Inherent Vice - The SSL Review

Inherent Vice

I'm a fan of this directors movie's, PT Anderson. I'll watch anything he turns out. Punch Drunk Love, There Will be Blood and The Master, are probably my faves, and this one is probably my least fave. I saw Inherent Vice in the theater when it came out in 2014ish, and I wasn't too excited about it (although, I do think Joaquin Phoenix kills it within this role). I actually kept getting it mixed up in my head with a similarly themed movie, The Nice Guys , which came out about a year later. Anyway, we revisited it again a couple nights ago, and it still feels generally the same except that I discovered something bothersome to me in a sex scene that is also, lucky us, SSL Reviewable, and thus here we are. There's actually 2 SSL Reviewable scenes. The first is super simple and the 2nd is the one in question.  

An SSL Review (for those that don't know about them)

Only depiction or discussion of female orgasm and/or female masturbation/cunnilingus and/or the clit are eligible for SSL Review. Nothing else counts, including plain 'ol sex if it doesn't include anything listed above. I specifically critique the realism (for instance, were the physical things happening to that women while she orgasmed things that could realistically cause orgasm for a woman?) and also speak on what the depiction/discussion reflects from and adds to the larger cultural discussion around lady-gasms and female sexuality.

You can see all the SSL movie Reviews HERE (and as always you can find all the SSL TV Reviews HERE).

Pussy Eater's Special - $14.95 - the first SSL Reviewable moment

Joaquin's character Doc, a 70's P.I., steps inside a trailer, home of a clearly sex-friendly massage parlor, "Chick Planet." Jade, the lady behind the counter, offers him up the Pussy-Eater's special for  $14.95. I'm not sure how to take the price. It seems low, right? But also it's maybe one of the more preferred menu items for a lady sex worker - to have her pussy ate out? On the other hand, dudes could be real gross and terrible at it, and it might end up some kind of terrible chafing on the pussy lips situation, and so maybe it's one of the worst menu items. It was also the 70's. I don't know. It just seems terribly inexpensive. 

Anyway, he doesn't partake because he's there for a reason - to ask if she's seen a certain man recently. She kinda avoids the question and calls her co-worker Bambi out, and they immediately drop to the ground behind the counter, seemingly with some pussy eating.  It was a distraction, turns out, and Doc gets got. 

This is SSL Reviewable simply because of cunnilingus. There's no orgasm or anything, just mention and insinuated behind-the-desk pussy eating. I'm always a fan of any mention of it simply because it's a sensibly realistic way a woman could get to orgasm during a sex act. There's also far too much dick sucking (both discussed and physically insinuated) in mainstream media, so just for fairness and equity, any mention of eating out gets a thumbs up from me (the oral sex gap and all). Also, I just kinda liked that the sex menu item offered up in this was one that focuses on the lady's organ of sexual pleasure and not the dude's. For originality sake alone, it's nice to see that in a movie, but also it's good for business - that business being making people think about cunnilingus as an integral, stand-alone sex act as much as people think of dick-sucking as such.

Fuck me like I'm nothing, and other things women love! - the 2nd SSL Reviewable moment

It's funny how I'll watch something that I saw years ago, but see things with completely new eyes. You know, like re-watching the original Ghostbusters and seeing how incredibly rapey it is. I didn't notice that at all the times I'd seen it before. This has a scene that didn't strike me when I saw it a mere 8 years ago either. The fact that just before this re-watch I had just finished reading a lonRolling Stone article about the many abuse accusations against Marilyn Manson, probably helped highlight the issue.

My gripe goes a little something like this.

Can we stop depicting fictional women that truly get off on being treated like shit during sex? Women who love to be used up in aggressive and fucked up ways by powerful men? Can we stop depicting women that act as if the mere power a man gives off is enough to make her come? 

Outside of all the harmful, abusive tendencies this reinforces in an already abusive-leaning sexual culture of how masculinity manifests in sexual situations, I also call a loud bullshit on the pleasure part of this scenario. It's completely ridiculous to assume a person would physically orgasm from things that do not include the stimulation of their organ of sexual pleasure. However, we do that all the time with women in a way we don't for men. Even progressive contemporary sexperts will say crazy ass shit about women coming from things like bites on the neck, giving blow-jobs, a spank on the ass and other nonsensicalness. Here's the deal. Coming from a spanking on the ass or bite on the nipple is bullshit. And for the love of god, coming from the intensity of a man's powerful presence is bullshit. And contrary to popular belief, coming from intercourse alone (the vagina is not the organ of sexual pleasure - the clit is - and ya ain't stimulating it by banging a penis in the hole), is bullshit. The clitoral glans area people. The clitoral glans area.

