“The Catholic Church's traditional teaching about sex education, especially as formulated by Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, is that it should not be primarily a matter of giving explicit information at all, but rather it should be a matter of inculcating modesty, purity, chastity, and morality, a matter of teaching the sixth and ninth commandments. Moreover, it should also be primarily a matter for the parents to impart privately in the home, not something to be purveyed and discussed in mixed classrooms of boys and girls at impressionable ages (Whitehead)”.

 

Léolo is a movie that deals in part with the repression of sexuality in Quebecois children during the Grande Noirceure.  The time at which this movie was released could not have been any timelier; in 1992 the Supreme Court of Canada was to release a statement upholding the constitutionality of sexually obscene material.  The case is believed to have been launched after a seller of pornography was jailed in 1990 (Parliament of Canada).  Through his movie Léolo, director Jean-Claude Lauzon analyzed sexual repression in the 1950’s and 1960’s, probably as a contrast to the case being built by the Supreme Court around the constitutionality of pornography consumption.   Repression can be observed clearly in both the male and female ethos in Lauzon’s work, in Bianca, the mid-teens prostitute, and in Léolo, the boy discovering his own sexuality.

 

In the Catholic Church, there has always been a strong case of protecting the general populace against sexuality.  Coitus under the eye of God should serve the sole purpose of procreation.  This could not eternally fit into Quebecois hybrid liberal-conservative identity, however.  A view similar to the Church’s was later described by Michel Foucault: “the feminine body was analyzed… as being thoroughly saturated with sexuality (Foucault 104).”  This holds quite true in Lauzon’s work, too.  Léolo falls in love with Bianca because her body is appealing to him.  Numerous times Léolo takes peeks at Bianca while she is lightly vested.  Likewise, Léolo’s grandfather hires Bianca as a prostitute because he finds her body erotic; at one point he comments about how he likes her breasts.  Perverted, he also enjoys the way Bianca uses her mouth to remove his toenails.  If to repress is to “check, restrain, keep under, supress, control (Barber 1312)”, then Léolo’s grandfather keeps Bianca’s sexuality in check by controlling the way she explores it.  As a prostitute, she is seen performing acts which she numerous times exclaimed her disdain for.  Erotically bathing elders is also not part of a teenage girl’s normal sexual activities.  Not only repressive, these obscene practices between a teenage girl and a male adult clash with our contemporary societal values and are also against current Canadian laws:

 

“The Criminal Code does not now criminalize consensual sexual activity with or between persons 14 or over, unless it takes place in a relationship of trust or dependency, in which case sexual activity with persons over 14 but under 18 can constitute an offence, notwithstanding their consent. Even consensual activity with those under 14 but over 12 may not be an offence if the accused is under 16 and less than two years older than the complainant (Parliament of Canada).”

 

Perhaps for his position as a boy, Léolo did not have someone directly repressing his sexuality.  Rather, his sexuality was kept in check by society; the only people Léolo could explore his sexuality with were friends his age.  As could be seen in the movie, sexual education was not taught in school; Léolo has to explore his sexuality by himself using magazines as well as rather unorthodox methods.  Towards the end of the movie, Léolo could also be seen fornicating with a prostitute.  Masturbation, sexual education, pornographic magazines, prostitution, zoophilic acts… everything that Léolo used went against Church teachings and societal moral. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes and in a sense defines chastity in this way: ‘Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being’ (Trujillo).”  The Church therefore considers chastity as the sole proper practice of sexuality, at least outside of marriage. The sexual repression of Léolo is conducted by the Catholic Church as well as by the Church-influenced society and school system he deals with.

 

Foucault described the sexual activities of children as posing “physical and moral, individual and collective dangers (Foucault).”  When considering the implications of Bianca’s whoring or Léolo’s decay and fall into terrifying sexual acts, one cannot help but agree that sexual activities in non-adults can be immoral.  What Foucault fails to take into consideration is that these dangers are only present at large when adequate protective measures, in this case sexual education, are not taken.  Education on the use of contraceptive has not led to a lower incidence of teenage sex, but it has led to a lower incidence of teenage pregnancy (Boonstra 16).

 

As shown by the Supreme Court case of 1992, elements of the Church-like sexual repression of Lauzon’s movie were still à la mode at the moment Léolo was being filmed; perhaps in making such a polarizing movie Jean-Claude Lauzon wanted to launch a debate on sexual repression.  One thing is sure; he clearly portrayed its downfalls on screen for all to see.