On the fourteenth of February a bunch of cinema-goers and book-readers across South Africa lost their minds and went absolutely crazy.

Why, you ask?

The answer is simple: the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie had just come out.

I must say, of course, that this is one movie a lot of grown up people out there would not want me talking about too much.

And there’s a simple reason for it: the movie’s got a lot of sex in it. In fact, it’s really not even about the sex, but more about how freaky some people can be when it comes to it. And understand me, when I say freaky, I’m talking sex toys, tying each other up with leather straps or rope and bunch of other freaky stuff.

Do you see now how some people would call this film an adults-only affair?

Imagine, then, if all those grown up people who say that we, as the youngsters, can’t watch or even talk about this movie, filled up all the seats around you in the cinema. It’d be awkward, right?

Well that’s exactly what happened to me.

Me and my friend, Masixole, somehow thought it was a great idea to go and watch the movie. But when we got there we got much more than we expected. As if arriving late and having to stand at the back of a dark cinema for five minutes looking for an empty seat wasn’t bad enough, I ended up finding a seat where I was surrounded by old people.

I cannot remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable around much older people. It was the worst experience I’d ever gotten at a cinema. There was so much nudity and weird sex in the film that I found it difficult to laugh even when the characters were doing or saying something funny and not having sex. It felt like the old couples sitting around me were watching me and would think I was enjoying the sex and the nudity if I laughed too much.

Being in that cinema took me back to my days as an eleven-year-old kid when I was once called into the principal’s office for starting a spin-the-bottle kissing game during break-time. I was scared to even go home after school, because my mother had always taught me that having girlfriends and sex was only for “abantu abadala (adults)” and that we couldn’t talk about it or watch films that had it in them.

But what surprises a lot of people is that even finally being an adult hasn’t stopped me from trying to follow some of the rules I was taught about sex. I still find it very awkward to talk about sex or even watch movies with nudity and sex in them when my mother and older siblings are around. I also feel awkward about it when I’m around other much older people as well.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is why “Fifty Shades of Grey” was so difficult for me to enjoy around those older people.

But tell me what you think.

#ChatBack: What are some of the rules you’ve been taught about sex by older people like your teachers or your parents?

And how do those rules make you feel when you’re watching movies that have sex or kissing scenes in them, while sitting with those older people?