Throughout the history, there were created many films that involved the elements of sex and sexuality. One of such films is Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 movie, Boogie Nights which describes the pornography business in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. In this industry viewers have a chance to meet a lot of characters which are passing through different problems. The protagonist of the story is a handsome seventeen year-old nightclub dishwasher, Eddie Adams, who was introduced to the pornography industry. One night pornographer Jack Horner noticed Eddie and turned him into a porn star Dirk Diggler. The rest of the movie is actually the description of the life path of Eddie Adams, beginning from his rise to fame in the pornography industry and till his dead failure in that business.
In this essay we will try to critically analyze the sexual health of one of the fictional characters of the movie Boogie Nights that is Eddie Adams or his literary double Dirk Diggler. There are, in fact, many characteristics that may indicate whether a person is sexually healthy or unhealthy. The questions which will help us to properly analyze our character, have to do with such six areas as Human Development, Relationships, Personal Skills, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Health and Society and Culture. Our final evaluation will be grounded on the analysis of the character, according to the criteria indicated on two handouts. First of all, we will complete the checklist Sexual Health in Prime Time for our character. Secondly, we will analyze the sexual health of our fictional character, taking into consideration Life Behaviors of a Sexually Healthy Adult handout.
Let’s start with the examination of the checklist Sexual Health in Prime Time for our character. Speaking about the criterion of Human Development, our character demonstrates typical behavior that proves him as sexually healthy person. Eddie Adams in the film appreciates his own body, especially his reproductive organ. It may even seem that Dirk Diggler’s unusually big penis tends to be the unseen star of Boogie Nights. From the very beginning of the movie, Eddie confessed that men were willing to pay him five dollars just to look at it. They were also ready to give five more for watching how the boy was masturbating. We may say that the character’s potential consisted in the form of his penis. Thanks to his intuition, Jack Horner managed to feel that there was something beautiful behind the dishwasher’s jeans. Initially it attracted the pornographer and made him approach the young boy.
I believe that Eddie himself was overtly conceited about his large penis. Later, he had an argument with Jack after which Edie was fired. In that scene, the character stated that he was Dirk Diggler, a star and that it was his big dick and only he said when they rolled (Sickels, 2002). Eddie in Boogie Nights understood his sexual orientation and respected others’ sexual orientations. That is why, when Scotty who was in love with Dirk, confided about his feelings, the character rejected the man but continued to speak with him as before. Scotty remained a wounded man who simply had to quietly put up with the stigma of his sexual orientation.
The next criterion, Relationships, was not actually clearly depicted in the movie. Throughout the movie, Eddie did not have any serious relationships with women. He was a porn- actor and he really liked it. His real life was not as successful as the roles he played. We may only suppose that the character used to avoid harmful relationships. In addition, Eddie could also show love and intimacy appropriately, the same way as he played passion and desire in all his porno films. Another porn-actor Amber Waves, for example, felt towards Edie some sort of love that every mother felt to her children. From the very beginning of Edie’s career as a porn-star, the woman took the boy under her wing and his transformation into Dirk Diggler, adult film star was met with Amber’s pleasure (Cate, 2009).
As for the criterion of Personal Skills, Eddie Adams used to live, according to his own values and principles. He did not consult with anybody before fundamentally changing his life path and choosing the career of porn-star. He simply came home, took all his staff and left for ever. The director there also emphasized Eddie’s relationship with his parents. For Eddie his real family was bad. His mother presented an angry and dominated woman who in one of the movie’s pivotal scenes called his son a stupid looser and raged at Edie and his sexual relationship with his girlfriend. The boy never got along with his family, so such important decision was seen by him as a chance to get another life. After that revealing scene, the character was determined to prove his mother that he was capable of achieving some results in life on his own. He ran away and moved in with Horner and Amber Waves.
