# Women: Can you watch A Clockwork Orange? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385 "2007-04-24T00:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/81 "2014-12-15T19:57:41Z")
I saw it while alone (it was shown on TV) in the late 70’s. I was in my teens. At the time, I didn’t get the subtle points of the film. I assumed that the message was that it’s better to be “a real you” than a brainwashed sheeple person, even if your true self is an anti-social misfit. (The late 60’s & early 70’s movies seemed to have a lot of anti-authority or anti-conformity messages.) I wasn’t disturbed by the violence. (Maybe I was too young to fully appreciate it. A war movie seemed like a grand tale of adventure back then, too.) But I didn’t understand why the movie seemed to be trying so hard to get me to like some punk who was such a dick to everyone around him. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/82 "2014-12-15T20:29:21Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Ditto. To this day, I’m terrified I might one day need eye surgery and need those clippy things on my eyelids. When they used them on my infant daughter, I started unconsciously humming Beethoven and felt nauseated - no lie. But I’ve seen the movie several times and think it’s a great work of art. > > I’ve blocked out what movie it was, but the rape scene that bothered me the most was one where was saw the ceiling and shadows moving from the victim’s POV, then a close up of her eyes. After a few struggles, she just went limp and hopeless and died inside until it was over. It was too exactly on the nose, and it really brought up a lot of stuff from my own rape experience. > > The curb scene in _American History X_ is the one that haunts me, not the rape scene. Not enough to make me not ever want to see it again, but enough to want to cover my eyes for that instant. I had a minor eye surgery this past summer and had to be subjected to the clippy things. :eek: Yes, it was every bit as horrible and uncomfortable as I’d imagined. I wouldn’t let the doctor and her nurse talk about the procedure. They could talk to me, but not about what they were doing. I was too freaked out to find the words to explain it was all related back to A Clockwork Orange. I’ve seen the film a couple times and read the book a couple times, finding the glossary in the back ever so helpful for making the movie make sense. While all the violence makes me a bit uncomfortable, that’s one of the few rape scenes that I find so over-the-top and ridiculous, it’s actually kind of funny to me. Not the rape scene so much as Alex beating someone to death with a big phallus sculpture. As if Kubrick was l_iterally_ beating the viewer over the head with his over-the-top symbolism. I found Alex and his droogs caricatures – so twisted, so violent, so nihilist, that I couldn’t take it seriously as a statement about violence. I think Kubrick pushed the violence in that movie straight over the cliff into Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote territory. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/83 "2014-12-16T03:43:30Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > It’d be like taking the shooting of the Arab out of _L’Etranger_ and expect people to understand what Camus was getting at. Or like Catch 22 without that airplane scene, which is exactly how it was aired on US network TV a while back. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/84 "2014-12-18T21:15:22Z")
I haven’t seen it in a long time but I don’t recall being disturbed by it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385.md?page=4)