Nuts

This movie will challenge a lot of people---those in the court system who perpetuate the cycle of criminality; those who collude in the name of "mental health", those who turn a deaf ear and/or blind eye to their children who complain about being "touched" as portrayed in Nuts and most recently, Precious and all of those who seek to deny their own abuse and sexual confusion. The theme in this story will reverberate for years to come as families across the world emerge from the silence and secret of familial sexual abuse and all of the havoc it reeks. I saw this movie years ago and continue to recommend it as an instructional tool for those who want to introduce the conversation or who want insight into how children can be abused while their mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and other family members look away. Fortunately, other movie makers have taken on this subject, Tyler Perry and Stephen Spielberg, for instance and I predict that others will as well. The issue, although more of an open discussion in America, remains a shadowy cloak in other parts of the world. The cloak covers the discomfort of too many men at the sight of female sexual parts, or as Nina Simone so eloquently portrayed it, Forbidden Fruit. We have miles to go before the cloak is lifted and we can all celebrate our total selves and not repress our sexual selves and drives in deviance, especially by using children who end up carrying such wounds throughout their lives and then are punished for being wounded. Chris Rock says it best, the best thing a father can do for his daughter is keep her off the pole. Nuts does an excellent job of addressing this issue.