Borgman, D. (2000, Spring). A film review on "Sex: The Annabel Chong story." S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.

OVERVIEW

"Sex: The Annabel Chong Story" is an 86-minute pornographic documentary movie (not rated, containing graphic sex and vulgar language—opened February 2000). It was directed by Gough Lewis. The top selling video of the same story is called "The World’s Biggest Gang Bang" (produced in the mid-1990s) and it records the sad scene of Chong having sex with 251 men in 10 hours—a record which, even more sadly, was broken some time after.

Pornography becomes boring and finally nauseating to normal people. For others, it can become addictive and injurious. This story of a pornographic celebrity willing to endure the indignity of multiple, marathon sex reveals the true nature of pornography. The film’s opening reveals Chong’s exhibitionist disorder as she proudly and appropriately relates her record stunt, with clips of the event, to Jerry Springer on his show.

The film shows more of this pornographic superstar than her giddy exhibitionism and bravado. The marathon orgy was supposed to be "safe sex" controlled, but when Chong found out it had not been so, she tearfully fled to a clinic for HIV testing. Still, she later put on a brave front trying to convince herself and others that "Sex is good enough to die for."

"Sex..." reveals this 24-year-old college student and superstar’s modest and messy apartment, her repressed childhood in Singapore, her tearful confession of activities to her mother, her self-mutilation, and the seedy characters who exploit her.

One reviewer found this film neither "erotic nor titillating." What would be clear to anyone studying this and other accounts of the pornography industry is that behind all "the posturing" there is deep and distressing "self-loathing." (King, L. [2000, May 12]. The Boston Globe, p. C9)

From sophisticated pornographic celebrities like Madonna (which her Sex book certainly is and other videos approach) to hard core pornographers, a litany of justifications are offered. Free speech, feminism, revolt against censorship, and sexual repression all promise some new era of pleasure. Results do not seem to measure up to the promises. These days many young people are returning to a higher appreciation of sex within love and commitment.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How would you discuss sex with Madonna or Annabel Chong?
2. Would your discussion of pornography with those who run the industry be different? How?
3. What arguments are offered regarding the benefits of pornography, on the one hand, and the dangers and negative effects of pornography on the other?
4. What are your views on pornography and voyeurism?
5. How is pornography accessible to the public?
6. What should young children be taught about pornography?

IMPLICATIONS

• Pornography has been a part of civilization as far back as we can determine.
• Through most of history it was more accessible to the rich than to the masses.
• Today, pornography is more widely available and in more different forms than ever before.
• Pornography has one kind of effect on its performers and another on its viewers. Both must be studied and considered in shaping public policy.
• Increasingly, children have been recruited as child performers. No consideration of pornography can overlook this exploitation and its effects on young, vulnerable lives.

Dean Borgman cCYS