If you grew up in the 90s, you grew up in a world that was nothing like what it is today.
There wasn’t much of technology and information was certainly not a click away. For the nerds, library racks were their go-to. As for the inquisitive ones, knowledge sometime came from friends and some other times, unfortunately, from films and television.
Let’s talk about movies, shall we? In fact, one in particular that changed the world of cinema after its release in 1997. The story of love, tragedy and unfulfilled desires set in the premise of a sinking ship,Titanic’s Rose and Jack gave us couple goals way before the hashtag came into existence.
But apart from their arms-stretched-out pose on the deck of Titanic and Celine Dion crooning My Heart Will Go On, Titanic gave us a scene so iconic, it set every 90s kid’s hormones rushing like there was no tomorrow.
“Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls. Wearing this… only this.”
Rose said those words but we weren’t listening. What we saw had us cut off all the noise around. The impeccably-dressed Rose, disrobing herself in front of a man she met on the ship. It was in that exact moment that our parents realised why getting us to watch Titanic wasn’t such a great idea!
For those who were born in the late 80s and early 90s, this scene set some kind of machinery in our bodies rolling, one that we weren’t really aware of. While we didn’t know its purpose, we were definitely not hawww-ing at the sight of Rose fearlessly asking Jack to draw her.
Although, what we did hear was a lot of hushing and dismayed sighing from parents, some of which even covered their pre-teen kids’ eyes.
But little did they know that we saw. We saw it all through the gaps between their fingers.
Young teens of the 90s were sexually awakened in cinema halls when they were least expecting it. But we weren’t complaining. Probably because words had betrayed us!
It is 2018 and we still find ourselves debating about the faulty sex education classes in schools. So, you can only imagine how pathetic it would’ve been back in the 90s!
We obviously knew the drill but this scene put things into perspective. I mean, we didn’t have the internet to explore the world of sex so this was the closest we got to a graphical representation of nudity.
While parents were still beating themselves up for taking us to watch Titanic because of this particular scene, kids at school were discussing it.
All my friends had watched the film but we were too young, immature and shy to discuss the disrobing scene, until one fine day, when a friend mustered up the courage and brought the discussion to our recess-hour lunch table.
To be honest, friendships were tested as a result of that discussion. Those who spoke about it became your confidantes and that was a dirty little secret we all shared.
Today, when we look back, we obviously dwell into the aesthetics of the scene and appreciate the emotional fabric of it. But back in the day, Titanic made us aware of feelings that nobody ever told us about.
It might sound outrageously-immature, now, but Jack and Rose led an entire generation of pimple-faced, shy and under confident pre-teens to their sexual awakening!