Movie Review: Virgin Territory
Virgin Territory is a short film starring, written and directed by 17-year-old Emily Robinson. The story is a “sex-positive, queer, questioning coming-of-age story about a teenage girl’s sexual awakening and exploration.”
Before I begin my review I would like to say that I am a 20-year-old feminist woman, so I most likely have a biased opinion. This short film did a great job capturing the confusion that a lot of girls face in regards to sexuality.
In the media, often times the concept of “virginity” is seen as this sacred thing that young/teen girls are taught to preserve to remain pure. Even when it’s not projected that way, the entire act of “losing your virginity” is seen as a right of passage, when often times in the real world, it’s not the case.
Emily did a good job of displaying what I think a lot of teenage girls actually think. They just want to get it over with. While reaching that demographic, the film also speaks on the importance of discussing sex positively as young girls.
While it is a sex-positive film, Virgin Territory did a good job of also not enforcing that EVERYONE has to have sex, or that everyone has to stick to a heteronormative lifestyle. Cassie (Robinson) contemplates if she likes girls or guys and it’s not a big deal.
One genius aspect was the decision to not ever show Kyle (the guy who Cassie sleeps with). This allowed Robinson to show viewers that the story is really about Cassie as a female and her sexuality quest.
If you’re not a young girl, or if you’re uninterested in their plights then Virgin Territory isn’t a film for you, and that’s ok! Virgin Territory is clearly a film created for young girls (Robinson stated that it was made out of frustration due to lack of representation) and in under 15 short minutes, it does a beautiful job of displaying the importance of “embracing uncertainties” on the road to self discovery.