The ironically named “Arts” section of the New York Times today carries a philippic by Frank Rich equating conservative moral sensibilities with, among other things, epidemics of deadly diseases, mass teen pregnancy and McCarthyism. This week’s totalitarian crime of the century is the decision by a few New York broadcasters to avoid running ads for the new film “Kinsey.” It seems that not every blue state citizen was happy to support the content of a film celebrating a hero of the sexual revolution. It logically follows, of course, that the entire media infrastructure is either utterly ignorant and afraid of sex, or part of a vast right-wing conspiracy that is afraid of sex. Or perhaps just afraid of sex, like everyone in the sexual dark ages before Kinsey. It’s amazing to think that humans actually managed to reproduce before Kinsey’s book.
Quoth he: "’Kinsey’" is an almost uncannily helpful guide to how these old cultural fault lines have re-emerged from their tomb, virtually unchanged. Among Kinsey's on-screen antagonists is a university hygiene instructor who states with absolute certitude that abstinence is the only cure needed to stop syphilis. Sound familiar?”
Um…yeah. Abistience. That does ring a bell, Frank. Volitional restraint from potentially harmful pleasures for a greater good. Subordinating baser appetites to higher faculties. Conforming one’s will to revealed truth in order to be truly free…oh never mind.
Isn’t it just possible that the open cinematic discussion or depiction of sex (or violence, or profanity, or blasphemy) is a matter of taste and reflection on which reasonable minds can disagree? But then, to disagree with the Times’ crusade for sexual rights is to proclaim one’s lack of reason.