When the nun..


was talking to the girls naked in the shower room, was there a "hint" that she was a pervert?

Also, before they show the complete part, we see all the girls running in place. Is that because the pervert nun wanted to see their breasts jiggle. I can't think of any other reason why they were doing this.

Plus, the nun wouldn't let the one girl cover her genital area.




I just wasn't made for these times. (Brian Wilson)

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"Pervert" has a pretty murky meaning here. If you're asking if she was sexually aroused by it - it's possible, but we don't have enough information about that specific nun to know that.

More central to that scene is humiliation as a control mechanism. When you strip someone of basic cultural decencies - clothing, privacy to use the bathroom - you break down their self-respect and resilience. If you look at the pictures from Abu Ghraib, or hear tales from prisoners of war, you'll see that common thread. We derive our comfort and confidence, our sense of self, in part through control of our own bodies - who gets to see them, touch them, talk about them, watch them in action. When those things are breached the person's sense of self is damaged.

The nuns in this scene were sadistically asserting power over the girls. Individually, they were enjoying their higher position in the pecking order. As part of the larger system of the laundries, this behavior kept the inmates defensive and fearful.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

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