Yes, God, Yes Director Karen Maine On Repressed Female Pleasure
Entertainment
Screenshot: Vertical Entertainment
Director Karen Maine says she “doesn’t really” read reviews, but two about her debut feature Yes, God, Yes have caught her eye. The first, by Catholic News Service, rates the film as “O”—as in, morally offensive. This rejection only proves the message Maine was trying to get at with her film about a sexually repressed Catholic teen: by teaching young women to quash sexual urges at all costs, Catholicism never allows them to properly explore bodily pleasure.
Maine prefers the slightly more progressive coverage she found in America Magazine, a Jesuit publication: “For those of us working in youth ministry, ‘Yes, God, Yes’ could serve as a cautionary tale,” it reads.
Yes, God, Yes is a horny coming-of-age film about a Catholic teen trying to avoid the sins of masturbation and sex. Alice (Natalia Dyer) is much too fond of the Titanic sex scene to stop touching herself. Her teacher (a priest) warns of sexual sin: sex before marriage is wrong, masturbation worse. Alice enters dangerous territory after she encounters an erotic AOL chat. Purity is harder than it looks.
The film is semi-autobiographical; Maine also went to a Catholic high school in Iowa and was taught many of the same lessons as Alice. They share a passion for Titanic, which Maine used to watch on repeat when she was home alone. “At one point there wasn’t even a remote,” she says. “I had to actually get up to go to the VCR to rewind the tape.” Specifically, Maine liked that sex scene—the part where Kate Winslet slaps her hand against a steamy car window. But as a teen with devout Catholic parents, friends, and teachers, she had nowhere to discuss these urges.
Now, thanks to her therapeutic Yes, God, Yes, currently available via video on demand, she can “just say the word ‘masturbate’ to my parents and not really bat an eye. I would say that’s a mark toward the right direction.” Last week, I spoke with Maine about Catholic guilt, sex ed, and being inspired by Titanic. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

JEZEBEL: What was your idea of young female sexuality when you were going into writing Yes, God, Yes? Did that change at all during the making of the film or after it was released?
KAREN MAINE: I really wanted to make something that shows a female sexual coming-of-age story that was focused on self-pleasure, as opposed to losing your virginity or partners in sex. Oftentimes, women experience this first, in terms of discovering sex. But I think we’re inclined, as curious people, to explore our own body first. It’s not really focused on. It was so taboo for so long—I still think it’s really taboo. We do have more representation of female coming-of-age-centered stories, which is great. I’m thinking of Booksmart or Lady Bird—they do make mention of masturbation, but it’s such a small thing. When you’re a teen and you discover it, you really go down this rabbit hole of being obsessed with it and wanting to do it all the time. Exploring it. Ways to do it. All that sort of stuff. Hopefully, my film plays a small role in progressing it even further.
Do you think that this film should be shown in sex ed classes?