Speaking about Sexual Behavior criterion, the film touches such important topics of sexual psychology as pornography, prostitution, healthy adult sexual relationships and exhibitionism. At the very beginning, Eddie used to perform sexual acts for money which is seen as prevailing cause for prostitution. With the progression of the movie, the pornography is depicted as a brilliant industry where people derived pleasure from sex and desired to have sex with one another. In other words, it is an example of a healthsome sexual relationship between grown-up people. Eddie Adams enjoyed his sexuality and expressed it throughout the film. The character may be represented as an exhibitionist to some degree because of his satisfaction when others watched him. The man though, did not compel this on anybody and only exposed himself when requested. Furthermore, Eddie was aware of the difference between life-enhancing sexual behaviors and those that tended to be harmful.
As for the criterion of Sexual Health, the film did not speak much about such issue. Our character did not perform any form of sexual abuse. The film made an attempt to describe the Golden Age of pornography set in cocaine-sniffing era of the 1970s (Cate, 2009). We did know any details concerning prenatal care or HIV. What we know is that porn-stars did not use contraception, so Eddie Adams was not an exception. The last criterion is about Society and Culture. The character in the movie used to take from his life everything that was available. He realized his sexuality and learned to get from it not only satisfaction, but money as well. Eddie truly enjoyed his work and considered it a useful service. The man was even sure that he was doing the world a good turn by providing innocuous sexual imagery with the purpose of inflaming others. At the same time, Eddie respected people with different sexual values and supported pornography because it showed sex without violence. The man also was not expressive of prejudice and bigotry.
After completing Sexual Health in Prime Time checklist, we did not observe any deviations of sexual health of our fictional character. Eddie Adams proved to be an ordinary human being, who simply liked to overtly expose himself, but did not force people to do this. As a result, the character tended to be a porn-star who really enjoyed sex and making love in front of the public. Let’s now take a look at Life Behaviors of a Sexually Healthy Adult handout and analyze the character of Eddie Adams, according to it as well.
Life Behaviors of a Sexually Healthy Adult handout deals with the same six areas of Human Development, Relationships, Personal Skills, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Health and Society and Culture, we examined in the Sexual Health in Prime Time checklist. In Human Development area, Eddie Adams can be named as totally sexually healthy adult. The man exhibited such behavior that did not violate any of generally accepted moral norms and social rules. The character, as was previously mentioned, appreciated his own body, affirmed his own sexual orientation and respected sexual orientation of others.
The relationship Eddie had with his parents, in particular with his mother, could not be seen as common to the majority of people. A sexually healthy person will always regard family as a valuable source of support. Our character though, failed to create friendly relationship with his parents. Eddie’s mother did not believe in her son’s ability to achieve success in life. As a consequence, when the boy was offered to become a porn-actor, he did not share this news with his family, but instead ran away and turned over a new leaf. However, Eddie used to avoid exploitative or manipulative relationships and was able to express love and intimacy in an appropriate way.
In Personal Skill area, Eddie failed to communicate effectively with his family. The character though, managed to get across to his peers and other actors. In addition, Eddie was able to identify his values and tried to live, according to them. He did not exploit other people sexually and took responsibility for his own behavior. As for Sexual Behavior area, the character learned to differentiate between life-enhancing sexual behaviors and those that could be harmful to self and others.
On the one hand, Eddie enjoyed expressing his sexuality. On the other hand, he did it in a way that did not disrespect rights of others. Speaking about Sexual Health area, Eddie did not used to utilize contraception because it was not popular among port-actors. The man, however, was not inclined to sexual abuse. Finally, in area of Society and Culture, our character demonstrated exemplary behavior because he equally treated people with different sexual values. Moreover, Eddie tried to avoid behavior that exhibited bigotry and prejudice.
In conclusion, though the character of Eddie Adams may seem rather complicated at first sight, he proves totally sexually healthy after analyzing it, according to Sexual Health in Prime Time checklist and Life Behaviors of a Sexually Healthy Adult handout. The man enjoyed sex, but in a sense that involved manufacturing
References
Cate, Andrew C. (2009). New Hollywood Narratives: an Analysis of Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Rhode Island College, 21-38.
Sickels, Robert. (2002). 1970s Disco Daze: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights and the Last Golden Age of Irresponsibility. The Journal of Popular Culture, 49-60.
