Adult Movie review:  Beyond Vanilla, An Unforgettable Journey To The Wilder Side Of Sex

 

I, like countless others, believe that fear of the unknown causes a crippling amount of misunderstanding in our society.  Whether that unknown is a cultural practice, an ethnic trait, or a sexual subculture is irrelevant.  Without a safe introduction to something we consider foreign, we tend to gloss over what could be meaningful and worthwhile in a practice and instead react out of fear to create prohibitions, taboos, avoidance and eventually hatred and intolerance of the people whose practices we don't understand. 

 

Documentaries such as Beyond Vanilla attempt to take the unknown factor out of certain forms of sexual behavior that mainstream society considers deviant, and they succeed in many respects.  The effect is felt most fully when the viewer is truly there to learn and approaches the subject with an open mind; otherwise, many elements of Beyond Vanilla will still make the average viewer highly uncomfortable and may perpetuate the view that the BDSM subculture is "perverted", "gross" or unfathomable (for instance, several people left the theater when scenes of bodily mutilation were shown).

 

The movie is presented intelligently and in a lighthearted manner, and gives insight from well-trained professionals and practitioners in an easy to understand format.  Its director/producer, Claes Lilja, surveys a wide variety of people from different income levels, ethnic backgrounds, sexual preferences and gender identities, showing the pervasiveness of alternative lifestyles in people we consider "normal". 

 

Lilja also attempts to get to the bottom of the "why" question - for instance, the movie quotes statistics stating that there is no higher occurrence of childhood sexual abuse in those who engage in BDSM than in those who don't - sexual play is usually not a reenactment of past disturbing experiences, but an attempt to reach a higher level of consciousness and, for some, actually leads to an out of body experience.  I couldn't help thinking that the thrill of the pain, fear or adrenaline rush of BDSM must be similar to that felt by any adrenaline or pleasure junkie - whether it's through drugs, sex, work or risk-taking, all are attempts at reaching a state of detachment from daily life and its ability to numb the mind and create disquiet in the soul.  Some of the interviewees in Beyond Vanilla describe their sexplay as psychologically therapeutic, some seem to consider it spiritual.  I came out of the movie finally seeing the logic in someone describing fisting as an intimate, poetic experience.