Fellini & Woody Allen Prognosticators of Modern Sex

In the mid 70’s Fellini and Allen made two very different movies- Casanova and Sleeper. Both accurately gave their audiences a glimpse of the sexuality of modernity. Fellini showed us, in the character of Casanova, the debasement of human sexuality when the physiology of pleasure is substituted for person hood. Allen satirized the banality of sexual consumerism. Fellini uses Casanova, after an endless pursuit of self-gratification, to illustrate the poverty of sharing sexual intimacy with a mechanical device. Allen utilizes a contraption called the “Orgazmatron” to illustrate sex as mere consumer product for thoughtless humans. The migration from sex as a procreative act, ensured by biology, into act of mass marketed recreation is firmly implanted into society. Technology, in pursuit of this new normal, has brought Fellini’s mechanical faux human into reality and no doubt coming to retail, franchise, rent to own and home delivery. There is one aspect that was not foreseen by Fellini or Allen; modern sex is anti-science and big business. The little secret of modern sex is that it is riddled with disease. STD s are rampant among the populace. The reality of these malevolent diseases is discounted. The preferred response is management creating a paychecks for many but not for the infected. Human misery as a revenue stream- who knew. As stated in the original Jurassic Park “nature finds a way” and pregnancy occurs. Well, we all know the answer to that one. Abortion is a mega industry and what many see as a benefit- dismembered, dissolved in utero infants can’t sue for damages. Abortion, like managed STD s produces a lot of paychecks just not for the mother. Sex as consumer recreation as made commitment, responsibility, and obligation quaint notions from yesteryear. In any case there is a service, procedure, facility, therapy or product designed to manage, for a fee, whatever societal consequences. Fellini and Allen saw around the corner but not to the end of the story