There is no end to the depths to which American popular culture sinks.
Now it’s network TV, in a bid for ratings, resorting to smut in prime time — all aided and abetted by the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that’s supposed to regulate the air waves.
Leslie Goldberg reports for The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Oct. 5, 2014, that nearly two months into TV’s fall season, the Big 5 networks are pushing new boundaries with jokes about anal sex, “fisting,” penises, never-heard-of sex positions, and teen masturbation, which Parents Television Council president Tim Winter says are “absolutely inappropriate for primetime broadcast television. The networks are able to do that with few, if any, fines from the FCC.
As examples:
Fox’s New Girl: The season premiere featured Zooey Deschanel repeatedly muttering “sex fist!” as an expression for the roommates’ quest to hook up at a wedding. Multiple fisting jokes followed. There were also episodes where the gang got stoned and Deschanel dated a guy with a micropenis (defined as an adult penis that’s less than 2.8 inches in length). “We got away with murder,” exec producer Brett Baer proudly told THR after the premiere. “We’ve given broadcast standards a run for their money.”
Brett Baer
Fox’s The Mindy Project: Nearly an entire episode focused on Mindy Kaling and Chris Messina debating whether he “slipped” and attempted to “go in the back door” (anal sex). That led to discussions of sexual positions, including the “necktie,” “ascot” and “bagpipe.” [I have no idea what those positions are, nor will I find out. ~Eowyn]
Disney-owned ABC’s Scandal: The season opening had Kerry Washington and Scott Foley in an explicit entanglement on the beach. Weeks later, showrunner Shonda Rhimes, who defiantly said “I look forward to being censored,” brought “Eiffel Towering” to primetime when the president’s teenage daughter was caught on tape performing the lewd sex act that many had to Google.
[I had to google "Eiffel Towering" as well. It is downright disgusting. Urban Dictionary's definition: "Eiffel Tower" is when a woman is on her knees performing fellatio to a man standing, and another man is railing her from behind, thus the two men join hands above the woman to form what looks the Eiffel Tower.]
On Oct. 30, ABC aired a Scandal sex scene minutes after a Charlie Brown Halloween special aimed at children.
Shonda Rhimes
ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, another Shonda Rhimes show, featured a character saying, “He did things to my ass that made my eyes water” and ended an episode with Viola Davis asking, “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?”
Tim Winter says, “We have to start asking if some of these gray area instances really do cross the line. Hopefully, the FCC will levy a fine or two and let broadcasters know that the law is still in place and they have to respect it.”
~Eowyn