Sexuality and Hollywood: How Sexuality and Hyper Sexuality in History and Film Contribute to

Rape Culture in Hollywood’s Elite

Matt Peterson

Prof. Britta Rowe

ENWR 1510-018

February 5, 2018
 The recent pushes to expose sexual predators and rapists in the elite Hollywood

community is beautiful. To see men who have caused so much pain, trauma, and emotional

distress to women, other men, and some minors by way of rape suffer through losing their

careers and opportunities because of their heinous actions is a wonderful sight. People who have

raped and sexually assaulted others should not deserve the major platforms and careers they have

been given. Men like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Louis C.K., and so many

others have received the career fallout that they deserve. However, when situations such as this

arise, one must look back on the past and ponder just how exactly offences like these, as well as

all of the similar offences that go unnoticed by the public, were allowed to come to their ugly

and despicable fruition. While it is surely impossible to nail down one specific and perfect

answer to this question, a piece of the puzzle can be found through the analyzation of Stanley

Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut. By combining conversations about the development of

sexuality throughout history, modern society’s limitations on sexuality, and Hollywood’s

romanticization of hyper sexuality, one can begin to formulate a general idea of part of the

reason modern culture has allowed rape culture to thrive under its wing, while also gaining

insight on why Hollywood’s crackdown on rapists and sexual predators is late, but an extremely

important turning point in history.

The idea of sex has quite obviously been around since the beginning of time. Needing sex

to reproduce, the human race has partaken in thousands of years of promiscuity. While some

people may believe that prehistoric sex was nothing more than a caveman procreating while

holding a club in their hand, history holds this to be quite untrue. Prehistoric sex mainly dealt

with means of procreation, promiscuity, and polygamy. Before the concept of marriage came to
be, prehistoric humans would often have many partners in which they would engage in sexual

activities with, for their brains were in a way programmed to not partake in monogamy (Honan).

However, once marriage became an established notion, monogamy was assumed and encouraged

in the married lifestyle. Although monogamy was very much the norm in a marriage, not all

cultures extended this expectation to men. In ancient Roman culture, women were expected to

stay loyal to their husbands and bear their children, who were most likely wished upon to be

boys, so that the family legacy would be carried down for generations to come, while also being

expected to turn a blind eye to their husbands’ sexual escapades with other women or, perhaps,

men. Sex’s favor of men was no stranger to the Romans. Sex was seen as something to be a

pleasurable action by men and a mundane duty for women. A woman’s virtue was considered to

be so important to the Romans that it even resulted in many deaths of Roman women. “Lucretia

[a legendary Roman matron whose fate played a key role in the transition from a Roman

Kingdom into a Roman Republic] took her own life in 510 BC after being raped by Sextus

Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, last king of Rome” (Chrystal) while Verginia,

the daughter of a Roman centurion, “was stabbed to death in 449 BC by her own father to avoid

the shame of violation” (Chrystal). Needless to say, sex was very much seen as a man’s world to

the romans. This sentiment was not fully true for all cultures, though. In Ancient Egypt, women

were valued substantially more when it came to marriage and sex. Whereas a married woman

who committed adultery would often be ostracized or executed, a woman who was not married

had the freedom to engage in sexual activities with whomever she pleased. Family bonds were

much stronger in Egypt than they were in Rome, and men were held to a much higher standard

as husbands, both fatherly and sexually. Although strong family bonds in ancient Egypt did
eventually lead to incest and such, the Egyptians didn’t really view this as much of an issue,

morally (Seawright).

The morality of sex, marriage, and sexuality has shifted throughout many cultures over

many centuries, but in the modern times of the 21st century, societies and cultures have been able

to come up with several moral standards for sex and sexuality. Things that are generally favored

when it comes to sex are marriage, monogamy, virginity, and safe sex, whereas sex out of

wedlock, unprotected sex and having multiple lovers at once, while not necessarily frowned

upon, are not held as high on the sexual moral standard in modern American culture. Some

aspects of sex and sexuality that are extremely looked down upon are polygamist marriages,

orgies, and BDSM (bondage, dominance, sadism, and masochism), while things such as rape,

sexual assault, and sexual battery are so despised that they have legal repercussions attached to

them. However, just like all crimes, people still continue to rape and sexually assault others

despite knowing the large amounts of trouble that they could get in by doing so.

Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut shows a very specific and unique aspect of a “fictional”

America’s elite. The orgy sequence that ensues in the climax of the film is rumored by Ziegler to

be composed of people whose identities would shake Bill Harford to his core. It is safe to assume

that a good portion of these people may have been affiliated with the world of Hollywood in

some manner. Eyes Wide Shut raises a few issues sexually that have gravity in the real world

beyond the lens of the camera. The association of orgies and the occult is very much a real thing,

and not an idea created by Kubrick for the film.

