These days, sex doesn’t just sell, it saturates our culture. In the age of runaway social media and “sexting,” raunchy rap songs on pop radio and hardcore pornography at the click of a mouse—what’s it like to be a woman? A girl? A teenage boy? Their parents? In their feature documentary debut, directors Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus follow a trio of characters to reveal the toll all this titillation is taking on America.
Twelve-year-old Winnie is a bright and precocious proto-feminist dividing time between Mom’s house and Dad’s in New York City, but not long after the bat mitzvah celebration that marks her entry into adulthood, the Lady Gaga-loving youngster starts growing up faster than her parents can handle. Pressured by remarks from her porn-loving boyfriend, 22-year-old Laura is spending thousands on surgery to have a top-shelf “designer vagina.” And though she’s officially retired from the adult film industry, 32-year-old Nakita Kash is making her living teaching housewives and college girls how to pole dance like a porno pro. If you thought nothing was shocking, Bauer and Gradus’ mix of pop media collage and intimate character study will be a surefire conversation starter. –Joel Hoglund
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