Sex on TV
(Everybody!) It seems today, that all you see, is violence in movies and sex on TV…
So the internet blew up about the Glee episode ‘First Time’ that was broadcast in America on Tuesday night and is to be broadcast in the UK
As some of you may know, I was mortified when yet another of my favourite shows went on to Sky so as a result I have seen this episode through my own means…but enough of that.
The episode itself deals with (as the title suggests) the sexual awakening of two couples at McKinley high. I think I need to point out though that this episode also deals with other ‘first times’ such as Coach Beiste’s first boyfriend, Artie’s first time directing a musical and Mike’s first time standing up to his father.
On to the sex! The two couples involved are the straight couple of Finn and Rachel and the Gay couple of Kurt and Blaine. Both couples spend a long time in the episode discussing the pros and cons of making love for the first time and this includes stressing the importance of using protection. The episode is not ‘preachy’ as some have said and it is not about the fact that it takes place before marriage, it is dealt with in a very sensitive way and is very romantic. It stresses not only the need for protection, but also the need to be in a loving relationship. It is not about the fact that one is a gay couple and one straight as both are given equal weight, it is about taking that step and giving someone you love the most important thing in the world, your body and heart.
This did get me to thinking though about how television deals with the issue of virginity and sex. Glee is not the first show to deal with these issues, so many dramas and comedies have dealt with it in different ways over the years. Usually the issue is straight couples and it is either romantic or fevered. There is usually a lot of ‘will they, won’t they’ build up and the act itself seems a long time coming (pardon the phrase). There is usually a sugar coated version of the act and you usually never see anything except the straight, missionary position.
Gay sex is usually shown (at least in everything I have seen) as rough and often something almost illicit (I am thinking of two scenes, one from the first series of Shameless where the young gay character has very rough sex with his boss while trying to hide it from his family and his boss’s wife and the scene in Six Feet Under where the gay character has a rough sex experience in a car park with a male prostitute). Is it any wonder America and a lot of the UK
It was refreshing to see a scene then which dealt with a gay couple losing their virginity, which was given equal weight and parity to a straight couple. For the first time we see a more true representation of what love and sex is like for most gay couples. Why would it be any different to straight couples?
I know I will not come off as being seen as ‘cool’ amongst some of my friends, oh well, that is their problem. I feel that Glee has done a lot for changing the perceptions of many issues such as teen pregnancy, sex, bullying, mental illness and homosexuality. If any or all of those issues can be taken seriously and if even one person changes their attitudes then surely a good job has been done?
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