The Cinematic Sexualization and Romanticization of Missionaries

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in one of the bajillion media depictions of gay missionaries

No, I have not seen the movie Heretic yet. Based on what I have read, however, [spoiler alert] apparently it begins with a sexually explicit discussion between sister missionaries, and there are possibly sexual overtones near the end when one of the sister missionaries is shown to have a subdermal birth control, which the movie states would be a reason for Church discipline if known, which implies that either 1) the movie was implying that the sister missionary was sexually active, or 2) the birth control was used for hormonal regulatory purposes, and the movie producers were wrongfully implying that the Church prohibits the medical use of birth control per se. Whatever the case, the birth control knowledge of the missionaries had an actual part to play in the plot, so it might not have simply been prurience for prurience’s sake. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a sort of intended side effect of the sexual overtones throughout the movie, especially since the sexually explicit discussion is in the opening scene, possibly as a sort of click-bait. [spoiler alert end]

The tension of the sexual combined with the wholesome is a common theme throughout time, space, and cultures. I suspect it’s one reason why there’s this destructive erotic interest heterosexual men across the world since biblical times have had with the idea of having sex with a virgin, as something that literally affects the bride price and sexual value of the woman. 

On a related note, given the slew of movies and episodes with the gay missionary character I sometimes wonder if male Mormon missionaries have kind of become the homoerotic version of the heterosexual male’s sexy nun trope. Something that is tantalizing precisely because it is religiously forbidden. Even the original play version of The Whale revolved around the protagonist falling in love with a devout Mormon man (presumably before somebody informed the playwright that Mormon missionaries do not visit people alone; perhaps because of that inaccuracy they changed the religion involved in the Darren Aaranofsky movie version), and in his explanation for why Mormons were featured so prominently in his famous Angels in America Tony Kushner explained how there was touched by seeing an Elder he thought was “hot” out sacrificing for his faith–of course, that was probably more of a “wholesome hotness” thing than a “forbidden erotic” one.  

Both times in my life I experienced something that could be called sexual harassment was on my mission. Once a gay man who invited us into his apartment asked us very prodding questions about our sexual behavior while scarcely hiding his arousal at the thought that we might tell him something (we got out of there pretty quick). I’m not saying that that’s typical of gay men, just that that’s typical of men, so for the most part the only experience I as a man am going to have with that kind of thing is going to be in a homoerotic context–of course my other experience with sexual harassment was when a senile grandmother of members on my mission grabbed my bottom cheek, so it does happen, even if the 90-year old woman is much less threatening than a man.

Traditionally, of course, the outside preoccupation with our sex lives and practices came in the form of interest in our polygamous practices (one calls to mind the 19th-century political cartoons of Brigham Young’s marital bed). However, as missionaries are increasingly becoming one of the most visible and well-known symbols of young-but-religious, I expect we’ll see more variations on this theme in the media in the future.