Much of the film “Sex and the Holy City” centered upon attacking the views of the Catholic Church and condoms, contraception, and abortion in poor areas such as Nicaragua, Manila, and Kenya. In order to carry out the thesis, the hosts traveled to the above-stated locations to interview local villagers as well as medical and humanitarian personnel. In all of these places depicted in the film “Sex and the Holy City” , the idea was presented that abortions were generally not culturally accepted because of Church teaching and birth control was considered equally offensive. The issue was also raised in the film “Sex and the Holy City” that the Catholic Church had been spreading rumors and creating superstition about the effectiveness of condoms and the filmmakers highlighted this point by featuring young people discussing how they used toothpaste as a contraceptive.
The producers of the film “Sex and the Holy City” did not limit their interviews to indigenous people, choosing instead to speak with a number of United States or United Kingdom workers in these countries who already has more liberal ideas about women’s reproductive rights. Although there were a number of clergymen interviewed, the end of the film only solidified the impression that the Catholic Church was guilty of limiting women’s choices. In sum, aside from representing the Church as arbiters of this repression, it was always clear that the Church was the paramount figure of the patriarchy. Considering that the Pope and other Church officials are all men, this seems like the natural assumption and this is further supported by their lack of thought and concern over the rights of even young children such as Rose who was impregnated by her father. It is clear from the film Sex and the Holy City that women bear the responsibility for sex in these Catholic-dominated cultures and the Church itself supports this pattern. In places such as Nicaragua, machismo was a large factor as well since so many women, according to the film, are abused. This is a very male-dominated society and women’s limited roles are certainly a problem the producers identify.
The representation of gender in Sex and the Holy City was one of the most fascinating aspects of the film Sex and the Holy City because it seemed as though there was a clear line between male and female. According to true patriarchal form, the women and their best interests were put aside according to the dictates of men. One cannot argue that women were hardly featured in this film as authority figures (aside from the few Western women who were serving as doctors or other specialists) and this speaks volumes about the way these societies operate. For instance, when any “official” talk about abortion was raised in all three countries, the producers went to the Archbishop or Cardinal, who was, of course, always a man. Even when the producers went outside of the clergy for answers, the patriarchy was firmly in control of the reproductive rights of women.
For example, after witnessing a few shots of Manila and learning about the sexuality of its youth in particular, the interviewers went to the Mayor of the area and asked him about his feelings. He responded that a fetus is a living little person and clearly did not believe in any form of contraception. It is obvious that this is film is certainly biased against the Catholic Church, but through examples such as this brief interview with a political (as opposed to religious) leader, it cannot be ignored how deeply ingrained these ideas are. Furthermore, there is little representation on the side of women in this film aside from being victims of this patriarchal system that limits choice and one must wonder if it was right for the filmmakers to stereotype all women in such a mold. For the most part they are not seen as expressive or even confident about their rights and aside from the one example of the effort to save the nine-year old girl, there seemed to be little dissent from the females. Throughout the film, women are simply the bearers of the burden and to the filmmakers; this is the ultimate atrocity on behalf of the Catholic Church since it overlooks their sufferings in exchange for “superstition” or dogma.
The combination of gender and class were striking elements in the first section of Sex and the Holy City about the small area in Nicaragua where the issue of abortion was explored most fully. These were some of the most impoverished women shown in the film and it was clear that political strife and natural disasters were all parts of the problem. Even more disturbing was that there were large families for women to take care of as a result of not having access to abortions. Although when interviewed, many of these women did not even think of it as a viable solution, the fact remains that this is simply not a choice—even if a woman was desirous of it. According to the film, the reason for this is because it is a very Catholic region and women are so ingrained in their role that, with the further assistance of the Church and a “machismo” male culture, there is no hope for them. It was difficult to separate the class issues from those of gender. Clearly women’s role was to be the primary caretaker and men were more or less free to do what they wished. The society depicted in the film Sex and the Holy City is one of the harshest since women literally are forced to rake whatever men might give to them; a beating, molestation, or an unwanted child. Instead of helping these women with their plight, the film suggests that the Church condones this behavior, at least implicitly, by perpetuating the same miseries on women. Since these women have no economic foothold in the male-dominated society, there is little hope that they would be able to grapple with the even larger forces of Church and state. On a last note about gender and class, I thought it was interesting that the filmmakers decided to interview a gravedigger in Kenya, simply to show that even he was unsure about the effectiveness of condoms after having buried so many people because of the disease. He suggested that to these youths, getting AIDS was akin to getting an automobile accident and was simply considered a risk one must take in day-to-day life. This nonchalant attitude about the dangers of HIV is revealing about the myths that the Church had perpetuated and according to this common gravedigger, this was the consensus thus it became truth. The church actively (at least according to the film) promoted the misconceptions about condom use and this seems to be one of the ways the filmmakers seem to believe the Church is responsible for deaths just as one of the Western women suggested.
Although at no point did any Church official declare directly that he or she believed that women were of second priority, throughout the film Sex and the Holy City , this seemed to be the case. Even in the final segment about Africa where the focus was on condoms and AIDS, it seemed that women would be bearing the greatest burden of the problem since they would be having the children. Aside from that case, the examples in Manila were disturbing as well because girls were not properly taught about possible solutions to pregnancy and were instead reliant on superstitions and “old wives tales” about how to block conception. This culture of ignorance begot by the Catholic Church and aided by the politicians (mostly male) may be leading to thousands of unwarranted deaths and it was frustrating to watch this film and grapple with the idea that the Church knows that it can most easily manipulate the poverty-stricken as well as the second-class citizens who, in this case, are the women of the regions explored in the film. Even though there are several institutions, mostly from the West, that are trying to help women break free from the patriarchal cycle of ignorance and virtual slavery, this may not be enough in the long run. From the information in this film, the ideas of the Catholic Church are so firmly rooted in these societies that it would take a long revolution to simply quell. Even still, it is hard to look at a case like Rose’s and wonder how a group claiming to support humanity can allow a young person to suffer. It seems that the concern of the Catholic Church, at least to these filmmakers, is to keep women subjected to men and one of the only ways to do this is to perpetuate the machismo cultures, even incidentally, and keep women disabled from making choices about their own lives and those of their children.
Other essays and articles in the Arts Archives related to this topic include : Summary, Analysis, and Review of the Film “Gandhi” (1982) • Summary, Analysis and Review of the Film “Reel Bad Arabs” • An Extended Definition of Bollywood Cinema
//www.articlemyriad.com/summary-analysis-review-film-gandhi/
