Some people seem to judge a beautiful movie sequence and human behavior by a set of artificial rules and legislations. The notion of underage can only be considered as ‘objective’ when children not yet biologically/sexually mature are concerned. The ‘subjective’ notion we put to it is the result of our legal, social, cultural and/or religious environment. Indeed, it can vary greatly from one country or culture to another. For example, in some civilisations, little girls aged 12 or 13 are already married and give birth. The age of legal sexual majority is also very different from country to country, 12 years old in some and 21 in others, and so on.
Being focused on such legal yardsticks as if people were behaving like preprogrammed robots is completely missing the point and the beauty of it. It is only possible when one simply does not understand what being human is. For what happens between Hermie and Dorothy in Summer Of 42, is as distant from rape as making love is from getting laid.
In my opinion, the notion of rape is here totally out of order for various reasons. First, it is a physical nonsense. Hermie, as a teenager, is as tall as Dorothy and probably stronger. Being physically abused by her against his will seems absurd.
Psychologically speaking it is, of course, more debatable. Yet, at first, it seems Hermie gets exactly what he had been looking for all Summer long. He felt in love with Dorothy and only dreamed of touching, caressing and even kissing her. It seems illogical (although not impossible) he would have backed down once offered. But he obviously does not back down.
Nevertheless, one very important element must, in my view, be added to the debate. Hermie is evidently more mature and reflective than his friends who see their first sexual encounter as nothing more than a recipe or a serie of steps to follow on a piece of paper. On the contrary, Hermie seems to instinctively understand there is much more to it than just the sex. It is probable he was rather disappointed or desoriented by the way things happened between Oscy and Mariam.
Instead, while visiting Dorothy on the fatefull night, Hermie’s attitude is impeccable. He is visibly in awe and quickly adjust to the dramatic situation. In his eyes, Dorothy is not just a sexual object of fantasy anymore. In the last few days, he had the opportunity to befriend her and add a real human dimension to his desire. He is sweet and understanding.
Although we can not say Dorothy shares Hermie’s love interest, it is nevertheless obvious she likes him and has feelings for him (things do unfold not simply because Hermie happens to be there at the ‘right’ time, but also because it is HIM). None of them is using the other one. It is rather an exchange of feelings. Hermie is looking for love and Dorothy is craving for comfort (one can only imagine the agonizing pain she was going through after the loss of her husband and coldly analysing her attitude as abusing a teenager is totally ridiculous). As we can clearly see while they are dancing, both have tears in their eyes.
True, what follows in Dorothy’s bedroom could have been traumatizing or troublesome, to say the least, for Hermie as Dorothy herself feared in her letter. Yet, as she rightly assumed, Hermie eventually came to terms with it and put it in the right perspective. So why can’t we ?
It was a pure and sweet act of love where no racial, social, cultural, religious nor age barrier did exist. There lies all the beauty of it and it is perfectly translated in this beautiful movie.
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