AFI DOCS 2020: THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE

Growing up as the daughter of a registered nurse, my mother made it her business to educate me on my sexuality,  as did my sex education teachers.  What was not EVER talked about what my clitoris.  Seriously, there was plenty of direction on what a penis is, what it does and how WE can navigate IT for pleasure, but the clitoris was treated like the evil stepchild of the human anatomy.

Remember how uncomfortable we all felt watching the Clarence Thomas hearings, Chistine Blasey Ford get humiliated, every story  of a every female slave who was raped or any woman who has been attempted to be muted and embarrassed as she tries to embrace the power of her sexuality?  Did you know every 73 seconds there is an assault against a women in America? Women are made to feel ashamed while men are applauded on their sexuality.  It’s annoying.

Directed by two-time Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker Maria Finitzo, The Dilemma of Desire introduces us to a crew of unstoppable women who are comprised of artists, educators, scientists, strippers and sex toy designers.  All of which have made it their mission to dismantle sexism and repair the dissociated relationships many women have to their own bodies. This exciting (and informative) campaign seeks to dispel the discomfort and shame surrounding female sexuality by empowering women to own their desire, connect with their bodies and familiarize themselves with the vast, internal structure of the clitoris. They will paint it, sculpt it, plaster its image on walls and design special toys for it until all of society knows the laws of “cliteracy.”

Yes, there are laws, aptly titled and highlighted in a book by Sophia Wallace – Cliteracy: 100 Natural Laws. These dolls address facts like saliva in NOT lube, only 24 states require sexual education, sex toys were created by men, how girls are shamed for embracing sexuality, sex evolving around straight male erections and how there are 46,240 papers online written about the penis and only 2,194 about the clitoris.  No one seems to recognize or realize that women who have been marching in these streets do so because we are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Sexuality doesn’t end with the male anatomy and thank goodness there is now. film to address, educate and inform of that very subject. – The Dilemma of Desire.