined on the outside, there are men and women who enjoy fellatio and cunnilingus. A senator, who likes to watch a female performing a blowjob and perhaps indulges in it, may object to its depiction in a movie. Likewise, a female who enjoys being sodomized may object to such content in a film. However, the fact remains that there are humans who prefer and indulge in deviant sexual acts simply for deriving different sorts of carnal pleasure and to negate the element of boredom in a sexual relationship. When people engage in consensual relationship and indulge in any kind of deviant act, nobody has any business questioning it. Similarly, if there are humans who really do engage in such acts, one cannot envisage any element of harm in an artist portraying a similar character in his story or in a movie. Thus, through her objections to scapegoating deviant sexual acts, it appears that Williams redefines obscenity to exclude all consensual sexual acts from the confines of pornography. Works Cited Malamuth, Neil M, et al. Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Are there Reliable Effects and can We Understand them? Annual Review of Sex Research, Vol.11, 2000. pp.26-91. Web. 29 March 2013. Williams, Linda. Screening Sex. China: Duke University Press, 2008. Web. 30 March 2013. Williams, Linda. Second Thoughts on Hardcore: American Obscenity Law and the Scapegoating of Deviance. 2008. Web. 30 March 2013. http://culturalstudies.ucsc.edu/EVENTS/Spring09/Rubin-%20Williams%20-%20Second%20Thoughts%20on%20Hard%20Core.pdf Read More