Literature has explored various
story paths and situational outcomes; from following great heroes to victory or
corrupted nobles to their doom. Authors carefully
illustrate worlds built in their minds to create new stories for their audiences.
Each detail is thought over and edited until no other description can do the
story justice. The goal is to create the most human and relatable character
with a world that is equally as believable. From crossing of the threshold to a
resolving conclusion, we as readers get to follow the main character through everyday
life and all that they encounter. Their human achievements and downfalls are
what make the characters so read to the audience, even their deepest and dirtiest
thoughts. Sex and sexuality have been a part of literature and media since the
dawn of time. It is a natural human characteristic that comes with age and
discovery of new knowledge. Simply including it in a story makes for an odd and
almost pornographic experience for the audience, so writers and directors have
turned to blatant objects to symbolize and portray the thoughts and acts of
sexual nature.
But how could simple, everyday
tasks and household objects secretly symbolize the sexuality between
characters? It’s pretty simple. Sex sells. Even if you live a pure lifestyle,
devoted to a god and removed from other people, the subconscious can create lewd
thoughts, turning everyday objects into sex icons such as keys or a bowl.
Writes face the challenge of making their characters as human as possible. As
creatures made to reproduce, sex, or at least the thought of sexual appeal, is
natural and therefor human instinct. To be able to portray human nature in text
without making the readers or author feel uncomfortable, most writers stray
away from the explicit actions. But then how can readers understand what the
motive of the characters is? Simple. The subconscious will warp images to be
more provocative than what they appear to be. Because of Haynes Code, the
depiction of actors in sexual content was prohibited, even keeping husband and
wife characters in different beds when they went to sleep. This became another obstacle
for the portraying of sexual situations but this time in film. Directors turned
to how authors suggest the idea without explicitly saying what is happening.
Just because a movie or a book is
classifies for a certain target audience doesn’t mean that sexual content
cannot be implicated through hidden symbols. It is widely believed that these innuendos
can only be spotted but those whose subconscious is capable of understanding
their meanings. If this is true, why haven’t we noticed any sexuality in
children’s media? Maybe because we want our children to live ignorant to the
filth that is the adult mindset but that has not stopped many writers and film
producers from testing their capabilities. In Walt Disney’s cartoons, there has
been controversy over whether or not some of the films content is categorical as
adult content. Obviously there would be nothing in these films to disrupt the children’s
rating that each movie receives, but Mr. Disney and his teams are trained just
as writers of the 1900’s were. In TheLion King, the battle for male dominance between brothers over the Pride
Lands demonstrates male and female encounters, implying that females can be “dominated”
and must be in order to keep a fertile and healthy land. Once Scar overcomes
his brother and became the King, the once fertile Pride Land is
transformed into a land which suffers from drought and falls into darkness.
This can be due to the homosexual characteristics that Scar possesses and because
of that, fertility and reproduction are impossible under this new ruler.
Is this really the main idea for
The Lion King? No. But it is an example of how various story producers can have
a bit of fun, knowing that younger audiences may not be able to pick up on the
small hints. Sexual expressions do not have to be in plain sight or even the
highlight of a shot. They are kept hidden and only noticed by the trained or extremely
attentive. That’s what makes them so amusing to older audiences. The more we
observe media and literature carefully, the more innuendo we can discover in
each story.
