Earlier today I stumbled across a brewing kerfuffle in response to The CW’s decision to cut a female masturbation scene from one of its shows. As Tracy Clark-Flory wrote over at Salon,
“We’re thoroughly comfortable with women’s bodies being sexualized — but not so much with women being sexual. That is not to mention that we’re still unaccustomed to depictions of female desire that emphasize sexual longing as opposed to manipulation or a narcissistic want to be wanted.”
I’m completely on board with that characterization and its underlying critique, with one small exception: that “still” in the second sentence. Because it’s my sense that we’ve actually moved backwards in that regard.
A weird and slightly personally embarrassing case in point:
Television viewers of a certain age and inclination may vaguely remember “Remington Steele,” a not-particularly-significant private eye show that ran