Sexologist Kinsey says that in a normal environment, without any interference from outside forces, a child will know more about sex than the adults in our society. Martin the Hurt Locker is, in a way, a discussion of such a problem: Martin, a 14-year-old boy, is confused between a boy, Jim, and a girl, Christy, and doesn’t know who he likes. The town, as we can see it, is what Kinsey calls a “normal, natural environment” because the children are not interfered with by adult concepts, i.e., traditional morals or customs, and Martin is free to figure out whether he likes the boy or the girl according to his own feelings.
Over the years, in China, we have heard the homophobic argument that once homosexuality is accepted, the child will not know whether to prefer boys or girls in the future. This argument is wrong from the beginning, that is, they do not realize that what we have been saying about the so-called tradition of boys liking girls and girls liking boys is itself the result of a specific contextual and cultural development, that it is not a natural product, and that children who begin to develop feelings of affection in the environment Kinsey describes will necessarily go through a process of confusion about whether they like boys or girls. We have never had any evidence or a divine law of nature that says that boys can only have feelings for girls and not boys. This situation arises because our society instills these preconceived ideas in children from the very beginning, so it is almost unselectable and dictatorial to require children to do so. In the movie, no one requires Martin to like Christie, who at the same time has a crush on Jim. He also wonders if a person can have feelings for both people at the same time. These are natural, normal situations, because from the beginning, when children’s minds are not those who are stuffed with customs and constraints, the confusion of good feelings will inevitably appear, and good feelings in many cases is not the only love, sometimes also friendship or other, so the confusion caused by good feelings will be present in the child’s path of exploration, there will be a time when Martin hesitated, do not know There will be a time when Martin hesitates, not knowing how to choose.
Homophobes worry that their children will be confused and won’t know how to choose, just like Martin, but just like the answer given at the end of the movie, the natural selection of love will eventually give a clear answer. Whether one prefers boys or girls, a clear answer emerges after the exploration. Heterosexuality is bound to remain heterosexual, and it is not possible to become fond of the same sex because of this indecision, while the same is true for homosexuals. These seem to be a child growing up are bound to pass through, full of foggy valley in general, may be in the time through which will be lost and do not know how to be good, and sometimes even pain, but with growth and exploration, out of the valley, everything in front will become clear. Jim did not have to choose Martin because of his affection for him, because he liked Christy, and Christy did the same. But in our current society, the natural selectivity of a child’s love is inhibited because hard-line traditions and customs have destroyed all other paths before the child begins to explore, and as a result there is only one way forward. The consequence of such a situation is the subsequent doubt and difficult rediscovery of the gay person’s identity, until the final acceptance. In an environment where tradition and custom are strong, these explorations are dangerous and often confront hostility, resulting in many tragic suicides of children.
Another thing that accompanies Martin’s growth in the film is the death of his mother, which Martin doesn’t have much intuition about at first, except that he is constantly comforted by neighbors and people who come to pay their respects. Martin does not realize the connection between his mother’s death and his own, he continues to listen to his own music and does not understand why his father and brother are so sad. In the last story of the Irish writer Tobin’s collection “Mother and Child”, “The Long Winter”, the boy did not feel much about his mother’s disappearance at first, just followed his father and others in the valley full of snow to find, it all seems to have little to do with him, but know that at the end of the story, when the boy saw the hunted wild boar lying in the car bleeding, he realized that his mother was missing, and may even have died. may even have died. Similarly, in the film, when Martin goes to class and hears a boy in class say “maybe his mother is still alive”, and when he sees his mother’s coffin being placed in the grave at the funeral, he realizes that she is dead. Long Winter is strikingly similar to this film in many ways, as the former also refers to a boy’s sexual awakening and exploration of his feelings, and the two stories now seem very similar.
We have seen many films that tell stories through the eyes of children, like “The Hivemind,” “The Butterfly’s Tongue” or “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Tin Drum,” which look at the hypocrisy, lies, horror and violence of the adult world through the eyes of children and focus on the adult world, but “Martin the Hurt Locker” is really all about the lives of children, about their sexual awakening and emotional exploration. awakening and the exploration of feelings. Love itself is naturally selective, choosing the right object on its own, thus determining whether the subject is heterosexual or homosexual, or even bisexual. The exploration of sexuality is also part of growing up, even a very important part. In many countries, including China, the stigmatization of sexuality and a certain amount of coyness has delayed the implementation of sex education for children, who do not have the correct knowledge about sex and in many cases do not know how to protect themselves from the interference and abuse of others. Sexual crimes against children, whether in China or other countries, are crimes that need to be vigilantly and severely combated. On the other hand, strengthening children’s sex education also plays a role in preventing and warning against crime.
