by Ben Shapiro
Sex and the City has a substantial following among teenage girls with ignorant parents, as well. Patti Lewis of Berlin, Vermont took a Sex and the City bus tour with her teenage daughter, Kate, who had seen every episode of the repulsive series. “I love the show,” Patti told Meena Thiruvengadam of the San Antonio Express-News. ‘They dare to say and do things that some women just can’t say and do, and they make it so funny.”37 Julie Salamon of the New York Times had no problem admitting in her column that her “fourteen-year-old daughter and her girlfriends were found in front of our television giggling happily at Sex and the City in its unexpurgated form on HBO. Perhaps a sign of our licentious times, they didn’t flinch when I sat down to join them. But I quickly left, anyway, realizing I didn’t really want to encounter the show’s naughtiest pleasures with my child and her pals next to me.”38
It apparently never occurred to Ms. Salamon that her fourteen-year-old daughter and her friends shouldn’t be encountering the show’s “naughtiest pleasures” at all. And like a case of genital herpes, the show refuses to go away—it was recently picked up for syndication by TBS.
HBO’s subscribers know what they’re getting. In June 1998, HBO’s top-rated show was the sex documentary Real Sex 19, followed by Real Sex 20, followed by Pimps Up, Ho’s Down. HBO’s highest-rated series was, of course, Sex and the City.39
Showtime goes even further—instead of straight promiscuity, they promote homosexuality. They have to go further than HBO, considering they’ve been in HBO’s shadow for the last twenty years.40 They promote the Sex and the City imitating, lesbian-celebrating The L Word with the tagline, “Same Sex. Different City,” and posters of naked women. Entertainment Weekly describes the Sapphic lovefest: “The L Word is a meticulously packaged show—beautiful women; nifty fashions; slick, post-Pottery Barn furniture—that makes you say, ‘Hey, I want to be a hot, successful lesbian living in Los Angeles with trendy friends and a work life that comes in short, dazzling spurts!’”41
While the cast maintains that they’re doing the lesbian thing to bring tolerance to the world, they’re not above pandering to male fantasies. “Conventionally, straight men watch lesbian sex, and there’s that leering element, but we don’t pander to it,” insists executive producer-creator Ilene Chaiken. “But it’s a sexy show and if that turns them on, I don’t object to it.”42 Of course not. Even those who shill for sexual tolerance aren’t above catering to males in their pursuit of ratings.
On Showtime, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so they have a show revolving around male homosexuality as well: Queer As Folk. It’s gay propaganda, pure and simple, with the requisite graphic sex. Even Howard Rosenberg, fanatically liberal critic for the Los Angeles Times, describes the show as “relentless cruising and graphically simulated sex, at the expense of character depth, in an assembly line of orgasms ultimately as tedious as it would be if the humpers and thumpers were straight instead of gay.”43
Showtime and HBO maintain that they should be allowed license, considering that they’re subscription-based. That ignores the fact that both HBO and Showtime have impacts beyond their immediate viewership. Their shows are promoted in print and on billboards. Their depictions of women and men are culturally accepted. Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City models for GAP;44 Kristin Davis models for Maybelline.45 Davis and Cynthia Nixon star in an ad campaign for 7-Up. In the commercial, “Pampering,” the two actresses lounge around in bathrobes as a male waiter serves them. Davis sees another male waiter coming, and says to Nixon, “Looks like our lunch has arrived.” Appraising the handsome young man, Nixon quickly responds, “And he brought us grapes.” The tagline: “When you add it all up, the only way to go is Up.”46
When viewers add it all up, the only way to go is sex.
The sitcoms
Last year, the most famous television show of the 1990s came to a close. Friends, which centered around the lives, loves, and sexual encounters of six friends—Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Monica (Courteney Cox), Ross (David Schwimmer), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and Joey (Matt LeBlanc).
The liberal sexual agenda pervaded the show. Sex had no consequences, and was readily available to all. According to one commentator, Rachel had twenty sexual partners over the ten-year life of the sitcom.47 When the show premiered in 1994, even the socially liberal Daily Variety noted, “Moral and health issues are sidestepped altogether: Friends touts promiscuity and offers liberal samples of an openness that borders on empty-headedness. It’s not much of a positive example for juves, though.”48
Single motherhood was no problem. When Rachel got pregnant by Ross after a one-night stand, there was little public outcry. “I don’t think the fans of the show really care that she’s pregnant and not married,” explained Mary Allen, director and founder of Genesis House, a Melbourne, Florida, shelter for homeless pregnant teenagers and women.49 Even once the baby was born, the writers were careful to ensure that the baby wouldn’t slow the action down. Instead, the baby simply disappeared from the screen. The same thing happened with Ross’s baby (brought up by Ross’s ex-wife and her lesbian lover), as well as Phoebe’s surrogate triplets. Ignoring your kids is so convenient!
