Bingo! You've Lost Your Virginity feat. Sujata Day

“[Leti in ‘Lovecraft Country’] is such an excellent example of society equating a woman’s sexual confidence with her sexual experience and labeling women who take ownership over their bodies as easy or slutty.” -Meg McCarthy

This week, we explore the meaning and the myth of virginity in film and television as it relates to women coming of age. Meg draws upon the work of the groundbreaking expert on adolescent sexuality, Peggy Orenstein. “I'd rather people think of sex more horizontally [ …] as a way to explore intimacy and pleasure than as this misguided vertical race to a goal,” writes Orenstein in her book, Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape. In other words: it’s “first times” (plural) and there’s no cookie cutter experience that applies to everyone. 

Then we talk to the super talented actor/writer/director Sujata Day (Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl, Insecure) about her excellent feature directorial debut Definition Please. It was an official selection at the 2020 Bentonville Film Festival in the Feature Narrative Competition and has been having a great run on the (virtual) film festival circuit ever since its August 2020 premiere. We also uncover the real-life story of the shocking birds and the bees “talk” Day received from her mother as a teen.

Check out Beandrea’s review of Definition Please for The Hollywood Reporter.

Movies & Television

Little Darlings

This 1980s classic set the tone for a host of other movies like it to come in future decades about how adolescent girls define virginity. For Angel (Kristy McNichol) and Ferris (Tatum O’Neal) it’s a competition, a really big deal, and not what either girl thinks it will be.

I Believe in Unicorns

The Film Fatales Founder and writer/director Leah Meyerhoff debuted her film I Love Unicorns at the Tribeca Film Festival. Meyerhoff uses a blend of magical realism and stop-motion animation to take us inside the imaginative world of Davina (Natalia Dyer - a previous podcast guest from Episode 1!) as she begins a tumultuous relationship with an older guy. Here, we get to see a darker side of what it means to have sex with a man for the first time as a young woman whose inner world is quite different than the world around her.

Lady Bird

We discuss how Greta Gerwig’s instant classic pushes the boundaries of the stories we’re used to seeing about the first sexual experiences of teen girls. Of course, that includes a brief chat about Timothée Chalamet as well. 

Farah Goes Bang

With the fraught 2020 election now in the rearview, it’s refreshing to watch this “on the road” movie about three friends who spend the summer campaigning for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Co-writer/director Meera Menon adds a funny, moving, and much-needed spin on the genre of virginity movies by exploring what it means to make a conscious choice when it comes to sex.

Blockers

Director Kay Cannon’s teen sex comedy could be seen as Little Darlings 2.0, as it’s another pact that three friends make to have sex on their prom night. The twist here is that their parents find out about it and try to thwart their plans. We discuss what reviews of the film got wrong (we’re looking at you LA Times) and celebrate the queer storyline of one of the main characters.

Normal People (S1, Episode 2)

With full-frontal nudity and unabashed passion, Normal People is not a typical story about teenagers coming of age and falling in love. We take a closer look at the second episode of the series and ask about how much is too much when it comes to believability in sex scenes and why it made us appreciate romance novels more. 

Lovecraft Country (S1, Episodes 3 & 6)

Lovecraft Country from creator and showrunner Misha Greene is our absolute jam! We chat about the episodes “Holy Ghost”  and “Meet Me in Daegu” and just how good this show is at crafting sex scenes that help us better understand the characters and make the show such a thrill to watch. We also have a short callback to CherryPop Episode 4 with HBOs intimacy coordinator Alicia Rodis, who worked with the actors and crew on the “Meet Me in Daegu” episode.

Credits

CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.

Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).

The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.

Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.

Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)

Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.