Vaginas are just fine. So is childbirth. Everyone on the planet knows babies are born through vaginas (with the obvious exception of caesarian births).
I want to know why Spike Lee chose, in Mo Better Blues, to show us in full, plain view, the birth mother’s vagina.
I think everyone has seen in TV and film, dozens of childbirths. Filmmakers seldom show the audience the actual vagina. The camera routinely pans away, sparing the audience the view of genitalia. There are exceptions; those being documentaries, medical TV shows and the like.
The scene would have worked without showing us the va jay jay. This display of lady parts was unnecessary to the scene and the flow of the film. The image did nothing to push the story forward or illuminate the shot in any way. He could have, for example, merely cut to hospital personnel lifting up the newborn. Showing us cooch was a deliberate choice on his part.
My theory? It has to do, I think, with the weirdness inside of him. Spike Lee wanted to see it. My guess is that there is was that thing inside him; that thing… It’s okay. We all have some weirdness inside us. Most people hide it. Spike Lee -- you showed us yours; under the guise of filmmaking.
He repeated this antic in the dreadful She Hate Me.
These scenes are handled lots of different ways. For example:
Sometimes,
Pregnant lady, laying down in hospital bed, sweating, screaming, pushing. Poof! Baby is born.
We see newborn, bathed in body fluids, placenta attached, emerge from beneath the sheets of the covered woman
Sometimes,
Pregnant lady, laying down in hospital bed, sweating, screaming, pushing. Poof! Baby is born.
Cut to baby being washed off
Sometimes,
Pregnant lady, laying down in hospital bed, sweating, screaming, pushing. Poof! Baby is born.
Cut to baby wrapped in a blanket
Sometimes,
Pregnant lady, laying down in hospital bed, sweating, screaming, pushing. Poof! Baby is born.
Cut to new scene; child laying in mother’s arms
Sometimes,
Pregnant lady, laying down in hospital bed, sweating, screaming, pushing. Poof! Baby is born.
Cut to some other scene
Leave it to Spike Lee to show the audience furry, pubed va jay jays. LOL.
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