Sexual morality inside the four walls.

A critical review of the short film ‘God, Sex, and Truth inside the Four Walls’.

God, Sex, and Truth - A philosophical treatise of Mia Malkova, an American porn star, directed by Ram Gopal Varma is a landmark film that breaks the uncomfortable silence around sexuality of a woman. It is a bold and beautiful attempt to expose the web of complexities woven by sex, morality, and religion around a female’s body and her sexual pleasure. The objective of the film is to establish two points. Firstly sex and power are equally the central drivers of civilization. “A human body is designed for several functions including sexual desire” and “sex is an important part of feeling life.” Secondly, the focus of the film is to posit a woman’s sexual liberty as the bedrock of a free society. The nineteen-minute short film tries to present the philosophical perspective of Mia on sex and morality. Most quotes in this treatise are predominantly from the Western philosophers such as Freud, Kendal, etc.

The trailer and the movie has stirred a lot of controversies over the nudity, the choice of a porn star and the intent of the director RGV. Let us for the moment set aside criticisms of RGV’s personality and focus on the content. God, sex, and truth (GST) takes one through the the discomfort and tension at the sight of a nude female body in a fashion never witnessed before to the intense feelings of desire, passion, and power of a woman. We find a female body unfold itself fearless and guilt-free. The criticism of obscenity fails to stand here because nudity is central to the objective of the film. Nudity has always been a part of artist’s creativity and freedom of expression. What becomes important is to represent female nudity in an empowered way as seen through the eyes of sexually liberated men and woman and not through the eyes of lust. GST certainly does justice to this aspect.

Interlinked to the debate is the question if GST is pornography. The objective of porn is to stimulate an instinct sexual emotion and pleasure and clearly, that is not what GST aims. This question wouldn’t have arisen in the first place if Mia was not a porn star. But, a lot in this context depends on the intent of the viewer. One public review on GST on IMDB says “it's just 19 minutes of unadulterated XXX clip with Philosophy of sex. My suggestion .. google Mia Malkova for better options than to watch GST!”.  So, in a sexually traditional, conservative and patriarchal society like ours, lack of an understanding of a woman’s sexuality and her biological needs is at the core of widespread insensitivity to the content. Shushing the matters under the carpet can never be a solution. Sex education is need of the hour which even helps adolescents who encounter nudity, sex or porn to stay informed and handle their sexuality maturely. 

One must also appreciate the director’s choice of shooting inside the house and the bathroom. This made me wonder about the consciousness of a woman in her private space and the most uncomfortable silence around a woman’s masturbation.  Another user review on IMDB says “If you take one's pervertness and see the movie, its absolute nonsense. Which women bath and makes those faces while doing so? It looks like one just made the movie based on the sexuality perceived from watching porn movies.” Interestingly, both the reviewers are men and they can be taken as a proxy for the majority who are clueless about a woman’s orgasm and pleasure in sex. Even more unfortunate is the thought that such natural expressions are found only in the porn world. Probably, this is why Mia says “until there is an alternate sexual celebration,” only porn world gives her that freedom. GST is not arguing being a porn star is the liberation, though it clearly misses to explicitly hit at larger social issues of women trafficking or propagation of male aggression in porn industry. But it sure pushes us to acknowledge the increasing population of female porn consumers. Where are all these women? Inside their four walls. 

One should see Mia as just any woman who is free to let herself flow with nature. This is an important reminder to any society that dictates a woman how to sit, stand, walk, smile, and behave in bed. We have not moved any farther from the mainstream movies which depict a shy woman on her first night waiting for the man to follow his lead or those that depict a woman who takes the lead as a slut or a spoilt brat on alcohol and drugs. Sexual desires of a woman are considered impure and suppressed. The film rightly points that “force of body, mind, and guilt” have been used to achieve subordination to restrictions imposed by morality and religion. Mia also challenges the institutions of marriage, monogamy and family and therefore it is only logical that most women and men who believe in these institutions are in disagreement with her views and find GST farfetched. A missing picture of how Mia meets her emotional and social needs and how she understands love, companionship, and reproduction leaves us with almost nothing to infer about alternative institutions. But the point about an unequal repression of a man’s and a woman’s sexuality within the existing institutions is well made.

The polarity in the reception of GST cannot be ignored. Though IMDB ratings are not sacrosanct and reflect the opinions of only a certain class, out of a total of 271 reviews, 98 users rated it ten stars and 60 rated it one star. It would have been interesting to know the gender-wise and geography-wise distribution. The issues GST choose to raise are not without consequences to dating and marriage, especially in the contemporary world. The problems and frustration couples face in the matters of sex not being able to express each other what they want or having misconceptions and wrong expectations from the partners is a serious issue. It is unfair to not mention single mothers and widows who are the victims of moral judgements. Thus, the ‘accepted limits’ morality imposes on the sexuality of a woman inside and outside marriage are harmful to both men, women and society at large.

Though GST seems very much rooted in Western cultural values, we must acknowledge that the basic needs of a human body do not differ across cultures. One must address the question why does it offend us when a naked woman talks about how she enjoys sex. It is about time to bring to light the philosophy of sexuality in Asian cultures and critically review it. God, Sex, and truth is just an attempt to scratch the surface of a more complex phenomena and there is a lot more to accomplish.