Sex, Gender & Religion Andy Martinez Diaz
Sonia Zylberberg May 14th, 2018
Contemporary Social Concerns: Religion, Sex & gender
Research Project
The Portrayal of Christian Religion in Sausage Party
The fictional story I chose is Sausage Party. This movie is an animated adult comedy cartoon that can be categorized as a fictional/adventure genre. The religion I am mostly going to discuss is Christianism and its depiction of the religion in the fictional story. The depiction of Christianism attitude towards sex and gender in Sausage party is accurate.
To begin with, the story takes place in a grocery store call Shopwell where food items that humans consume are living & talking creatures. These food characters believe that they are at the grocery store to be chosen by the humans, which they believed to be their gods. They believe that once they are taken out the grocery store, they will go to the "Great Beyond" (which is everything outside the grocery store) where the gods will take good care of them. They sing the same song (1) every morning which can be seen as a recital of their "bible". Their signing is a sort of way to remember their beliefs and also a way for them to show the gods their appreciation (2). The story goes through the journey of Frank the Hot Dog who tries to seek answer behind the doubts about his faith that he starts having (6 & 7). When he finally finds the truth and gets proof, he tries to make all the other living food items ‘open their eyes'. When he reveals what he knows to everyone, he causes a huge backlash and gets criticized for being intolerant and not respecting other's people beliefs (24).
First and foremost, there are plenty of religions depicted in the movie. We can see clear depictions of Muslims, Jews, Buddhist and other religions as well. Even with those different religions, the religion that is most widespread in the story is a depiction of our most widespread religion on earth: Christianity. As "people" that believe in that religion Frank the Hot Dog and Brenda the hot dog Bun are two monogamists that want to be together (4). They are a metaphor for an American Christian couple. The attitude they have towards sex is pretty clear; it is forbidden to have "sex" before they get to the Great Beyond. In other words, it is forbidden to have sex together before they are officially together, otherwise, there will be consequences. Yet, both being virgins, they can't control their urges, so they have what we could consider ‘preliminary intercourse', or as they call it "just the tips" (5). Even if it is clear that sex is forbidden, the line between what is considered as acceptable by the gods is unclear. They first mention that doing "just the tips" is against the rules but still do it. Brenda continues all along the movie to question the morality of that (9 & 19) but Frank reassures her that there is no way that the gods are punishing them for having done that. On the other hand, Teresa tells her that it is normal...
