Review of Sexy Baby (2012) by Chandler P — 25 Oct 2016

Jill Bauer's and Ronna Gradus' debut documentary 'Sexy Baby' aims to show the effect readily accessible internet porn has on the elder, middle, and younger generations. The elder, retired porn actress Nikita Kash, is trying to start a family. The middle, assistant school teacher Laura, is in the beginning stages of getting a labiaplasty. The younger, privileged middle schooler Winnifred, is trying to keep her head on straight while dealing with sexualized culture and media.

There's certainly no lack of interesting material here. Porn stars will always be fascinating, whether from an entertainment or psychological standpoint, and Kash is no different. It's particularly intriguing when her boyfriend (who works in the porn industry) is around and difficult subjects arise like their future if they can't have kids or their perspective on easily accessible porn as it relates to their own potential child.

Laura's story is the saddest, yet oddly the least covered. Intimidated by guys talk about the unattractiveness of some girls' genitals, she decides to have a procedure called a labiaplasty. If you don't know what that is, you don't want to know, but it is also important that you do so you can get an idea of the kind of pressure women are under in their constant battle against image expectations--in this case due in large part to porn.

Winnifred's story gets the most air time, which doesn't make much sense in regard to interest or perspective. Winnifred is a young, naïve (granted, not as naïve as most) mind dealing with a bombardment of sexual images and expectations, but she is also dealing with tons of other issues related to adolescence. So while you get to see some of her daily struggles and triumphs relating to the issue at hand, the amount of coverage she gets winds up showing a good bit of general teen angst as well. This results in the overall film taking on this kind of coming of age teen docudrama feel. It also makes the film feel unnecessarily long and muddled, but hang in there. It's worth it.