Abstract
Neste texto, procura-se contar a história da exibição do sexo em filmes majoritariamente produzidos nos Estados Unidos no período de quase um século. Ao se perguntar quando, porque e como os Estados Unidos se transformaram de uma cultura que não exibia o sexo em uma que o exibe, a autora insiste no duplo significado do verbo screen (tanto como uma revelação quanto uma dissimulação). Exibir é revelar em uma tela. Mas um segundo e igualmente importante significado, como diz o dicionário é ―proteger ou esconder atrás de uma tela‖. Os filmes tanto revelam como escondem. O artigo analisa a forma como mudanças sociais ocorridas nos Estados Unidos, como, por exemplo, a Revolução sexual dos anos 60 e novas visões a respeito da sexualidade, possibilitaram novas maneiras de representação do sexo no cinema, reorganizando a relação entre o público e o privado. O artigo se pergunta também sobre como nossos corpos e sentidos reagem ao encontro com o sexo na tela, introduzindo a ideia de ―saber carnal‖ (carnal knowledge).
Abstract
In this paper, we try to tell the history of the exhibition of sex in movies mainly produced in the United States in almost a century. Asking when, why and how the United States became – from a culture that did not exhibit sex – into a culture that exhibits it, the author insists in the double sense of the verb to screen (as both a revelation and a dissimulation). To exhibit is to reveal in a screen. But another, and important, sense, as says the dictionary, is ―to protect or hide behind a screen‖. Movies show as well as they reveal. The paper analyzes the way social change in the United States, for example the sexual revolution of the sixties and new views on sexuality allowed new ways of representing sex in the movies, creating a new relation between public and private. The paper also asks how our bodies and senses react to sex in the screen, introducing the idea of ―carnal knowledge‖.
Key Words: Sex, Movies, Pornography
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