Now, if you're mad at me for 'yucking somone else's yum' as the sexperts like to say these days, sorry not sorry. We've had far too much of these getting-off on aggression depictions out there. It ain't like you can't find it if you want it. And if someone wants to depict a submissive sexual kink, then do it more responsibly. We don't need any more of these blanket, powerful-aggessive-men-that-take-what-they-want-get-women-off-best depictions. It irresponsibly reinforces an already problematic understanding of  power in sexual situation. Not to mention it reinforces stupid, unverified, unrealistic ideas about women being able to get off from non-physical or non clitoral means.

Here's the scene I pulled from the script. 

SHASTA Mickey... Mickey could have taught all you swinging beach bums a thing or two. He was just so powerful. Sometimes he could almost make you feel invisible. Fast, brutal, not what you'd call a considerate lover, an animal, actually, but Sloane adored that about him, and Luz -- you could tell, we all did. It's so nice to be made to feel invisible that way sometimes... 

DOC Yeah. And guys love to hear this shit like this. 

SHASTA He'd bring me to lunch in Beverly Hills, one big hand all the way around my bare arm, steering me blind down out of those bright streets into some space where it was dark and cool and you couldn't smell any food, only alcohol -- they'd all be drinking, tables full of them, in a room that could have been any size, and they all knew Mickey, they wanted, some of them, to be Mickey... He might as well have been bringing me in on a leash. He kept me in those micro minidresses, never allowed me to wear anything underneath... just offering me to whoever wanted to stare. Or grab. Or sometimes he'd fix me up with his friends. And I'd have to do whatever they wanted... 

DOC Why are you telling me all this? 

She drapes herself over him and plays with her pussy. 

SHASTA Oh, I'm sorry, Doc. Do you want me to stop? If my girlfriend had run away to be the bought-and-sold whore of some scumbag developer? I'd just be so angry I don't know what I'd do. Well, no, I'm even lying about that, I know what I'd do. If I had the faithless little bitch over my lap like this 

-- And they're fucking. 

CUT TO:

It moves onto another scene after this. I'll fill in a little that isn't obvious from the script. When she drapes herself over Doc, he is sitting in the middle of a couch, and she lays face down across the couch with her butt right on his lap. From the angle, it isn't obvious that she's touching her pussy. I'm not sure that actually happens in the final movie version. Also, in the movie, "--And they're fucking" actually plays out with Doc spanking Shasta's ass really hard. He then aggressively rolls on top of her, and immediately fucks her hard and fast from behind to a quick completion. 

Now, does she orgasm during this? I say the insinuation is there. She doesn't do the moaning vocalizations - which are normally the bullshit-fakey, but nevertheless common way lady-gasms are depicted, but she is clearly finding pleasure in it. Her eyes kinda roll back and there's gentle panting, and I think it's enough to insinuate to your average viewer that she orgasmed simultaneously with him - or at least got what she wanted out of it. Either way, a woman depicted as being pleased at the end of sex might as well be a depiction of orgasm because lady-gasm and general pleasure or satisfaction are so conflated it's hard to even discern what's intended in depictions and discussions of the topic. 

So all that to say, this scene was basically a woman describing, in more than a few ways, the kind of abuse that women in the Marilyn Manson case were alleging as abuse, but in this case, she was describing it as the height of pleasure. I also should add, that even though Doc gives a sarcastic, "Yeah. And guys love to hear this shit like this," as if he's above it, he, in the end proves that they do in fact love it. He basically can't stand the hotness of it anymore and simulates punish-raping her - which she loves. So...lesson learned - wanting to be aggressively sexually used is a great way to turn a guy on and aggressively using a bitch will get her off. Got it.

Taking exactly what you want sexually from a woman, using her for your own pleasure with no interest in hers, is not only powerful and sexy, but it's actually the best way to get a woman off. - That's the big takeaway here, and it's not just a one-off, essential character-building  quirkiness in a work of fiction. It's bigger than that. It's the most basic of assumptions that looms over all of our sexual culture. So, it's not cute or edgy. It's basic and dark. If you start looking, you'll find it all over the place, and continuing to give that message a fun voice is irresponsible.

Vulva Rating

Although I do like the fun addition of pussy-eating as the main menu item at a massage parlor, I did not like the irresponsible sex scene; reinforcing some of the darkest and sadly basic assumptions about what women want and how men should act in a sexual encounter. Also, she 'came' from nothing more than 10 seconds of getting banged from behind, which is unrealistic bullshit because lady-gasms needs clit stimulation and that ain't realistically how to get it. 

I'm feeling nice because of the $14.95 Pussy eating, so this will get 1 vulva out of 5.

(!)