The director of I WAS A TEENAGE FEMINIST turns her attention to America’s obsession with virginity.
Recognizing the contradictory messages constantly presented to girls and women about sex – told to “protect” their virginity, but at the same time barraged by popular culture and advertising that glamorizes and celebrates women as sexual objects, director Therese Shechter’s film hopes to provide a candid exploration of female sexuality and the ways society have tried to control it. Focusing on virginity, ever synonymous with a woman’s virtue, Shechter explores her own sexual history and that of other women to debunk the myths around the concept of chasteness and to shed light on how and why it has attained and maintained such significance in a culture that otherwise seems sex-mad.
There are just less than three weeks left in a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the film’s final cut, which has reached nearly a third of its $35,000 goal. Back in July 2010, the filmmaker successfully raised nearly $13,000 via Kickstarter to finish her rough cut. To keep updated on the project, join the mailing list on the film’s website.
Shechter’s previous film was also a personal journey with a focus on an issue of particular importance to women – feminism, and how the term has been demonized to such an extent that most young women would not self-identify as a feminist, even if they espouse feminism’s core principles. Having demonstrated the ability to craft an engaging and entertaining film around such contradictions, and to effectively incorporate her own story without losing sight of the broader issues, Shechter seems like the perfect filmmaker to tackle the complexities around virginity. It’s a topic that far too many people are obsessed about – probably for all the wrong reasons – so the film is sure to stimulate interest and provoke heated debate.
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