The feminist/porn video shot in Columbia's library fulfilled the artists' objective of creating dialogue, even if it may have reached a larger audience than its creators expected -- and may not be sparking all of the questions they'd anticipated.
Based on an interview with Huffpost Live on Friday, the movie's two primary makers, current Columbia student Coco Young and sex blogger Karley Sciortino, didn't believe it would reach viral levels. Because it leaked to a more mainstream and less art savvy audience, the film may have been misinterpreted, according to Young.
That the greater audience isn't capable of appreciating the five minute video will likely be seen as a slight for some, as it was in the HuffPost's comment section. Also in the Huff Post was a response by author and painter Alison Winfield Burns, who's taken offense to the video and its supposed protest of the all-male names that line Butler Library's entrance. She posted a video of a mid-study flash mob to show the lighter, safer side of the institution
As Young and Sciortino explain the video to the HuffPost's interviewer, their reasons for making it appear to differ, which wasn't the apparent case based on earlier reports. Young compares the exaggerated behavior of the film's actresses (which included her and Sciortinio) to a condition once diagnosed by doctors in the 19th century called female hysteria, and treated by crude means. She insists belief in the condition still exists, but in different, subtler forms.
Sciortino, the older, more professionally savvy of the group, said the idea behind the film was spurred by her interest in hazing rituals (as related to pledging and as a more recent genre of porn) and it certainly wasn't stunted by filming in a prestigious library like Columbia. Likely, the greater gain was had by Sciortino and her website/blog Purple Video.
Still, Sciortino claims a "commonality" between her and Young, and the Columbia undergraduate seems no worse for the wear after working with the racy blogger. (She isn't in trouble with the school and wasn't outwardly troubled by her newfound fame). It doesn't hurt, as she pointed out when asked about her parents' reactions to her public nudity, that she has a mother who was a feminist in the 1970s. Sciortinon said her parents have long known to stop Googling her name.
Maybe the girls had slightly different reason for making the video and maybe they didn't accurately predict its reach, but they at least seem capable of handling its aftermath.
