I just saw Blue Valentine yesterday. I hardly watch movies but I have watched 3 in the past week and a half since Nora and Ahmed left. First was X-men. I liked it! It was cool. Then Burlesque. I really didn't like it, it was very weak. And yesterday, Blue Valentine.
I really loved it. It was just so real and raw. They were like real people living real lives and going through real problems. Not Hollywood problems. Their love story is not a Hollywood love story, it's a real story of falling in love not very different than a lot of people we might know. Their marriage was not Hollywood bad, it was just REAL.
I recommend watching it to anyone, really. I watched it with a friend and it's funny how different our take was when the movie ended. My point of view as a wife and mother who has had real problems with her husband and tried to work it out vs. her point of view as a single woman never having been in a long term relationship.
Now onto the oral sex scene.
Seriously! What was the big deal about this scene that made it merit a NC-17 when so many other movies that are way more inappropriate for teenagers are not just rated R but even PG-13!!! Blowjobs are all over the place and they are just fine for teens to watch these days, but a female receiving oral sex is not?
I really find that it sucks that women enjoying oral sex is something that can almost not be talked about. It was the first time I'd seen a scene like this in a movie. And I know that I have pretty much never talked about women receiving oral sex with my friends but oral sex on a man is so easy to talk about. Same with female masturbation now that I think about it. Is there something wrong with females enjoying sex?! You'd think not with our "open" society but something is just wrong with the picture isn't it?
Back to ratings: I think they need to be re-evaluated! Big time! A lot of movies that are marketed towards teens should be rated R or even NC-17. There is so much sex in there (that is a lot worse and more inappropriate for young people than couple seconds of a woman enjoying oral sex). So much violence too - another major problem with ratings. Movies with a lot of violence are very accessible to young people and hardly ever require a mature age to view. It's just not good!
What is your opinion? Did you see this movie and what did you think of it overall, and the oral sex scene? How do you feel about oral sex on women being so much of a taboo compared to oral sex on a man? In your personal experience, is it more difficult for people to talk about women's pleasure than men's?