Banned - SKETCHES by Ana Marie Pamintuan

The ban on Live Show has boosted rentals of its VHS tapes and VCDs, so the ban will apply only to those with no access to TV. So is all the recrimination worth it? President Arroyo paid her debt to the Catholic Church by banning the film, at the risk of making it appear that she’s allowing the Church to run her government. I can see Joseph Estrada jumping on this issue – he at least can say with honesty that he never allowed the Church to dictate on him.

I don’t know if President GMA is really conservative – yesterday she said she is all for "the flowering of the arts" in this country – but I can understand why she wants to be on the good side of the Church. Whatever she says about the presidency being a matter of fate, I bet she wants to keep her job – not just for three years, but way past 2004 – a total of nine years. For this she needs to stabilize the nation, so she can’t afford a restive military or a bungling national police. For the next three years she can’t risk a coup, or a plunge in the peso and stock market as steep as in Erap’s time. And she doesn’t relish vitriol from church pulpits across the land.

I don’t see how banning a critically acclaimed movie you haven’t even seen can promote the flowering of the arts or herald a moral revolution from the top. If President GMA believes the movie is morally reprehensible, why did she appoint its director as a member of the censors board yesterday? The ban is a political decision, plain and simple.

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Here’s Webster’s definition of pornography: "1: a description of prostitutes or prostitution 2: a depiction (as in writing or painting) of licentiousness or lewdness: a portrayal of erotic behavior designed to cause sexual excitement." And here’s the definition of pornographic: "pandering to base appetite or desire."

As you can see, this can be as nebulous as Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin’s pronouncement about "moral law." I do believe people need a moral anchor. Children in particular need an early grasp of the concepts of right and wrong as they’re bombarded with all the stuff on cable TV and the Internet. There are universal truths: it’s wrong to kill, inflict harm, rape, torture, steal.

The trouble is that when it comes to concepts of sex and morality, there can be a yawning divide between the Church and other sectors of society. As far as the Church is concerned, sex is only for procreation and is only for married couples. Gay sex? For the Vatican, homosexuality is against human nature.

So when we watch Tom Cruise getting intimate with his wife (now estranged) Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut, is that pornography? If we were to go by Webster’s definition of pornography, only Disney movies will pass the censors.

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And if we were to go by the dictionary’s definition, Live Show may not even qualify as porn. I asked male colleagues who have seen the movie, in so many words, if it aroused sexual excitement. They noted that there were sexually explicit scenes but their general assessment was that it was a pretty depressing movie. Which is what the life of a performer in the toro or live sex shows must be.

As a young reporter I saw a live sex show. There was no joy in the sex act, nothing titillating about it. After a couple of ins and outs it got boring, and you couldn’t help noticing the performers’ dirty feet, their pockmarked skin. Back in those days there was a theater in Malate that specialized in live sex shows. That was where prostitutes ended up when they became too old for anywhere else.

Explicit sex may not arouse excitement. One of the most hilarious movies I’ve seen is an animated sexual spoof of the Disney cartoon classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That was humor, not pornography.

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I try to see the point of the Church. There are Pinoy moviegoers who get turned on by sex and nudity in the movies. Who cares about social relevance? Look at Ana Capri’s cleavage! Some movies probably inspire rapes. The immaturity of the Pinoy moviegoer affects even politics.

But I also believe a pervert will be a pervert, even if you lock him up in a room filled with religious icons. A pervert will find inspiration even by looking at himself naked in the mirror if all movies with sexually explicit scenes were pulled out. Such sleazebags will get turned on even by the University of the Philippines’ Oblation. No amount of censorship will stop a sex maniac.

Faced with temptation, even Adam and Eve were given a choice, the option to exercise free will. Why shouldn’t we?