Is television missing the mark on female sexuality? If you sit down and watch a little bit of
television your answer may just become a very solid yes. From Game of Thrones
to Two Broke Girls or even Law and Order SUV; female sexuality is either a
source of comedy, completely misused or simply used for shock value. The New
York Times just recently released a piece criticizing Game of Thrones
specifically; saying that it has no issues with scenes depicting violence
against women, yet the idea of a female focused sex scene creates a huge issue.
Ms. Loofbourow states, “Cultural conversations about sexism in media tend to
revolve around negatives- objectification, subjugation, stripped agency.” But
she states “Women deserve erotic pleasure too. Not just penises, but scenes
shot with a female viewer’s perspective guiding the camera. Watching naked people
in an erotic context is pleasurable. If nudity is here to stay, and at least on
‘Game of Thrones’, that seems likely, there is no legitimate reason to limit
access to that pleasure to men. “Then we turn our focus to something like Two
Broke Girls, where the idea of female sexuality is simply used for jokes. The
bigger issue however is how most times female sexuality, when depicted on
television, is used for shock value. “When is it okay to laugh at sexual
trafficking or rape?” asks Parent Television Council president Tim Winter.
After studying 238 sitcoms and dramas, the PTC said that a third of the
episodes included content that they deemed sexual exploitation. An episode of
Family Guy clearly jokes at sex trafficking. But the exploitation doesn’t stop at
sex trafficking; many television shows tell women that they must change
themselves to be taken seriously. So many women are taught to believe that if
they look a certain way, maybe people will take them and their sexuality
seriously. Plastic surgery will not fix anyone problems and it will not make
television understand how to properly handle female sexuality. The only way
television will be able to make it right is by treating female sexuality simply
as sexuality. There is no need to treat male or female sexuality differently.
If men get sex scenes, the women should too. It’s literally as simple as
that.