Can you draw a clitoris? Our exclusive clip of “Maria Finitzo’s” “The Dilemma of Desire” poses this important question. An exploration of female sexual desire that aims to give women the tools to talk about their desire without shame and embarrassment, the documentary follows a conceptual artist, two scientists, and an industrial designer working to dispel myths that women have been taught about their bodies.
The clip sees Dr. Stacey Dutton, a neuroscientist, sharing a formative experience. While teaching a class called Biology and Womanhood, she realized that she still had plenty to learn about the subject. “One of the chapters in the book that I was using as a text was entitled ‘The Clitoris’ and it hit me — I don’t even know what this looks like,” Dr. Dutton reveals. She asks, “As a woman biologist, how is it possible that I do I not know what my own biology looks like?”
“I want people to think about how and why we have a system in place that thinks it is okay to teach boys the truth about their sexual anatomy and sexual desire, and denies girls the right to the same knowledge,” Finitzo told us. “Sex education teaches us all about male anatomy and male pleasure, and nothing about female pleasure and female anatomy unless it has to do with reproduction. The clitoris, the organ of female sexual pleasure, is omitted entirely, and so a girl begins her sexual life with the lie of omission so powerful that it will resonate deeply throughout her entire life — cutting her off from information about her body and a vital source of her power,” she emphasized.
The director added, “I hope people will think about the profound impact this lie has on our lives as women, beginning when we are young and continuing into adulthood, and how there is a real connection to women’s struggle for power, personal and political, and the suppression of their human right to be sexual. The way women are viewed sexually in the world cannot be separated from the way they are treated. Enjoying sex and talking about it often and openly is an empowering, liberating act that spoken over and over becomes a way to speak truth to power.”
A two-time Peabody Award winner, Finitzo’s directing credits include “Those Left Behind,” “Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita,” and “Aging Out.”
“The Dilemma of Desire” is screening in Hot Docs Festival Online, which is geo-blocked to Ontario, Canada. More information about the program and how to tune in can be found here.
