Is it ok to portray rape on film? I don't know. I recall a DVD my boyfriend and I rented once. It was a compilation. The third scene was Kristi Myst (Extreme Associates, I'm guessing) as a babysitter raped by two intruders with a soundbite of a baby crying in the background. My boyfriend went limp immediately and I felt nauseous, so we turned it off.

Compare that with a critically acclaimed independent movie called Irreversible. In it, Monica Belluci's character is brutally raped in a continuous-shot scene that lasts a full eight minutes. And when I say brutally, I mean totally and utterly horrifying, to the point where I still have a hard time walking in an underpass late at night.

I'm sure there are people who would and have jerk(ed) off to Monica Belluci getting assraped until she bleeds and then goes into a coma when her face is pulverized until it caves in. But people call Irreversible "art" while they denounce Extreme Associates as obscenity. Why? Is it the viewer's reaction that makes the difference, or is it the creator's intent?

Fuck, that's deep. I'm gonna go pack a bowl now.