"I don't know how one actually would define obscenity. I'm sure the definition is different according to the age one is living in"
About this Quote
Alexander’s line is a quiet act of defiance dressed up as modesty. By opening with “I don’t know,” she performs uncertainty while actually advancing a sharper claim: obscenity isn’t a stable category, it’s a social verdict. That first sentence disarms the listener, especially coming from an actress whose work is routinely judged through public morality. Then she pivots to the real point - “I’m sure” - trading personal doubt for cultural confidence. The move is strategic: she refuses to litigate what’s “dirty” and instead puts the jury (society) on trial.
The subtext is about power. Obscenity is less about sex or language than about who gets to draw the line, and whose bodies or stories are punished when the line shifts. When Alexander ties the definition to “the age one is living in,” she’s pointing at the way moral panic cycles: yesterday’s scandal becomes today’s nostalgia, while new targets get branded as corrupting. That time-sensitive framing exposes obscenity as a tool used to police art, speech, and especially women’s expression, under the guise of protecting “decency.”
Context matters: as a performer in film and theater, Alexander comes from industries where censorship and outrage have always been shadow partners to innovation. Her quote reads like a veteran’s shrug at the recurring theater of indignation - the same arguments, different decade. It works because it’s calm, not preachy: a reminder that what gets called obscene often says more about a culture’s anxieties than about the work itself.
The subtext is about power. Obscenity is less about sex or language than about who gets to draw the line, and whose bodies or stories are punished when the line shifts. When Alexander ties the definition to “the age one is living in,” she’s pointing at the way moral panic cycles: yesterday’s scandal becomes today’s nostalgia, while new targets get branded as corrupting. That time-sensitive framing exposes obscenity as a tool used to police art, speech, and especially women’s expression, under the guise of protecting “decency.”
Context matters: as a performer in film and theater, Alexander comes from industries where censorship and outrage have always been shadow partners to innovation. Her quote reads like a veteran’s shrug at the recurring theater of indignation - the same arguments, different decade. It works because it’s calm, not preachy: a reminder that what gets called obscene often says more about a culture’s anxieties than about the work itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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