An Open Letter to the Entertainment Industry

Dear Entertainment Industry,

I know you need to make money. You employ many people who make a living by creating TV shows and movies. And while it is important for people to make a decent living, must you expect them to do it by selling sexual content in film and TV shows?

I know, I know. Sex sells. But consider this: do you honestly want to make money by hurting the dignity of actors and audiences alike? Is making a lot of money really more important to you than the welfare of actors?

 Poor Emilia Clarke was forced to shoot a scene in which her fictional/work husband raped her in Game of Thrones and she cried. Rosamund Pike was forced to strip down in a James Bond movie and later reported feeling uncomfortable and violated. 

But more than that, you expect that audiences will pay to see your movies and TV shows, knowing full well that sex scenes, butts, and breasts fill up theaters. Sex for profit is prostitution. Prostitution is a violation of human dignity because the prostitute and the one paying for the prostitute's services are using each other for inordinate sexual pleasure. 

When I pay to see a movie, any sexual content is a double effect for me. I'm not paying so people I don't even know personally can pleasure me sexually. I'm paying so people can tell me a compelling story.  

Now, sex is a personal and private act meant to unite two married people, in my belief, a man and a woman and so they can have children. It is not meant for others to see for the sake of pleasure. You guys  may enjoy being perverts, but I don't. And it is not meant to be sold for disordered pleasure. 

There are many things that can be justifiably bought and sold: food, beverages, art, etc. Carpenters, plumbers, electritians, smiths, artists, actors, and singers are all paid for their work. For example, I work at a dog daycare. My employer pays me to help take care of other peoples' dogs. The dogs' owners pay the daycare to take care of their dogs. But I am not just a cog in a wheel meant to make my employer more money. When I go to work, I do so knowing it reduces stress and anxiety. I do so knowing that I'm satisfied because I get to care for dogs and interact with them.

I would like actors to be able to go to work, knowing that their craft reduces stress and anxiety. I would like actors to be able to go work, knowing that what they do for a living satisfies them, not degrades, violates, and objectifies them for profit and the disordered sexual pleasure of audiences. Because when you require an actor be nude for sexual contexts, you're objectifying them for profit and the disordered sexual pleasure of audiences.

 In my mind, people don't become actors so that they can provide disordered sexual pleasure to people they don't even know personally. They become actors because they want to tell play all kinds of interesting characters and tell compelling stories.  

You don't have to be Christian to know that what I'm saying is true. Even movie and TV filtering services know this. There was a while when YouTube bombarded me with ads from VidAngel, and the most common ad that I would see was one that didn't appeal to emotions or pleasure. It simply stated the facts: the amount that you objectify women in your films and TV shows is increasing. Even in posters, you show a woman's body, but not her face. Then, it goes on to say that this is a problem because studies show that women are people. 

But I would go further than that and say: men are people. Don't think I haven't noticed the increase in sexualized male nudity in movies and TV shows. 

Though actors portray characters, which exist for our pleasure and entertainment, actors themselves are people and are not to be treated as merely a means to an end. Stop using treating them merely as a means to an end (inordinate sexual pleasure for profit), and lead us, your audience, to stop treating them merely as a means to an end. I am not entertained by  seeing an act that is meant to be private. And I am not entertained by seeing people naked in a sexual context for my disordered sexual pleasure. 

I am entertained by seeing characters struggle with things. For instance, I am interested in seeing Maverick struggle with his ego, the mission he has to teach a bunch of young pilots,  the tension and resentment between him and his best friend's son, and the guilt he feels over his best friend's death. I am not interested in seeing Mav sleep with whoever his current love interest is outside of marriage. Maverick and his love interest checking in with each other and asking about what they're dealing with in their daily lives, go for it. I have no problem with watching two people who care about each other ask about what they're going through.  But sexual encounters, no thank you. So stick to entertaining people with human struggles (even when your characters are not human), not sex and sexualized nudity. 

Sincerely,

Susana Christine, a fellow storyteller and concerned fan