I might have talked about this before and forgotten, but one thing I really appreciate about Lolina: Origins is how it identifies and rejects the false dichotomy between the way women’s bodies and sexuality are commodified in secular culture and how they’re commodified in conservative Christian environments.
Spoilers for the album under the cut
Lolina begins the story as literally a sex object under capitalism. She was created by a company to fulfill other people’s sexual desires and does not own herself, to the extent that when she is injured it is entirely that company’s decision whether her healthcare is “cost-effective” or whether she’ll be “terminated”.
Mariella sees her in this situation and wants to rescue her. She sees Lolina as a victim of sinful surroundings who at her core is pure and godly– or could be, under the right circumstances. She seeks to save Lolina from the corporation using her. In doing so, she places Lolina in a situation in which she is isolated from everyone except the people who view her existence as a temptation that will cause them all to morally decay. Her body is once again controlled by an external power, this time under the guise of purity and righteousness. And just like with OrganaTech, when it becomes clear she cannot fill the role they’ve placed on her, the church discards her.
In both cases, all Lolina wants is to please and obey. She desperately tries to do what she’s told. She tries to adapt. It doesn’t save her. Only breaking free of both groups, making her own choices, and living outside of/in defiance of both systems of control allows her to survive and create happiness for herself.
As someone who grew up in a religious environment deeply entrenched in purity culture, I heard over and over growing up that the secular world devalued and objectified women through revealing clothing, hookup culture, pornography, and other expressions of sexuality. When I first learned about the concept of female objectification, I was unable to separate it from sexual attraction. The song that talks about how perfect your lover looks was filed into the same category to me as a Carl’s Jr. ad using a woman in a bikini to sell hamburgers.
In the church, marriage and children were how you protected yourself against people who only wanted you for your body. You weren’t used by many men, you were cherished by one man and the children you bore him. The pressure to do so, and the absolute lack of power within the church, weren’t oppressive; this wasn’t being used for your body the way it would be with other people.
The problem with leaving and moving into that space of greater sexual freedom is that some of the issues the church identifies with sexual exploitation and objectification are real. Attraction and sexual expression are not inherently evil the way the church teaches, but secular society is still deeply misogynistic and women are objectified and devalued in it– just in a slightly different flavor. And the people profiting off this objectification will turn around and point at the church the same way the church points at them.
Lolina: Origins looks at this dichotomy, explores the way both religious/purity-based objectification and secular/commodification-based objectification are coercive and damaging, and rejects them both. Within the frameworks of these sides, there is no escape, but they feed into each other by promising an escape from the other side. Lolina demonstrates that both are lying and that the problem is the coercion and power.
This articulation of the existence of and need for a third path isn’t really something I’ve seen in other media. I’ve seen narratives about moving from one side to another, or exploring themes of needing radical change for true empowerment, but this is the first story I’ve encountered that combines all these elements to this end theme quite like this. It’s deeply resonated with me since I first listened to it, and I wish more people knew about/appreciated it for its messaging.
