Guest Post: The train wreck that is TRAINWRECK

Okay, let's have a real chat about this movie that critics say is "taking over the summer". The movie with a very fitting title, "Trainwreck". The movie is about Amy, a woman whose parents divorced when she was young. Ever since her parents' separation, she has the idea in her mind that "monogamy isn't realistic". She, in her adult life, has had casual sex with many partners and hasn't really tried to be in a committed relationship. She meets this doctor and she finds herself falling for him. However, she has a difficult time deciding if a loving relationship is worth leaving her a life of casual sex.

After watching the trailer and some previews for the movie, I felt really grossed out. One of the more, for lack of a better word, memorable moments of the videos was the day after Amy had sex with the doctor. She is sitting with her friend, and when he calls her for some reason, Amy and her friend are weirded out. Because, apparently, when you have sex with someone, it's totally not okay for him, or her, to call you the next day and ask to see you again. Weird. That's so weird. Amy's friend even tells her that she should call the police.

Another moment that stands out is when Amy is talking to someone else about her new love interest, and she says that she's not really sure about him. Not because of his interests, or personality, but because the sex isn't the best she's ever had. Because that's what really matters in a relationship.

Watching the previews for Trainwreck has actually made me feel really sad about our society, and how comfortable we are with a warped view of sex and intimacy. It's not just sex, but sex with whomever, whenever, and for whatever reason, commitment not required. Ladies, I think that society tells us that we can do whatever we want with our bodies, because it's empowering to feel sexy and have all these sexual partners and be experienced. There is this need and pressure to erase the double standard that sexually active men are studs and so great, but sexually active women are sluts, or trashy. While there is undeniably a double standard regarding the sexual habits of men and women,  this isn't the way to eliminate it. Both men and women need to exercise modesty and chastity. That's the best way to create equality between men and women.

Personally, I don't like the message that this movie is putting out there. There is this message that you can just sleep with whomever you want without there being any negative consequences. This frivolity harms more people than you may think. First, let's talk about your responsibility to yourself. You don't need to have sex with a bunch of other people to be wanted. There's already a really awesome guy who wants you: Jesus (and you can't go wrong with Him). Make that relationship work, and I guarantee that you won't feel the need to fill that void with anything the world has to offer, including multiple sexual partners. The second responsibility you have is to your future spouse. There will come a time when you'll have to have the talk. The talk about your experience. Do you really want to say, "Oh, I've slept with fifteen different men, and it never meant a thing"? Would you want to hear the man you hope to marry say that to you? Ladies and gents, as a communal people, we have a responsibility to care for and love one another. Use by means of "no-strings-attached" sex is neither caring nor loving, and though it may seem like a victim-less act, there is more to the world than just ourselves.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that movies like this, movies like Magic Mike and Fifty Shades of Grey have really distorted sex. Sex is supposed to be a union that happens between two people who love each other so much that they literally want to give up their sense of self and become one with the other. These "romance" movies have tainted that. Chastity is not simply abstaining from sex, rather it is an appropriate expression of the sexual desires that are natural for humanity. Chastity is ultimately an expression of true, real love. These movies have destroyed that, and we have to take it back.

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Alexis Watson is a sophomore at Mount Saint Mary's University. She has a blogs at Beautifully Biracial where she talks about not only fashion and makeup, but life and what her childhood was like growing up as a biracial girl. She is very excited to be sharing one of her posts of Cloudy with a Chance of Catholic and hopes you like what she has to say! Thank you!

Dear Me

Dear Me,

My 13th birthday party.

Hello from the future! Sadly, there are no flying cars, and no, you're not married to Orlando Bloom. I'm sorry, I did what I could. Also, you didn't win American Idol season 10 (why did you think that would be a thing?!?!)

I know that you're dreaming of the future and everything that you know it's going to be from all the books you've read. By the time you're twenty, you'll be engaged (at least), be GORGEOUS, be an A+ student in college with a job lined up for right after graduation, with the perfect, perfect life. Is that what you're imaging?

Well, stop.

I'm all for you exercising your imagination, but here's the deal: you are who you are. There's not a whole lot you can do to change that. The reason you dream of growing four inches and losing a hundred pounds isn't because of what people like Gretchen think. It's because of what you think.

Society's a liar, Katie. You don't have to be perfectly athletic and tall and blonde to be great. You don't have to be an A+ student and amazing at everything. Greatness is just being yourself.

I know you hate yourself. Don't try to deny it, lady. The scars on your arms prove it. But, there's nothing to hate! Katie, you love so much and so deeply. You care about your friends and family with your entire heart, and because of that, you have made some real, lasting relationships, and will continue to feed these relationships as well as create new ones. You have a smile that can light up an entire room, even if you claim it can't be because of your teeth (they're fine. I promise.)

Sometimes people take advantage of you and hurt you. But it's not your fault. I can't explain it, so I guess I'll just say it; sometimes, people are real assholes. You let them in and they rip your heart out and leave you broken. And you wonder what the point even is. Life. Love. Hope.

You've come so far already, and Katie, wait until you see how far you go at twenty one! You still fall, but I know something, something I wish with all my heart you knew: God loves you so freaking much. 

Not that corny "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so" love, the love that moves mountains, creates seas, calms storms, brings the dead to life.

Real, heart stopping, death defying love. 

You can sing all the youth group songs you want. But I know your deep dark secret: when the second verse of "You are Loved" comes along, you can't sing it. You know what I'm talking about. The verse that goes like this:

"I am loved. I am beautiful. I am gift of God, His own creation. I am gift to all mankind, His gift of love to them. I am loved, God danced the day I was born".  

You can't sing it, because you know you'd be singing a lie. You don't believe you are loved, that you are beautiful, that you are a gift from God.

Oh, but Katie, you are. You so, so are. I'm tearing up just thinking of how completely, totally precious, loved, and needed, you, Katlyn Marie Therese Freddino were, are, and will be.

I wish I could tell you it all gets better. That everything gets so much easier and makes sense.

It doesn't.

But Katie, it's gets beautiful.

My life right now isn't easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm surrounded by so much love, so many blessings, so much beauty. 

In a few years, you'll hear these lyrics. I know you'll appreciate them. (you're gonna cry)

You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You were made for so much more than all of this. You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You are treasured, you are sacred, you are HIS.

And during your freshman year of college, you'll hear these lyrics, and you'll cry, because they're the words you've never known how to say.

Am I more than flesh and bone? Am I really something beautiful? I wanna believe... I wanna believe, that I'm not just some wandering soul that can't be seen and can't be known. Yeah, I gotta believe, I gotta believe, that I am someone worth dying for.

And Katie... you are. You are worth dying for. How do I know? Because He already did it. He saw your beauty, and He died for you.

I know you won't believe this. You're too stubborn. But I wish you would.

Stay strong, beautiful. You'll make it.

Love,
You