# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/21 "2008-11-11T04:02:03Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Even in non porno films intended for adult audiences, bizarrely, the actors stay covered during sex scenes. Thus the L-shaped sheet…it goes up to the neck on the woman and up to the waist on the man. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/22 "2008-11-11T04:41:23Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > _n.b._ I’m not saying our way is better, just different. No, your way is better. ---
**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, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/23 "2008-11-11T05:00:43Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think I just found my new signature line. With your permission, of course Sir? Another acolyte. Spread my words, grasshopper. ---
**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 11, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/24 "2008-11-11T07:16:49Z")
I’m trying not to be annoyed at what seems to be sloppy reading by some posters. YES, I’m aware that P&V are NOT forbidden words, YES, I know that they are the actual clinical words, the question is how come broadcasters get away with mentioning them in a non clinical way. I’m sure at some point during Friends, Chandler and Joey used the word penis in a jokingly manner. Now, reading **Kunilou** ’s post (thanks) explains a lot. It seems it could be called indecent, hence Viewer Discretion is Adviced by the Metatron. As to sounding more vulgar - compare these sentences and think that a three year old girl says them: Mommy, Eddie showed me his peepee. Mommy, Eddie showed me his penis. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/25 "2008-11-11T09:09:23Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Thus the L-shaped sheet…it goes up to the neck on the woman and up to the waist on the man. This amuses me. This and the fact that the L-shaped sheet turns into a toga for the woman when she has to get out of bed. What woman who’s just had sex takes the entire sheet with her when she gets out of bed? And even if she doesn’t get out of bed, when she sits up she holds the sheet over her chest…? Like now that the horizontal tango is over, she’s as modest as a Victorian maiden? I wish directors, particularly TV directors, were a little more creative in covering up female bits…just b/c the usual methods are so dorky it’s distracting. Put her on her stomach. Do more closeups. Use her knees instead of the sheet. SOMETHING. Re: the OP, I think TV censorship is both amusing and random, as it is in radio…the song called “Bitch” by Meredith-Whoever came out like ten years ago (“I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother” etc.) and was never edited out out on any radio station I ever heard. But Katy Perry has a new single out right now wherein she says “You PMS like a bitch” and the “bitch” is ALWAYS edited out on the radio. Can someone explain this to me? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/26 "2008-11-11T14:04:16Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > As to sounding more vulgar - compare these sentences and think that a three year old girl says them: > > Mommy, Eddie showed me his peepee. > Mommy, Eddie showed me his penis. 😕 In the US, not all television dialogue is spoken by three year old girls. Compare these two sentences and think that an adult says them: Mona, I just saw Eddie’s penis. Mona, I just saw Eddie’s peepee. Which is ickier now? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/27 "2008-11-11T14:06:48Z")
The word “penis” wasn’t used much until the Bobbit case. Kind of difficult to describe what Lorna did without using it. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/28 "2008-11-11T14:12:31Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > Re: the OP, I think TV censorship is both amusing and random, as it is in radio…the song called “Bitch” by Meredith-Whoever came out like ten years ago (“I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother” etc.) and was never edited out out on any radio station I ever heard. > > But Katy Perry has a new single out right now wherein she says “You PMS like a bitch” and the “bitch” is ALWAYS edited out on the radio. > > Can someone explain this to me? No, but you did remind me of the song ‘Because I Got High’, which I once had the misfortune of hearing a radio edit of. If you have to literally bleep out one word a line, you might wanna reconsider if you really should be airing that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/29 "2008-11-11T14:14:34Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > What I don’t get is how tv shows get away with using words like penis and vagina. Thanks to groundbreaking sketches like [this one](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88bnudebeach.phtml)? ---
**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, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/30 "2008-11-11T18:00:14Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Thus the L-shaped sheet…it goes up to the neck on the woman and up to the waist on the man. Also the encounter between Leonardo di Caprio and Vera Farmiga in _The Departed_, in which Leo has his trousers down just barely enough to be able to get his pecker out, as if this were just a routine urination or something. She keeps her panties on and I’m not sure she she’s even topless. It’s all rather silly. I should point out to the OP that the movie rating system here is industry-directed, however. It’s not through fear of government sanctions that fims are generally so prudish, but through fear of diminished audience due to audience elimination (teenagers), and possible reluctance of exhibitors in some markets (e.g. Salt Lake City) to offer more realistic fare to their audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Westrogothia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@Westrogothia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Westrogothia)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/31 "2008-11-11T18:51:22Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I’m sure Sweeden has some verboten words as well, like “free enterprise” and “freedom”. 🙂 Countries with free enterprise and freedom are a dime a dozen. Sweden tho, is the only natural habitat of the free range swedish chick. You will find sir, that we win. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/32 "2008-11-11T23:53:10Z")
There’s a long list of forbidden words. The list varies in length depending on the rating of the particular show, when it airs, on which network it airs, etc. The list also varies by context - penis and vagina as medical terms on a doctor or csi drama are more acceptable than penis and vagina as epithets. “You are such a pussy” is likely to be forboden, yet “here pussy cat” and “look at the lovely pussy willow” are fine. Given any particular list, each year more words on that list become acceptable and are taken off the list. Given all of these variables, combined with the whims of standards and practices, and writers who try to get away with pushing the limits in sneaky ways, ‘penis’ and ‘vagina’ may or may not be forbidden depending on what you are watching. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/33 "2008-11-12T00:06:55Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > I understand and get the logic about American tv, the FCC and expletives, vulgarity on the public airwaves. This is possible? Can you explain it to us Americans? Because most of us are stumped by it. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103/34 "2008-11-13T21:00:23Z")
I have absolutely no insight as to why the FCC chooses which words are forbidden and which are not. But I know that at some point in the past ten years or so that “penis” was one of the forbidden. I was recently watching a DVD episode of _Friends_ where the directors were commentating in the background. The scene is Phoebe is letting Chandler know that a girl is checking him out, then walks away and says “I think I’m ready for my penis now.” And the directors chuckled and said they included the line because the FCC had just then lifted the ban on “penis.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-and-vagina-on-tv/472103.md?page=1)