No sex please--we're American!

Groups protest film about sex prof

'Kinsey' opens Friday in limited release

Limited release means that it won't be showing here. The theater chain that controls most of the screens in this area operates theaters in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio. Note that three of these are "blue states", and there are credible claims that Ohio is too, if you ignore places like Cincinnati. Nevertheless, someone has decided, apparently, that people around here are not interested in seeing this movie. It is fairly common to see limited release movies pass us by, but what is different in this case is that, several months ago, there were a lot of trailers shown for it. Every time I went to a theater in July, there was a trailer for Kinsey. But now, when it turns out that the movie may not be showing here at all, it really smells like someone is backing off. And perhaps they are backing off in response to this sort of shit:

"Alfred Kinsey is responsible in part for my generation being forced to deal face-to-face with the devastating consequences of sexually transmitted diseases, pornography and abortion," said Brandi Swindell, head of a college-oriented group called Generation Life that plans to picket theaters showing the film.

[Critics] argue that [the movie] omits unflattering details about Kinsey's interest in pedophilia and exaggerates the accuracy of the findings in his groundbreaking sex-behavior studies of 1948 and 1953.

Ah-ha! I see that the word "pedophilia" is being used--now is when we all recoil on cue, right?

"Instead of being lionized, Kinsey's proper place is with Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele or your average Hollywood horror flick mad scientist," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women of America's Culture & Family Institute.

Focus on the Family, an influential Christian ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said in a review of the film that "Kinsey" mocks Christianity and condones immorality.

"To say that it is rank propaganda for the sexual revolution and the homosexual agenda would be beyond stating the obvious," wrote reviewer Tom Neven.

Focus on the Family and its allies blame Kinsey for a host of ills -- including clearing a path for candid, comprehensive sex education programs espoused by organizations like the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

Bill Condon, the movie's writer-director, has some understanding of what these various reactionaries are up to:

"Their real aim, by maligning him and destroying his reputation, is to pretend that the last 50 years didn't happen," Condon said. "Kinsey affected everybody's life, and I hope the film gets a little breathing room for people to see it and think about it for themselves."

Incidentally, a while back I posted about Nicole Kidman's controversial movie Birth--so far, that hasn't opened here either.