I Am A Sex Addict is opening in Chicago tomorrow (at the Music Box). A review appeared today in the Chicago Tribune. It was written by Michael Wilmington, and was mostly positive and well written, but it included this sentence:
"Is this guy whining or bragging?"
I'm always stunned when I hear that from a film reviewer. It's as if the taboo against honesty is so deeply entrenched than any instance of it can only be interpreted either as "whining" or as "bragging."
First of all, the social stigma and shame that surrounds the frequenting of prostitutes is such that the idea that someone would publicly "brag" about it strikes me as inane, and shows a real cluelessness as far as human psychology is considered. The same goes for "whining" - who is so out of touch with reality that they would expect to get sympathy by confessing to an addiction to prostitutes?
No one, as far as I am aware, has ever publicly come out and admitted this (besides me), and yet there are millions of people who have this same addiction. To reduce such an admission to either an act or "whining" or "bragging" is about as unimaginative a response as I can imagine.
There is another possible interpretation, but it requires a different set of assumptions about human motivation. And that is the idea of honesty as an act of generosity.
posted by Caveh Zahedi at
11:57 PM
