Steve's explanation for Losers' sex scene

**SweetChilli** · August 13th, 2012

Originally Posted by Puzmo

I have always loved this scene and have never viewed it as "perverted" or "wrong." ..... I do find it ironic that IT was a female possessing the power to hate & destroy and Bev is a female with the power to love & connect, which essentially makes them polar opposites. Talk about girl power!

Wow....I first saw your post on Sunday so I couldn't post back then, all I could do was send a thanks, but I have to say that was a great point! I think every female has a combination of both of those powers in her nature, each individual to different degrees....and I'm not just talking about the female characters in SK's novels although there are plenty of examples!

I, too, thought that sex scene was so beautifully and thoughtfully written that it didn't seem perverted or wrong to me at all. And while I definitely agree with you about Bev's father behaving violently towards her because he was afraid of her growing up and afraid of her growing power as a woman, I think there was a little more to it than that. I'm pretty sure it was because he was afraid of his own feelings of sexual attraction towards her as she grew to womanhood; he felt that those desires were evil, and that would have given rise to the irrational thought that she was evil for arousing those desires and needed to be punished. There were two telling scenes in the book that support my theory; Bev's mother asking her, "Does your father ever touch you?", and the scene after she returns to Derry as a grown-up and confronts the witch who morphs into her father, who tells her, "I beat you up because I wanted to **** you". The former tells us that the mother sensed those undercurrents in the relationship between Bev and her dad, the latter was It voicing the fears in Bev's own mind. And we don't see any evidence in the book of Bev's father beating his wife as well, which is often the case with abusive men; even though he could have been abusive to his wife in other more subtle ways, he felt more intensely hostile towards his daughter.

**Gazou** · August 31st, 2012

That scene puzzled me a bit when I first read it (I was maybe 13). At the time I did not really understood it’s significance. But I liked it nonetheless.

I think it tells a lot about our society that a sex scene like that can make people uncomfortable yet they consider vivid descriptions of children being mutilated like good entertainment.

What make people uncomfortable with that scene and not with the Henry-Patrick sex scene? That one seems more pornographic. I guess because they’re the bad guys people will consider it normal if they do things they disapprove.

**GNTLGNT** · September 6th, 2012

yet they consider vivid descriptions of children being mutilated like good entertainment.

...entertainment?...good writing and in furtherance of the story..but certainly not "entertaining" in the usual sense of the word-"to delight"...

What make people uncomfortable with that scene and not with the Henry-Patrick sex scene?

...I won't speak for anyone else, but that scene repulsed me..and with Bev, I was drawn in by the force of the love and the friendship-not the coitus...

**Gazou** · September 6th, 2012

Maybe I did'nt phrase that just right. What I meant is that most people accept violence as something very normal in entertainment, movies, books, etc. Even fairytales for children are actually quite violent.

Violence is a bad thing, yet we give toy guns to our kids. Sex and love are good things, yet many people don't want them to learn about it. I just find that contradiction funny.

I think most people would be even more repulsed by the Henry scene like you say, but what I mean is that most people find it a more normal or acceptable passage in the context of a book like this.

**tenngolfer** · December 16th, 2012

I just finished the re-read, and did not remember a lot of the story, including this scene. My reaction was more like, "huh" ? Then the only second thought was that Eddie was the only boy following that scene, that seemed important at the moment, since the act seemed to calm his panic and restore his sense of direction.

**Bob_Gray** · February 1st, 2013

I've read IT a decade ago, but have no recollection of that scene... at all, whatsoever...
Where in the novel is this scene?

**farnsworthbilly** · February 12th, 2013

The Ritual of Chüd: Love and Desire

**TheTurtle** · March 13th, 2013

Thank you for this Ms. Mod! I'm a 30/m and I have always understood the reason for that part in the book, but just recently spoke to a friend who said that was the most uncomfortable part of the book. I can understand his reasons, but after I explained it to him I think he gets it now.