The Sessions

[tryingtogoveggyagain]

Has anyone watched The Sessions? It's been around a few years now (2012) and won lots of awards at the time. We watched it again recently on DVD and were reminded what a good movie it is.

It's based on the autobiographical account of Mark O'Brien (played by John Hawkes) an American poet and journalist who was paralysed by polio and has to pass his days in an iron lung but really wants to lose his virginity before it's too late and hires a sex surrogate (played by Helen Hunt) to help.

It's witty, warm and moving and I recommend it if you've not seen it before. We also had no idea about sex surrogacy before we watched it.

👀🍿

I agree with the others about not liking the film. It was a man paying for sex.

I reluctantly saw it years ago with a group of friends and the majority of us felt the same. I had some sympathy with the man obviously but not to the degree that I felt he should have been able to buy sex. There’s never any justification for that.

There have been threads on this topic previously and most felt as I and others on this thread do.

Put it another way: Mumsnet is a place to discuss things. But if, regardless of the discussion, the same people turn up and start complaining about the weather it's not being the thread police to say it's annoying.

The same people turn up justifying sex work in various ways, amongst other things. Thats annoying to many of us.

@CalmYourThunder You find it annoying that the same posters turn up? I think it’s the fact that they share opposing opinions that annoys you. It would appear some posters would prefer this board to be an echo chamber of straight, middle aged women who would really rather not have sex any more. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that, but please don’t view the rest of us with condescension.

My comments about it being annoying were only in response to the pp saying it’s annoying that the same people turn up with opinions like mine, like on this thread. Do try to keep up.

I think the majority of people have regular sex. I love sex, I have lots of it. I don’t love people paying for sex. I don’t know why anyone having an issue with certain things on this board brings comments like ‘you don’t like sex’ and similar.

I have an issue with things I see on here like pervs, CSA being hidden as other things, sex work being glorified etc. That’s all.

To be honest, I'm not sure where I stand on sex work.
Plenty of people have their health destroyed through work, lots miss out on key moments in their children's lives while earning the money to feed and clothe them. Workplace bullying is rife and even on those rare times when employees seem to have the upper hand, lots of us are asked to compromise our moral and ethical standards to earn our crust.
If a single person, under no coercive control, getting 100% of the money that the client pays, wishes to sell sexual services discreetly in a safe environment does it contravene some fundamental rule of civilisation?

https://dutchreview.com/culture/relationships/sex-care-in-the-netherlands-helping-the-disabled-find-intimacy/

I found this article really interesting (although some of the language is outdated)

@tryingtogoveggyagain thank you for the movie recommendation, I just watched it. I found it really emotional!
Oh and good luck with the vegetarianism!! Your body, the planet and the animals will benefit from your decision 💗

@Mermaidparades 👍 😀