FWD from Week 5 discussion

I found the Sex Comedy chapter pretty insightful for its facts and
historical accuracy. It made me think about the discussion from last
week when my group discussed "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", relating to
the cage, when a student said that the "cage" in our society isn't
shrinking, but actually getting bigger. McDonald is referring to the
sex comedy sub-genre as a means to make a taboo subject, such as
sex in the 50's and 60's entertaining even with strict codes and
censorship. It shows how culture grows the cage, which is supposed
to protect us, until the cage is eventually non-existent or opaque.
When the birth control pills came out, and the country knew that
more than half of single women/men were already having sex before
marriage, what's the point of beating around the bush of what we
already know? The cage that defined the sex comedy was ultimately
pointless. In order to truly understand the sub-genre, we have to
think like the family from "Leave it to Beaver" or "Pleasantville",
where both the husband and wife sleep in separate beds (not really),
then turn off the lights together, say goodnight, then we see
darkness for a few seconds more, hinting out that maybe it's bedtime
...then again maybe it's not. The chapter actually brought some of
the themes from Pleasantville to mind. The film dives into the
subject of censorship and sexual freedom as color begins to
illuminate those "youngsters" who have become sexually active on
the hilltop hangout.
The "color" in the black and white film serves as a metaphor for the
changing of times and traditions. Sex was no longer talked and
giggled about, but was experimented freely as we see in the scene
where the housemaid wife, sleeping in a separate bed from her
husband, decides to masturbate in the bath tub. Although a little off
topic, I felt I needed to connect some of the themes of that film to
some of McDonald's analysis.
Another interesting fact that McDonald pointed out, which I think can
be considered the biggest contribution to the sex comedy of the
time, was Hugh Hefner's Playboy Magazine. Although the mainstream
cinema of 1953 beat around the bush on the topics of sex, the
magazine dared young men to venture into sex as a lifestyles,
therefore helping the themes, metaphors and humor of the sub-genre.