The Gift of Permission For the Imaginary Box

This is one of those moments that smacks you upside the head. I have had a mental loop of a scene in a movie that comes back to me from time to time. The movie is The Devil in Miss Jones. The link is to the specific scene in the movie and nothing more.


For those on work lock down it or otherwise video prohibited it is the scene where Miss Jones is about to be enroll in the School of Carnal Knowledge. Miss Jones meets "The Teacher."

The Teacher removes the inhibitions that probably caused Miss Jones to take the express train out of life in the first place. The scene has always been my favorite part.

Now I know some of you are not happy that she bowed down to a man and he was the one to remove her blockage. I get where you are coming from really. In 1973, and even much later when I saw the movie in college, the removal of inhibitions was hot stuff.

When you turned 18 and was free to do it but you were unclear as to what it was or how to get going. Truthfully, some of us needed help. So no, I can't do the revisionist history thing. This is how it was expressed at the time.

Did the scene cause me to go buck wild? No.

It does serve as a on-going mental talisman about constructing my own personal spheres of sexual permission. What do I like? What is the about and does it fit with where I am now? What are my boundaries? What is the limit?

The photo below is of modern day Georgina Spelvin. Many years later I find myself reading her web site. She is a real person who writes about how she really did not expect people to see the movie.

Older. A woman with perspective of the path that got her where she is today. Georgina tells a bit of the story in the (NSFW) video. You can click the photo for the video.

The older woman in the video is a hoot. I like her. Does it take away my appreciation for that scene? No. It is more like looking at a painting. That scene and what I bring to it is separate and apart from the artist who created it. One is imaginary. The other is flesh and blood.

So the first gift in the imaginary box for Valentine's Day is the gift of remembering to honor and validate internal and external (if you choose to) expressions of sexuality.

Those with faith based restrictions or who believe that it is only for procreation purposes shouldn't have been reading this deep in to the post in the first place.

For the rest of us, well maybe a reclamation project is in order. For some people try a new stroke or meet a new bloke. For other folks perhaps a time to pull back and review how thin you are spreading yourself around.

On this day, I place the gift of permission into the box.