Posts tagged sex

So I started this post on facebook and never got around to posting it. I am going to post this in a couple parts. There are at least three parts; pro-choice politics, violence against women & children, and atheism & religion. The first part I will be posting is the politics. Then the violence against women & children and lastly the post on atheism & religion since I never got around to finishing it. I’m going to do a whole post on homosexuality and sexuality in general not related to the politics. 

If you don’t know what Spring Awakening is, here is a run down of the show. Watch it here. I’m going to try and find the script online. If I cannot find one, I will type up the scenes I address and link them here. As of right now, I cannot find one. 

Part One: “Pro-Choice” Politics [trigger warning sexual assault]

I put the pro-choice in quotes because the sex scene in act one is questionable. I also do not know what Sater and Sheiks politics are on abortion. 

[description: Rectangular photo. The photo is of the “I Believe” scene in Spring Awakening. Wendla, a white girl with brown hair in a off white baby doll dress and black stockings, is laying on her back looking up at the boy in the photo. The boy is a white man with short curly brown hair. He is laying next to her and looking down at her. She is putting his hand on her right breast.]

The scene. “I Believe” Sorry for the shitty acting, it was from off broadway.

The sex between Wendla and Melchior is questionable in the 1st act. I’ve heard both arguments for the sex in act 1 as rape, which is was in the original play, or consentual because Wendla wanted to be with Melchior. When Wendla told Melchior to stop whatever he was doing, he did. Wendla ends up pulling Melchior towards her before they have sex. She kisses him back after she hesitated. She ends up taking control of the situation in the end. When she tells him to wait before he starts moving his hand closer to her inner thigh, he stops. He lets her decide if she wants him to have sex with her, and in the end she decides that she wants him to make her feel good, i.e. have sex with her. If she said no, would he have raped her? If Sater stayed true to the original play Melchior would have raped Wendla. Melchior would have never let Wendla have any say in the matter and raped her. Wendla was nothing more than an object to him in the original. In the musical, Melchior does care about Wendla. 

Now were I have a problem with is that Melchior was the only one who somewhat understood sex. Wendla did not know what sex was and that Melchior could get her pregnant but knew what he did felt good. She knew she wanted to be with him, however the question is, was that consent? Can she consent to sex if she does not know what sex is? Did Melchior understand what sex was? I don’t think he did. I think he understood the biology behind getting someone pregnant but didn’t understand the act of sex. Can it be rape if neither of them truly understood what they were doing? I think neither of them knew what they were doing but Melchior had enough understanding to know his penis went in her vagina. Was it rape if at the end Wendla wanted to be with him and liked how he made her feel? Can it be rape if she consented to what Melchior was doing? Can you take advantage of someone if you yourself doesn’t know what is happening? 

I’ve been in Wendla’s position but I was with a guy who had absolutely no problem taking advantage of the situation. He didn’t but needless to say, I never fucked him/fooled around with him again. So I have mixed feelings about the scene especially since in act 2, Wendla DOES want to be with Melchior. Wendla chooses to be with him. However, I do think it is up for each person to decide about the sex in act one. I think it is open for interpretation. I saw my experiences played out in the sex scene in act 1. Granted we were in the back of my car and not a hayloft and I never let him have sex with me. However, I did relate to Wendla once I did have sex. So I don’t see the sex in act one as rape because I can relate to it and I would not consider my experience rape or sexual assault. However, I also see how people could view the sex as rape/sexual assault. Hence the trigger warning.

At the beginning of the second act, there is no doubt in anyones mind that Wendla wants to be having sex with Melchior and he wants to be having sex with her.

[description: The photo is from “Whispering” in Spring Awakening. The background in a brick wall that looks blue because of the lighting. There is a chair stabled to the wall above Wendla’s head which Melchior is sitting on. Melchior is a white guy with curly brown hair wearing blue pants, with blue socks coming up to his knees, a blue sweater vest, white dress shirt, red & green tie, and converses. Wendla is in the foreground of the picture. She is a white girl with brown hair going just past her shoulders wearing a white nightgown.]

Scene here. Starts at 6:50. Part 2 of Scene.

Then you have issues surrounding abortion. I am sure someone could make an argument for the show being “pro-life” since Wendla dies from a botched abortion but their argument would fall short when you point out “pro-life” laws are the ones that are forcing women to get botched abortions in the first place. Feminist fought to make abortion legal because botched abortions were killing women. It shows that Wendlas choice was taken away from her and in the end that caused her death. Wendla wanted to continue her pregnancy and she was not allowed to make that choice. Her mother chose for her to have an abortion, against her will.

Which brings us to sex ed. There was no sex ed and most sex ed in schools is abstinence only non-sense. Teenagers have to go online to get information about safe sex and that does not mean all of them will. People have to find out about sex on their own. If sex was not such a taboo topic and both Melchior and Wendla were educated on sex, would she have gotten pregnant? Since it was the 1800’s most likely she would have, but if the story took place today, there is a good chance she wouldn’t have. I firmly believe sex ed should cover sexuality as well, not just the mechanics of sex, which would have helped Moritz, who was dealing with his sexuality as well as his wet dreams and erections. Melchior could only educate him so much.

[photo decription: In the background there is a band a brick wall that looks blue because of the lighting. In the foreground is 5 people, 4 girls and a boy. The boy is sitting on a chair with the girls around him in a circle. The boy is wearing an off white nighgown, with his legs spread open, holding a picture. The first girl to the left has her black hair in pigtails, wearing a red dress that goes down to her knees, and black tights. She looks like she is jumping. The girl behind her has her hair in braided pigtails. She is wearing a brown dress that goes down past her knees and brown tights. The girl to the right in the front is wearing a grey dress that goes past her knees and grey tights. Her black hair is also in braided pigtails and she is wearing glasses. The girl behind her has her hair pulled back from her face in barrettes. She is wearing a blue dress that goes past her knees and black tights. The three girls look like they are dancing]

The scene. “My Junk”

Another taboo topic that is addressed in the show is masturbation. Hanschen shows that masturbation is GOOD. There are 3 songs about masturbation. Touch Me is about sex but it is also about the fantasy that you want the person you are attracted to to have sex with you. If masturbation was not something that was so taboo, people wouldn’t feel guilty about doing it. People should not feel guilty about masturbating, every single person on this planet has masturbated. Whether or not they admit it is a different story.