The present thesis investigates the commercial sex hygiene films produced between the years 1914 and 1919 in the United States, during the last years of the Progressive Era. Rejected and prohibited as soon as five years after their apparition, the sex hygiene films’ position within the industry, as well as the cinematic techniques they incorporated, will be analysed through the concept of the Low Other. The first part of the thesis aims to delineate the used concepts, as well as integrate the sex hygiene film into a wider cultural, social, and political framework. The second part explores the films’ aesthetic construction, then focuses on a textual analysis of the narrative and non-narrative methods implied by three particular sex hygiene films. Finally, the thesis concludes that the films used a series of cinematic methods to create a Low Other on-screen, yet these very methods ultimately played a part within their suppression as a Low Other body of culture.

The United States film industry is controlled by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its six signatories--the major productions studios (Sony, Warner Brothers, Universal, Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, Time Warner), and through this joint-partnership they have monopolized prime production, distribution, exhibition and classification of the U.S film market. The objective of this project is to shed light on biases present in the MPAA rating system's treatment of sex and violence under the X/NC-17 rating in order to demonstrate the lack of viability of the system in today's world.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera hur det moderna samhället i västvärlden ser på och pratar om sex och kärlek. Jag tittar på hur de kombineras i den så kallade kärleksideologin. Objektet för min analys är filmen Crazy, stupid, love från 2011. Jag använder exempel från filmen för att observera vissa kulturella aspekter som vi har i västvärlden kring kärlek och sex. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för uppsatsen är det socialkonstruktivistiska perspektivet (Barlebo Wenneberg 2001) och modern filmteori (Andersson och Hedling 1995).   Resultatet visar bland annat att fiktiva verk, som filmen jag använder i uppsatsen, kan ta en plats i den kulturella diskursen. Filmen behåller legitimitet då den harmoniserar med många av västvärldens förhoppningar kring relationer och romantik. Kärleksidealet fortsätter att vara dominant idag trots att det uppstår konflikter mellan kärleksidealets mer traditionella konstruktion och det postmoderna samhällets andra normer. / The purpose of the thesis is to analyze how the modern west society looks upon and talks about sex and love. I am looking at how they are combined in the so called romantic ideology. The object of my analyzes is the movie Crazy, stupid love from 2011. I will observe certain cultural aspects of western society considering love and sex by using examples from the movie. My theoretical platform for the thesis will be the social constructive perspective (Barlebo Wenneberg 2001) an modern film theory (Andersson och Hedling 1995).   The result show amongst other things that works of fiction, like the movie I use in the thesis, can in fact take a position in the cultural discourse. The movie keeps its legitimacy by harmoniesing with many of the beliefs and hopes that we in the west have about relationships and romance. The romantic ideology keeps being dominant today even though there are conflicts between the romantic ideology’s more traditional construction and the post modern society’s other norms.