“This Masked Ball segment of this film depicts an Illuminati sex-magick ritual orgy,

which actually occurs behind closed doors in some of the most exclusive housing in the

entire world. Those who practice ritualized sex magick draw upon the combined power of
 the sex act and the partners themselves. Magick spells and incantations are launched

during orgasm, when the sexual power of the couple is at its’ peak. However, shown in

the context of EWS itself, the men of the global elite use sex as a manner of claiming

power over their sex partner, who is looked upon and treated as a sex slave of sorts”

(Bentkowski).

In this description of the real-life events shown in Eyes Wide Shut, a red flag is raised at the

notion that the women are viewed as sex slaves for the elite men in attendance of the ritual.

Throughout the film, women appear to be objectified as sexual objects by many men. Alice,

while dancing with the appropriately named Sandor Szavost, is almost coaxed out the sanctity of

her marriage due to this man’s constant and creepy advances. Domino is portrayed as a woman

who will try her absolute best to just get a man to pay her for sex, while her roommate shares

similar ambitions. Nick Nightingale at one point makes a comment to Bill about the types of

women hes witnessed at the secret parties he plays piano blindfolded for. Mandy is constantly

looked down upon by Ziegler because of her position as a prostitute. In her first scene, when she

is near death because of drug usage, Ziegler describes her to Bill as if she were a second-class

citizen in comparison to himself, and treats her with very little respect when Bill instructs Ziegler

to stay with her for about another hour before sending her home. Later on in the film, after

Mandy supposedly sacrifices her own life in order to save Bill from death at the ritual orgy,

Ziegler once again goes on to belittle her and her life to just being nothing more than a hooker

with a drug problem, saying she deserved the death she had coming to her. The objectification

and hyper-sexualization of women in Eyes Wide Shut is so permeant and present that it would

almost be disgusting if it weren’t there to prove a point.

 The treatment of women throughout the film, the ritual orgy portrayed in the film, and the

concept of ritual orgies in general draw attention to the concept of hyper masculinity in

Hollywood and the elite as a whole. It is this brand of toxic and oppressive sexuality that has

caused rape culture to rise more and more in the world of Hollywood over the past several

decades. It is truly a miracle that the year of 2017 brought forth a start of the downfall of the

careers of rapists and sexual predators in Hollywood, which created a landslide movement of

outing sexual predators in other fields of work, as well as working towards preventing rape and

sexual assault all together. Hyper sexuality mixed with hyper masculinity is an unhealthy recipe

for sexual dominance, abuse, and rape, and although Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut utilized the

recipe to hopefully unsettle the audience, many other films, as well as pieces of artwork from

other mediums, like television and music, do not feature hyper sexuality and hyper masculinity

in a way that paints it in a negative light. In Jerimih’s popular 2009 song “Birthday Sex” the

rapper raps about having sex specifically because it is his birthday. However, beneath the surface

of this concept, it’s not a harmless idea at all.

“While Jeremih thinks he's making a sexy birthday anthem, he's actually normalizing

rape culture. At some point, a myth began to circulate that guys deserve to get laid on

their birthday. The fact of the matter is, literally everyone on the planet has a birthday,

and nothing about that is special. If it's your birthday and you end up having fun,

consensual sex, that's great. But you can't expect to get something for being born”

(Shelton).

Jerimih’s “Birthday Sex” is just one example of many overtly sexual songs that depict hyper

sexual and toxically masculine tendencies. While it may never be known if the writers of these
songs are affiliated with the world of the occult in any way, the pair both push forward a

subconscious agenda of rape, sexual assault, and male belittlement of females.

Through a modern lens, Hollywood, and the elite in general, have to be held accountable

by the public when situations of rape and sexual assault arise. Occult ritual or not, the degrading

of women needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

 Works Cited

Bentkowski, Kent. “Eyes Wide Shut: Occult Symbolism.” The Kentroversy Papers, 19 Mar.

2006, kentroversypapers.blogspot.com/2006/03/eyes-wide-shut-occult-symbolism.html.

Chrystal, Paul. “In bed with the Romans: a brief history of sex in Ancient Rome.” History Extra,

18 Jan. 2018, www.historyextra.com/period/roman/in-bed-with-the-romans-a-brief-

history-of-sex-in-ancient-rome/.

Honan, Daniel. “How to Make Love Like a Caveman.” Big Think, 3 Sept. 2011,

bigthink.com/think-tank/how-to-make-love-like-a-caveman.

Seawright, Caroline. “Ancient Egyptian Sexuality: Life in Ancient Egypt.” The Keep, 9 Apr.

2011, www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/sexuality.html#.Wnf3PJM-fBI.

Shelton, Jacob. “13 Popular Songs You Never Realized Are Actually About Sexual

Assault.” Ranker, www.ranker.com/list/surprising-songs-about-date-rape/jacob-shelton.