Sex on Screen
May. 7th, 2004 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloChannel 4 is running a documentary series about sex on British TV. During the 80s you could have as much sex in your programme as you liked, just so long as you made it plain you were against it and talked about condoms all the time.
The one remaining taboo (actually there are several, but this was the only one they identified) is the erect penis. One slipped by in a documentary about Derek Jarman once; a clip from Sebastiane was playing blurrily behind a talking head and no-one noticed the stonker. But when Channel 4 replayed this seminal moment for us they had to obscure the offending item behind a dab of digital vaseline.
I'm opposed to sexual censorship. We make sex disturbing by hiding it out of sight. Censorship not openness is what fucks with our heads. For me the chief argument against sex on TV or in the movies is that it's quite boring to watch. There's no drama in it.
The most erotic moment in the movies? The sequence in Persona where Bibi Anderson tells Liv Ullman about her encounter with the two boys on the beach.
The one remaining taboo (actually there are several, but this was the only one they identified) is the erect penis. One slipped by in a documentary about Derek Jarman once; a clip from Sebastiane was playing blurrily behind a talking head and no-one noticed the stonker. But when Channel 4 replayed this seminal moment for us they had to obscure the offending item behind a dab of digital vaseline.
I'm opposed to sexual censorship. We make sex disturbing by hiding it out of sight. Censorship not openness is what fucks with our heads. For me the chief argument against sex on TV or in the movies is that it's quite boring to watch. There's no drama in it.
The most erotic moment in the movies? The sequence in Persona where Bibi Anderson tells Liv Ullman about her encounter with the two boys on the beach.
