The New York Times recently did an interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal about sex scenes from the female perspective. Her new film, Hysteria, released by Sony Pictures Classics and directed by friend of Jimmyjane, Tanya Wexler, shows more than one Victorian lady having an orgasm. Though these orgasms—or “paroxysms” as they were known back then—were purely for the medical purpose of relieving the common, women’s “disease” Hysteria, they were still orgasms.
That was close to two-hundred years ago, and yet, when you examine today’s portrayal of women and sex (both in the entertainment and political realms), it makes you wonder how far we’ve really come.
The New York Times asked Gyllenhaal why honest sex scenes from a female perspective are still so complicated to tackle on film. » Read more. »













