Are Graphic Scenes on TV Actually Ruining Sex?
By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.
Do you remember the first time you felt palpable sexual tension and chemistry between two characters on TV? For me, it was on Dawson's Creek. The writers had finally realized that the whole Dawson/Joey storyline had fizzled, and somewhere along the way, Joey started having a much more interestingly charged dynamic with Pacey. Nevertheless, this was still The WB in the late nineties, and save for some heavy making out, most sexual congress was merely alluded to instead of being depicted, which was totally fine for my 14-year-old imagination.
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This, of course, isn't the case for sex on TV in 2013. Even on Gossip Girl - which aired on The WB's successor, The CW - teenagers graphically groped one another in the back of limos, on pianos, and wearing as close to nothing as Standards & Practices would allow when they actually did do it in a bed (and how utterly boring this seemed in comparison to every other escapade). Plus, although they were teens, the characters knew how to use sex as a weapon better than most Bond girls.
Then, of course, we have the Game of Thrones and True Blood's of the current TV landscape. True, they're on HBO, which has always been more risqu´e because - as the slogan says - "It's not TV; it's HBO" - but is all the hardcore sexing on these shows actually turning people off?
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A piece in this Sunday's T Magazine makes the case that all the explicit encounters on intense, psychological shows have managed to completely remove the pleasure element from sex. On The Americans and Homeland, for example, the characters often engage in graphic sexual encounters under the guise of getting information. Why have an interrogation room scene when Carrie can screw the information out of Brody in a seedy motel room? During these trysts, characters will participate in any acts necessary to complete their subterfuge mission; even if it means having their boss or spouse listen to an entire S&M encounter, which happened on The Americans.
Then, there's Game of Thrones, where sex is usually about possession, domination, and personal gain - but sometimes it truly is gratuitous. Have you ever watched a show like Law & Order and noticed that when the detectives are questioning a bar owner about a murder victim, he's always wiping glasses or stacking crates? That's because television is such a visual medium that important dialogue with plot exposition needs to be accompanied with actions just to keep viewers engaged. On GoT, "stacking crates" gets upgraded to "two prostitutes having sex." The women going at it in the background are merely satisfying the visual requirement of movement your eyes have been trained to seek - but they're also desensitizing you by removing privacy and pleasure from the act.
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With the rise of binge-watching and loosening standards for to what can and cannot be depicted on network and cable shows, a lot of the sex we see on TV has become "divorced from any real sense of eroticism or desire," Ginia Bellafante writes in T. "The audience, at home in bed in need of diversion, is betrayed. What they get instead is sex that is transactional, utilitarian - the end product of a kind of twisted careerism." And, in today's intense world where we already struggle with work-life balance and being able to enjoy life's simple pleasures, it's might not be the payoff you'd been hoping to escape into at the end of a long day.
Our suggestion? It might be best to save the intense, subterfuge-sex-packed shows for the weekend. As for weekday viewing alternatives, there are shows that depict love, romance, and sex without ulterior motives. This season of New Girl had two characters with undeniable chemistry finally throwing caution to the wind for a sweet - and meaningful - first time. The Office may have ended its run, but if you never caught the first few seasons, the Jim and Pam storyline will definitely endure as one of the most real and loving relationships ever depicted on TV.
If you're still looking for some slightly hot-and-heavier sexy times, cue up the episode of Lost with Kate and Sawyer in the cage (trust me) or the Shameless pilot (the U.S. and U.K. version will both do - although the British version does star a young James McAvoy). The passionate sex scenes do not disappoint.
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