'4 Feet High': Normalizing Sex For All
A refreshingly inclusive, four part series of films called 4 Feet High (dir. María Belén Poncio and Rosario Perazolo Masjoanmade) had its debut screening at the virtual Sundance Film Festival last week. The Spanish film is about a teenage girl named Juana living in Argentina with a very visual disability that makes her bones too weak to function on their own and keeps her in a wheelchair. The opening scene where Juana is masturbating to lesbian porn sets the tone of the series perfectly. Thirty seconds into the film, I knew it was going to be different that anything I’d ever seen before.
Just about every barrier regarding sex in media was broken in the span of four short episodes. As a member of Teen Council it was liberating to finally see an inclusive film that talked about so many taboo subjects so openly. In the world of this film, nothing is taboo or off limits to talk about which gave me hope for a future like that in our world.
This piece covered everything from disabilities, lack of sex education in schools, abortion, hookups, online dating, masturbation, and communication, to micro-agressions and discrimination. As a high school student it was refreshing to see sex portrayed realistically and to get to watch a story that is hardly ever told.
The film was very artistic, because it was designed to be a virtual reality experience. Although I didn’t view it through VR, the way the film makers added visions within Juanas mind enhanced the story and made it artistically unique.
The film follows Juana as she starts a new school full of passionate students protesting constantly for more inclusive sexual education. Juana is welcomed on her first day by the leaders of the resistance and finds herself engulfed in the movement from the first week.
The film does a great job of showing the viewer that Juana is so much more than her disability. Juana is just like everyone else. She fights with her mom and sister, has issues with some of her friends, gets in trouble at school, goes to parties, and hookups with people she likes. The film shows that while Juana has challenges in her life that many of her peers don't have to deal with like getting in and out of cars, going to the bathroom and dealing with micro-agressions, she really isn't different from everyone else. She's a sassy yet compassionate teenager who really wants to date and have sex, just like many of her peers.
When she gets caught spray painting in the bathroom with one of her friends, she demands the principal punishes her equally, saying its discrimination if he doesn’t. When a women at a party tells Juana she is an inspiration to everyone, Juana responds saying the woman’s life must be pretty bad if Juana is the inspiration. Juana is constantly educating the people around her and by default she is educating the viewers of the film as well.
The film does a great job at showing the sexual encounters that Juana has and the obstacles her and her partners deal with while also normalizing the fact that people with disability can and do hookup with strangers, something we rarely ever see in film.
I love how real this film is. It doesn’t perpetuate unrealistic narratives about sex. We watch Juana meet up with someone at a party that she met on an online dating app. They go back to an apartment to hookup, only to find that the beds are up a flight of stairs so they start making out near a couch instead. The director included a very raw moment of Juana explaining to the person she was hooking up with how to unbuckle her from her wheelchair and gently lift her onto the couch. During the whole scene, they are actively communicating. She is telling him when he accidentally hurts her and he is constantly asking if she is ok and if what he is doing is okay. In the end, they don't end up having sex because Juana gets uncomfortable and they couldn't figure out a position that didn't hurt her. I think its so important that they included this in the film because it shows that just because two parties intended on having sex, doesn’t mean they have to go through with it. Consent is always reversible and this was the first time I saw that actively displayed in a film.
After a pregnancy scare, juana disappears from school for a while which strains her relationship with some of her friends. When she comes back to school she lies to her teacher saying she got an abortion, possibly to make a point about why sex ed is so necessary. Someone is filming it and the video goes viral. Juana questions whether this would have happened if she didn’t have a disability.
When the day of the big sex ed protest they’d all been planning finally comes, Juana is at home with her mom watching on TV as reporters interrogate her friends about Juanas alleged abortion. Her friends defend her saying its not their right to ask about private matters on national television, highlighting the issue surrounding people feeling entitled to know all about people with disabilities lives.
Episode 4 ends with all the friends lying side by side, naked on the floor after the protest. This could have been one of Juanas visions she has throughout the film, as they like to let us into her mind, but it could also be interpreted literally. The directors didn’t hold back at all when making this film and, at points, intentionally tried to make the audience uncomfortable in the name of breaking stereotypes and norms.
I wish there were more films that are this inclusive. I wish this wasn’t my first time seeing a movie with a main character that is both disabled and sexually active. Hopefully the beautiful execution of 4 Feet Highwill inspire more films like it in the future. It is a great start to normalizing inclusive and real sex for everyone through media. This film is absolutely groundbreaking and so important for the world to see.
- Written by Julia Henry
