Sex On TV Has Grown Up A Lot This Year

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As we begin to see more of the "sexual fluidity" that Sunny Megatron mentioned during our interview back in October in society, television will eventually get around to reflecting it as well. For mic.com (link below), 2014 was the year that a number of taboos were smashed on the boob tube, and while there is a ways to go, it was nice to see a number of these trends this year. 

The new Starz series Outlander, for one, was a bit of a groundbreaker in two separate areas...

Scottish time-travel romance Outlander provided fans with portrayals of female oral sex not limited to lesbians, and the show framed it (accurately) as an avenue specifically for female pleasure. With so many allusions to women giving men blow jobs on TV, it's refreshing for those in Hollywood to finally acknowledge women should get the same treatment. Oral sex and pleasure go both ways.

Outlander is doing its part to change the depiction of female sex on TV not only by showing us oral sex, but by portraying its female characters as sexually empowered beings without an ounce of shame.

While the show's main characters are married, Claire is anything but shy in expressing her desires to her husband. On their wedding night, Claire's husband Jamie is still a virgin — a setup typically tied to disappointment. But Claire uses this to guide Jamie through a sort of sexual awakening in something of a role reversal, with the woman guiding the man through the complex physical and emotional perils of sex. And not once does the show judge Claire for it. As a woman, she is allowed to be experienced, vocal, and in command in the bedroom. And there's nothing strange about it.

There was even a great moment on this season of The Bachelor, where chauvinist bachelor Juan Pablo attempted to slut-shame one of the contestants after she fucked him. Thankfully, she was having no part of that.

Unsurprisingly, one of the most sexist shows on television gave us another example of slut-shaming this year; surprisingly, it was finally called out for it. The day after Clare and Juan Pablo of The Bachelor had their nighttime tryst in the ocean, we witnessed the single father turn around and chide Clare for her actions. As she pointed out later, "I knew when we were in the ocean, that it was a mutual feeling. If he didn't think it was right he shouldn't have done it. I would have respected that." If he didn't want to have sex, he should have said so. In a proud moment for feminists addicted to the long-running dating show, Clare refused to be labeled the "easy girl" for stepping out of line — and she refused to let a man make her feel bad about it.

The full article has a lot more examples and is most assuredly worth a look, and you can find it over at mic.com