# Penis and Vagina on tv **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103 "2008-11-10T21:36:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/1 "2008-11-10T21:36:29Z")
I understand and get the logic about American tv, the FCC and expletives, vulgarity on the public airwaves. Being from a pinko, liberal and (if you believe the myths) hedonistic Sweden, it’s a big non-issue for me. There’s been live intercourse on Big Brother, swearing is legio and acted sex scenes are abundant. _n.b._ I’m not saying our way is better, just different. What I don’t get is how tv shows get away with using words like penis and vagina. - Face it, it sounds kinda vulgar. - If the rules are there to protect the li’l ones, having your four year old come up and ask _“Daddy, what’s a vagina?”_ can be kinda awkward, but mostly, the word would’ve come up in a context which might be hard to explain. The dirty word is verboten, but the situation where the substitute word came up is not. - I realize that writers use these words to skate around the rules, which must be pretty obvious to the FCC as well. I guess there’ve been some rulings that set the standards. So, is there a movement from the morality police to ban these words as well? Isn’t the FCC a bit concerned about it? Wouldn’t sensitive ears be just as offended by hearing “Frikkin’ Vagina”? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/2 "2008-11-10T21:43:21Z")
Penis and vagina sound vulgar? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/3 "2008-11-10T21:43:35Z")
> [@](#): > > What I don’t get is how tv shows get away with using words like penis and vagina. Is this a whoosh? Those are the actual names for the body parts in question. They are not slang, or anything dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/4 "2008-11-10T21:51:12Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Is this a whoosh? > > Those are the actual names for the body parts in question. They are not slang, or anything dirty. Did you read the whole post? ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/5 "2008-11-10T22:01:17Z")
Penis and vagina are not verboten words on American TV, even on non-cable. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/6 "2008-11-10T22:22:12Z")
Let’s look at what the [regulators themselves](http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/obscene.html)have to say on the issue [QUOTE=Federal Communications Commission] Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and cannot be broadcast at any time. The Supreme Court has established that, to be obscene, material must meet a three-pronged test: An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. **Indecent Broadcast Restrictions** The FCC has defined broadcast indecency as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.” Indecent programming contains patently offensive sexual or excretory material that does not rise to the level of obscenity. The courts have held that indecent material is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely. It may, however, be restricted in order to avoid its broadcast during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience. Consistent with a federal indecency statute and federal court decisions interpreting the statute, the Commission adopted a rule that broadcasts – both on television and radio – that fit within the indecency definition and that are aired between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are prohibited and subject to indecency enforcement action. **Profane Broadcast Restrictions** The FCC has defined profanity as “including language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.” [/QUOTE] Do “penis” and “vagina” appeal to “prurient interest”? Not to mine, they don’t. Are they “patently offesnive” sexual terms? Actually, they are the “proper” terms. Are they "language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance”? And even if they sound “kinda vulgar” to you, vulgarity is not against the rules unless it reaches the level of “grossly offensive.” Finally, let’s remember the words of the late Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, who said, in a [decision about pornography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio), “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…” ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/7 "2008-11-10T22:28:23Z")
Far from being vulgar; I find the words pretty clinical. And my children (2 and 3 years old) know what a penis is – one of them has one, and they bathe together. In fact, sometimes I wish he would stop talking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/8 "2008-11-10T22:28:40Z")
I was trying to come up with some joke involving a TV commercial for “The Law Firm of Penis and Vagina,” but I, ah, came up empty. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/9 "2008-11-10T23:03:13Z")
That’s because the very best law firms have three names. Try “The Law Firm of Penis, Vagina, and Goldstein.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/10 "2008-11-10T23:54:22Z")
This is where ‘Va-Jay-Jay’ came from; I think\* that’s\* disgusting. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/11 "2008-11-11T00:06:05Z")
I’m sure Sweeden has some verboten words as well, like “free enterprise” and “freedom”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/12 "2008-11-11T00:52:42Z")
> [@chacoguy420](#): > > This is where ‘Va-Jay-Jay’ came from; I think\* that’s\* disgusting. :rolleyes: In that case, didn’t the censors think they used “vagina” one too many times? ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/13 "2008-11-11T00:53:57Z")
FWIW, I swear that in the 80s or 90s Phil Donohue broadcast close-up photos of penises and vulvas, on network TV in a midmorning time slot. They were illustrations of what various venereal diseases can do to you, and thus were about as far from appealing to the prurient interest as possible. And of course they warned the audience ahead of time. Still, I thought it was quite remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/14 "2008-11-11T02:17:50Z")
You cannot make any rational sense of the restrictions on American tv because the complainers are usually doing so for religious reasons. Not only does this remove any rational basis, but also any consistent irrational basis because our multitude of beliefs and sects have a multitude of behaviors that they consider taboo. We just muddle along, with the list of banned words and pictures gradually shrinking over the years as religious groups lose their power. To balance that, other words are substituted. Nigger, chink, kike, wop, and other ethnic slurs are probably more banned today than in the past. Both use and enforcement are inconsistent as well, with time of broadcast, context, and seriousness of use major factors. Don’t try to make sense of American culture. No head can take the strain. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/15 "2008-11-11T03:02:49Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I’m sure Sweeden has some verboten words as well, like “free enterprise” and “freedom”. 🙂 Don’t listen to him, we don’t really think that. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/16 "2008-11-11T03:12:39Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > FWIW, I swear that in the 80s or 90s Phil Donohue broadcast close-up photos of penises and vulvas, on network TV in a midmorning time slot. They were illustrations of what various venereal diseases can do to you, and thus were about as far from appealing to the prurient interest as possible. And of course they warned the audience ahead of time. Still, I thought it was quite remarkable. Katie Couric broadcasted the inside of her ass. Strangely, it wasn’t really that hot. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/17 "2008-11-11T03:23:32Z")
I don’t really know why things are the way they are. You can’t show nude human beings above the age of about 18 months on commercial TV, and even in films it’s very rare, because the producers want to avoid restricted audience ratings. Even in non porno films intended for adult audiences, bizarrely, the actors stay covered during sex scenes. Right, like most men and women IRL keep their underclothes on when they get it on. And yet, commercials for impotence drugs are incessant. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/18 "2008-11-11T03:24:23Z")
Where can I see this episode of intercourse on Swedish Big Brother? I would like to see some hottie nords getting it on. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/19 "2008-11-11T03:33:25Z")
> [@chacoguy420](#): > > This is where ‘Va-Jay-Jay’ came from; I think\* that’s\* disgusting. :rolleyes: Except for on The Soup, where it’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/20 "2008-11-11T03:35:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Don’t try to make sense of American culture. No head can take the strain. I think I just found my new signature line. With your permission, of course Sir? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103.md?page=2)