Filmmaker Taryn Brumfitt’s documentary Embrace has been given a MA 15+ rating for depicting vaginas in all their glory.
The woman who shared her non-traditional before and after photo with the world created the documentary to unite women in loving their bodies.
So, unsurprisingly, she is unhappy that a portion of the audience has effectively been banned from watching it.
“It puts my film in the same category as Fifty Shades of Grey,” Taryn told news.com.au.
“It’s wrong on so many levels. I am outraged.”
Watch the trailer here. (Post continues after video.)
After screening at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, Embrace is to be released in cinemas nationally on August 4.
The documentary is much more than its depiction of vaginas, but this is the reason it has been rated MA 15+, which is given to films with ‘strong impact’ nudity or violence, compared to the more moderate impact in M-rated films.
News.com.au reports the Classification Board noted that some of the genital detail included “protruding labia”.
“The Board of Directors have got their heads in the sand if they think that’s offensive,” the body positive campaigner said.
The MA 15+ rating means girls under 15 will not be able to see the film without the supervision of an adult, and will no doubt reduce the number of young girls who see the film.
But the preteen and early teenage years are exactly the age girls are discovering their bodies and learning more about it.
This is the age where ideas like vaginas are 'shameful' or 'ugly' take hold; when girls are increasingly encouraged to rid themselves of the hair that's just starting to sprout.
Yet the only depictions of vaginas are illustrations in health books.
The only way women are going to know that our vaginas look normal is if we are exposed to actual images of vaginas, in all their forms.
One artist who also shares this view is, Greg Taylor, whose work titled 'C*nts... and other conversations' is displayed in Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art.
The artwork shows 70 plastercasts of real women's actual vaginas mounted across a wall of the museum.
Is it confronting the first time you see it? Yes. And I'm not going to lie - I was a bit disgusted when I first saw it.
But would I have been as disgusted by a wall of penises? No, I don't think so. Because no matter whether you've seen them in person or not, penises are depicted. Depicted full stop. Because full-frontal vaginas just aren't depicted at all, anywhere.
And that's why this film needs to be seen. And not just by people older than 15.
Top Comments
Full frontal Vulvas are normal and natural. If we want our girls to be empowered we need to stop making the female body to be a sex object.
When we stop sexualising female body parts we empower girls in three ways:
1). Creating a comfortable relationship with their body, loving it, knowing it and using it as they see fit
2). Stops shame and embarrassment
3). Creates better witnesses in sexual abuse cases because the girl can appropriately call her body parts what they are and be seen as a credible witness.
For these reasons the rating should not of been restricted to 15 plus.
Is should be MA15. Get real. A movie with penis scrutinised in 'all their glory' should be MA15 too. Why are womens bodies under the microscope all the time. These movies/films are unnecessary, unless in a health education environment. Because it will just be compared to the pathetic pornographic minds of society as women bodies always are. This is something that should be seen in the correct environment. And where is the Wall of Penis and Scrotum Please Mona? Why isn't there a Cocks...and other conversations room?
You can find that one in pretty much any any public toilet, can't you?
One was installed, but people just kept hanging their coats.