So, I was watching Penn & Teller’s “Nukes, Hybrids and Lesbians” tonight, and I was surprised to see a woman with a shaved pussy standing around for a minute or two. Penn was making a point that “nuclear bomb” and “nuclear power” completely change the meaning of the word “nuclear” just like “pussy cat” completly changes the meaning of the word “pussy.” So naturally he had a nude model holding a cat to illustrate his point, I mean, who wouldn’t? And her vagina was as bald as Yul Brynner’s head, so you could see, um, a dark line betwen her labia majora. Very exciting, or at least you figure it MUST be the way softcore Skinamax films avoid showing such things for more than a split second (heh). But the gal on Penn and Teller was letting it all … what there was of it … hang out there for about a minute.
Did shaved pussies get the OK from whatever equivalent of Standards and Practices exists for premium channels while I was sleeping or does Penn & Teller have a special dispensation for such things? Or have I just missed a lot of stuff? Any other shaved pussy hanging it all out there for some time sightings?
Penn & Teller have shown very explicit shots of male genitals in the past, too. Plus bungholes. I wonder if it’s in their contract that some kind of naughty bits must appear in every episode of “Bullshit!”
You do know that you can just buy all the pictures of shaved pussies you want off the internet, right? You don’t have to hang around watching HBO hoping for the rare chance when one will pop up.
Let me reprise my post in clearer terms for you. I was taken aback by the shaved pussy on Bullshit. I have not seen stuff like that before on Showtime, HBO, etc. So I was thinking of what the explanation might be. I came up with three possibilities:
Whatever form of censorship is responsible for the dearth of shaved pussies on non-adult premium channels (Spice Network, Playboy, etc., of course show them all the time) had ended recently and I was seeing the outcome.
Penn and Teller has some sort of special dispensation wrt shaved pussies.
Shaved pussies have been around for some time on premium channels, but I missed them in my admittedly spotty monitoring of premium channel adult output (I don’t get HBO or Cinemax).
Hence my question if others had spotted such imagery. Does that help?
I think you have a point. I was thinking about the point raised about the FCC, that it doesn’t censors Showtime and the other premium channels, and I think I got a handle on what’s going on. The FCC may not have any power over premium channels, but the MPAA does have a “backdoor” censorship tool for movies showing on premium channels, because premium channels are not the ONLY venue for movies, even Skinamax movies. Mainstream movies also show up in theatres and most films of all kinds, including Skinamax films, so they would be subject to MPAA censorship. That’s probably why Skinamax films generally confine images of shaved pussies to a brief shot as the model changes position. (I can remember a couple of exceptions, but only a couple, and at one time I was publishing a Skinamax film review site, so I’ve seen a LOT of Skinamax films.)
But Bullshit, being an in-house Showtime production, has an assured distributor and is not subject to MPAA censorship. This is probably why they are so unusually willing to show naughty bits compared to Skinamax films, which are, after all, porn.
I have wondered this also. One episode featured a sex therapy class with copious (female) nudity, followed immediately by the guys sitting around their white studio surrounded by naked women. Okay, I thought, that was a little jarring, but hey, they ARE talking about sex.
Then on another episode, they were putting down recycling, and to help them sort some recyclables were several bikini-clad women. THAT struck me as completely gratuitous, as it wasn’t even tied in with a clever pun like the “pussy” bit.
I think your premise is flawed. You assume that Showtime has or at some point had a rule about shaved genitals. In fact, it is far more likely that neatly trimmed is just the usual style for the softcore porn that they regularly show.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. Skinamax movies are not rated by the MPAA as they are not distributed to theaters, and there’s no law that requires theatrical distributions to be MPAA rated, except that it can be bad for business to forgo the process.
They aren’t 1/10 as sexy without the hair. That velvety dark delta, that triangular patch, is what says “female” to my limbic system. I don’t need to see lips peeled back and knees at 270° angle as proof that yeah there really is an opening there, nor do I need to see a cleft mark to verify that indeed, she is bifurcated. Yeesh. If I wanted clinical details I’d have gone to a gynecology site.
Yes, the MPAA does prevent genitals from appearing in most movies that are shown in theaters (only because of economic reasons). That still does not explain why Cinemax doesn’t just show porn movies. Porn usually has assured distributors and doesn’t have an MPAA rating. The softcore porn that Cinemax and Showtime show also has assured distributors and no MPAA ratings, yet they still don’t show genitals.
Actually there are plenty of films that show genitals of either sex that are MPAA rated, and not even NC-17. Erect penises and penetration are a no-no, though. But premium channels don’t show that either. Dedicated porn channels do, although they always seem to edit out the cum shot for some reason. I never did understand that.
Showing of genitalia is not so outlandish for educational or artistic reasons. Shows that examine sexuality from a scientific perspective routinely display genitalia in some way, either as a graphic or using a heat-sensing camera. “Bullshit” certainly fits the definition of an educational program. I saw a news story on a local TV station a few years ago about mammograms that very clearly showed a woman’s breast (though not the nipple).
Personally, I applaud any developments that lead to less squeamishness about the human body, hairy or shaved. Simple nudity should not be taboo.