Page - 109 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

Losers, Food, and Sex | 109www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 99–122 SEXUAL BODIES Martin Stringer argues that the priestly body, celibate or married, is also a sex- ual body. In fact, the worshipper’s body, too, has to be understood as sexual. Real/lived bodies engage in worship, prayer, and liturgy, and these real bodies are always already sexual bodies.31 This is made very explicit in Rev. (2010–2014) when Adam’s wife complains several times that there is not enough sex in their relationship. In episode S02/E01, for example, Alex throws her reproach “you don’t shag me enough” into Adam’s face. Clothing becomes an important marker of the sexual, priestly body, setting the vicar-body apart. Clothing can be understood as practice that eroticizes but also emasculates the priestly body. In the very first episode, we see Adam cud- dling up to his wife Alex: Alex: And if you think I’m gonna let you shag me in your dog collar, you’re very wrong. Adam: I’m not trying to shag you, I’m trying to mobilize your trunk muscles. Alex: I hate it when you wear that thing in the bedroom, it’s like you got no cock. Adam: All right, I’m taking it off, there it is, it’s off. Alex: Nooo, leave it on, and don’t bash the bishop.32 Right after this dialog the film cuts to a scene on the following day, so we do not know what happened next, but the way Alex and Adam interacted suggests that they did not have sex that night. Paradoxically, the emasculating clerical collar can also produce a specific clerical masculinity that becomes the object of (sexual) desire, an eroticized, fetishized, hyper-masculine masculinity. Adoah, the cassock chaser of the par- ish, is very fond of Adam (to say the least). He is her hero, not only because she thinks he overwhelmed the thief who stole her purse (S02/E01), but also because collar-wearing vicar bodies seem to inhabit a very special place in her heart. Archdeacon Robert mentions that rumor has it that Adoah can become quite aroused during sermons, and the way she hangs on Adam’s every word during liturgy suggests that there is something to this rumor and that she is indeed experiencing bodily pleasures. Priestly clothing, priestly bodies, and a desire that appears unfulfillable seem to be intimately intertwined. In the context of Anglo-Catholics, Martin Stringer argues that there is some- thing camp/drag about the colorful Anglo-Catholic worship, about men “garb- ing themselves in lace and grandly bejeweled robes in order to perform before admiring crowds”.33 We do not find any of the traditional Catholic colorful rich- ness in Rev. (2010–2014). There is no incense; liturgical vestments are very sim- 31 Cf. Stringer 2000. 32 Dialogue between Adam and Alex, Rev. (2010–2014), S01/E01. 33 Stringer 2000, 42.