Homosexuality was glorified. Ross’s ex-wife left him for another woman, and Friends became the first primetime show to broadcast a lesbian “wedding.” Monica chastised Ross for initially opposing the lesbian union, arguing: “They love each other, and they wanna celebrate that love with the people that are close to them.” Ross later rips into his ex-wife’s parents for opposing her lesbianism, and when Ross’s ex-wife has his baby, Phoebe explains that having a lesbian couple and absentee father for parents is just peachy: “Here’s this little baby who has like three whole parents who care about it so much that they’re fighting over who gets to love it the most. And it’s not even born yet. It’s just, it’s just the luckiest baby in the whole world.”50
As with other sex-filled shows, Friends was immensely popular among the youngest members of the porn generation. Since 2000, Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, Friends became “exponentially bigger in nearly every way when viewed against the changing landscape of network television, a business it helped alter through its success in attracting the young viewers advertisers covet.”51 Ann Savage, associate professor of media arts at Butler University in Indiana, teaches about Friends to her students. “They grew up with it,” she says of her students. “They’ve been watching it since they were kids.”52
The show promoted adolescent attitudes into adulthood for teenagers. Friends took the place of family, and lasting super-platonic relationships were unnecessary. Friends was essentially a ten-year-long sleep-away camp for twentysomethings, where responsibility took a back seat to fun. As Jennifer Frey of the Washington Post characterized it, the show is “[an] homage to endless adolescence, that fantasy world where no one has to grow up, not even when grown-up things happen to them.”53
If Friends was the gold standard for 1990s sitcoms, Will & Grace took the silver. And this show was even more socially liberal than its birth mother. A gay man (Eric McCormack) and a straight woman (Debra Messing) lived together; the show revolved around both of their dating lives. Sample lines from the first episode of the series:GRACE (while lying in bed with her boyfriend): “Are you jealous?”
WILL (while watching “ER”): “Honey, I don’t need your man, I got George Clooney.”
GRACE: “Sorry, baby, he doesn’t bat for your team.”
WILL: “Well, he hasn’t seen me pitch.”54
At one point in the show, Will and Grace consider having a baby together. Because, after all, what’s better for raising a child than a single mother and a gay father? He’s gay, of course, so she’ll have to go to the obstetrician to get inseminated with Will’s sperm, just like mom and pop used to do, way back when. “It’s a tremendous story point and it is very complicated, obviously as in real life,” Messing explained. “I think it’s a very brave and exciting s
toryline to explore and pursue.... In New York, my dearest friends were gay men . . . So probably the most gratifying part of doing Will & Grace is that for the first time on television there’s a portrayal of a leading male gay character who is three-dimensional, complicated, humane, compassionate, loving and sensual. That’s very important to the gay community, and I was insistent from the very beginning, before I would get involved, that it be reflective of real live.”55 Propaganda in your living room, brought to you by NBC.
And Hollywood won’t be policing itself anytime soon. When the Christian Action Network suggested that viewers be warned that Will & Grace contained homosexual content, they were given the cold shoulder. It was an “inhumane proposal that should be ignored,” according to MPAA President Jack Valenti, and “outrageous” according to Norman Lear’s People for the American Way.56 “The mere idea that ‘Will & Grace’ could have been a mainstream hit twenty years ago is absurd,” Time reported in December 2004. “Polls indicate that about half the population supports some form of gay union. And younger Americans (those under thirty) are vastly more accepting of gay marriage, gay adoption and homosexuality than the population in general. Simply put: While the Bush White House may be on the side of social conservatives, time is not.”57
The vast majority of the sitcoms on network television today are immersed in sexual innuendo if not outright vulgarity. Aside from Will & Grace, NBC’s primetime lineup includes the Friends spin-off Joey, revolving around the empty-headed, promiscuous actor made famous by Matt LeBlanc. CBS’s primetime schedule carries Yes, Dear (two married couples, frequent jokes about sex), Two and a Half Men (Charlie Sheen bedding at least two and a half women per episode, plus a requisite Friends-style lesbian estranged wife), and Still Standing (a former hippie couple talking about their frisky youth), among others. On ABC, Desperate Housewives (glorifying all that is sleazy) is the staple of a schedule that also includes George Lopez (frequent sexual innuendo) and Less Than Perfect (the sex talk rarely stops). WB’s big sitcom, What I Like About You, is awash in sexual innuendo.
None of these channels can touch FOX for sheer vulgarity, however. FOX’s That 70’s Show revels in its own jadedness and hedonism, and jokes about marijuana use and casual sex. The Simpsons helped define my generation, and it frequently engages in casual disdain for Christian values—gay marriage is legalized in Springfield in order to “strike a blow for civil rights,” Reverend Lovejoy has no idea about the source for the scriptural proscription on homosexuality, and Marge (the good parent) has no problem introducing a “lesbian” couple to the children. Malcolm in the Middle portrays the insanely chaotic home life of Malcolm, whose parents are very into each other (visiting a porn store for home entertainment purposes, constant sexual references). Family Guy is more jaded, cynical, and vulgar than all the other shows put together. Masturbation, pornography, homosexuality—nothing is off limits.
All of this social libertinism takes place in the sitcom context, so there are never any consequences for actions taken, and everything is played for laughs. Making fun of those with traditional values is easy enough; it’s always easier to satirize someone with standards than someone without them. There are two reasons for this. First, those with standards are commonly viewed as busybodies by others. External standards that apply to everyone are seen in today’s society as overbearing and baroque. That’s why sitcom parents are often portrayed as horrifically suppressive and oppressive—having standards is an “old folks” thing. Of course, when no one has any standards, or everyone has their own subjective standard, society decays . . . but that’s beside the point.
Second, if certain people hold themselves and others to higher standards, it’s more common for them to fall short and become the butt of jokes. If Jenna Jameson has adultery, there’s nothing to laugh about. If Jerry Falwell does, he’ll never hear the end of it. Hypocrisy as humor pushes destruction of standards.
But there’s a subtext here that’s important both for understanding the porn generation and understanding the reluctance of parents to criticize amoral activity. If a character is funny and likeable, it makes it tough to condemn his or her behavior. How can you reject premarital sex if your child is partaking in it? How can you condemn homosexuality if your best friend is gay? If you like Jack from Will & Grace, how can you say his homosexuality is sinful? If you like Rachel from Friends, how can you label her sexual exploits wrong?
The only danger for sitcoms comes when the laughter stops. When the jokes become stale, liberal activism isn’t quite as funny as it was before—just ask the producers of Ellen.
Angst on Channel 11
The best way to hike ratings is to push boundaries, and television networks know it. Since 1976, the amount of sexual behavior shown during “family hour” (7 p.m. to 8 p.m.) has increased dramatically. By 1996, most networks didn’t set aside the hour as “family.” Professor Dale Kunkel of the University of California-Santa Barbara found that 61 percent of the shows he and his research partners watched during winter 1996 contained sexual behavior, more than doubling the amount visible in 1976. On average, a family hour of network television contained 8.5 references to or depictions of sex, over three times as many as in 1976.58
As Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television, stated, “We’re competing against Beverly Hills, 90210, that has teenage sex every week . . . [My kids] know what those kids are doing on 90210. We have stretched the envelope further.”59
Oversexed teen angst dramas continue to make for insanely popular television and particularly dangerous values lessons. 90210 led the trend for the older members of the porn generation, giving them a show containing more sex than Amsterdam’s red light district. A prom episode had the high school passing out condoms on the tables.60 Another episode featured college students agonizing over the difficulties of abstaining from sex for twenty-four hours.61 Another contained a college student and her boyfriend trying to have sex in an airplane lavatory; the next episode, the two were at a nightspot when the boyfriend asked, “Want to go to my place and get naked?” “So much,” the girl responded.”62 90210 was a cultural phenomenon, garnering 10 million viewers at its inception, and over half of those were teenagers.63
The latest incarnation of 90210 is FOX’s hit show, The O.C. It’s a soap opera about Orange County, in reality a particularly conservative part of California. But there’s nothing conservative about this version of the O.C. Promiscuity, drugs, and alcohol are commonplace—in fact, they’re the driving plot points. This show was designed “to retrace the boulevard 90210 tread before . . . The O.C. has set itself up to head down any number of paths that made its predecessor a camp hit.”64
At its inception in early 2004, The O.C. grabbed an average of 9.6 million viewers.65 By mid-January 2005, the show was garnering only 6.5 million viewers.66 To reinvigorate the viewership, the creators did what they always do: push the envelope. This time, they used the tried and true shenanigan of the lesbian kiss. Marissa (Mischa Barton), the girl next door, discovers that she’s in a sapphic romance with Alex (Olivia Wilde), the new-in-town barkeep. They end up making out on the beach. FOX got its ratings boost—the January 27 episode that started the lesbian relationship had 8.1 million viewers.67 When straight sex won’t do it for the viewers, going to the forbidden is always a savvy marketing move.
Of course, the makers wouldn’t be as explicit about their motives as all of that. No, they’re opening minds and charting new ground. “Teenagers go through this stuff,” Barton told USA Today. “Parents need to accept it or not.”68
Other successful 90210 knockoffs have included Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill, both of which are based on a deep reservoir of sexuality and have promoted homosexuality to suit their ratings needs. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is essentially 90210 with vampire killing involved (and the requisite lesbianism as well). WB’s The Gilmore Girls is an ode to single motherhood: Lorelai, the main character of the show, became pregnant at age sixteen and is a single mother to Rory. On these s
hows, virginity is depicted as loser-esque, sex is glorified, and experimentation with the same sex is considered normal. This conversation between best friends and sometimes lovers Dawson and Joey (female) from Dawson’s Creek sums it up:DAWSON: “I’m the only one who has not had sex. I—I didn’t plan on graduating a virgin. What—what happened?
JOEY: “Best laid plans . . .”
DAWSON: “This mythical college girlfriend I’m gonna have, will she have sex with me?”
JOEY: “Mm . . . no, sorry. She’s a prude.”
DAWSON: “Damn. I had such high hopes the last American virgin would fare better as an undergrad.”
(The scene ends with Dawson making out with Joey.)69