Deeply serious question about tv characters' oral sex habits

[selenak]

New or not new?




Now, I only read the first Outlander novel because I was trapped at an airport and didn't feel inspired to read more, but I am mildly curious about the tv version because of Ron Moore and Bear McCreary. Also Tobias "Brutus" Menzies is in it. And it didn't escape my attention that in the pilot, Our Heroine gets cunnilingus from her husband, or, as the AV Club review puts it here:

When he goes in for a kiss, she leans back and instead pushes him downward. Frank gets the message and doesn’t miss a beat as he begins to perform cunnilingus on her. Okay, we’ve seen this scene a million times in the reverse: a dude guiding a girl’s head down for a blow job. But a woman initiating oral sex and the guy just going for it? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing on television before Outlander.

I wonder, too. Because at first I thought, hold on, I can remember several cunnilingus scenes on tv. Without looking it up and purely out of memory, memorable scenes : Alicia and Peter in The Good Wife (and yes, it signals a power switch in their post-scandal, post-prison relationship); Lilah and Wesley in Angel in the s4 opener (actually, Joss Whedon shows are fond of the act; Spike also goes down on the Buffybot in Intervention, and Joss even smuggled it into the musical Once More With Feeling, at the end of Tara's song to Willow ("You make me com....plete")); and of course his readiness to perform cunnilingus gets Junior praise from his girlfriends and merciless ridicule from the guys in season 1 of The Sopranos. However, now that I think about it, in all these cases the cunnilingus performer is the one who initializes the act, not the woman on the receiving end, as it were. (Though I'm not 100% sure about the Alicia and Peter scene, which is at any rate definitely coded to signal she has the upper hand in the relationship now; I might misrenember, but I think it's the first time they have sex after he got released from prison.)

Anyway: if you remember a tv scene where the woman signals to her partner she wants cunnilingus and he promptly goes for it that I did not mention here, gentle reader, feel free to tell me.

Comments

[ide_cyan]

The latest episode of Masters of Sex had this. Virginia told Bill what she wanted him to do.

[selenak]

That's one of the shows I haven't gotten around to checking out, but the fannish murmurs sound intriguing.

[d_generate_girl]

And it was BEAUTIFUL. If the rest of the show were Virginia topping Bill, Betty and Greg Grunberg being obnoxiously nouveau riche, and Allison Janney banging slutty Dr. Langham, I WOULD NEVER TURN IT OFF.

[jesuswasbatman]

Before I clicked on the cut, I thought this would be about whether the Outlander character's willingness to do it was historically accurate...

[selenak]

Nah. Not only is the character in question a man from the 1940s (btw, I can't be sure because it's 15 years or more since I read the book, but I think the time travelling Claire is a (then) contemporary, present day woman in the novel, so putting her and her husband in the 1940s is a change the show made). Mind you, I'm utterly confident in the adaptability of 18th century Scotsmen to please a woman that way, too. I am a Highlander: The Series fan!

BTW, a couple of years ago I was at a book award ceremony where Diana Gabaldon got an audience favorite award, and in her acceptance speech she mentioned that she got inspired by watching Second Doctor adventures and falling for Jamie. I wonder whether anyone ever told Frazer Hines?

[oracne]

I read the first 3 or so of the series, and the 1940s thing WAS in the books - that was what attracted me in the first place! OUTLANDER opens post-WWII, in which Claire was a nurse. I don't remember what her husband did.

[katta]

I wonder whether anyone ever told Frazer Hines?

Oh, yes. She did, and gave him a copy of the novel. Which is rather uncomfortable considering what happens to Jamie in it.

Fandom had a field day with that one back when she was comparing fanfiction to white slavery.

And as orcane pointed out below, the post-WWII setting is straight from the book - as was practically every line in the pilot. It was so faithful I found myself a bit bored. :-)

[selenak]

Ouch. Did nobody tell Diana Gabaldon you do don't hand your explicit h/c torture fic to the actors? :)

re. WWII, well, goes to show how little I remember from that novel.

[wee_warrior]

There was one scene that I remember from Big Love between the main character and one of his wives - I can't recall who initiated it, because it's really been a while, but the wife in question - Margene - was by far the one who knew the most about herself sexually and also the one who would have had no problem asking for something she enjoyed. Of course, that was HBO (and I guess they didn't think a show about secretly polygamous Mormons would really be watched by straight men scared of everything but strictly male-oriented heterosexual sex).

[callmesandyk]

I feel as though the Americans has had it, but I'm not sure. There was the second season premiere episode which opens with the daughter walking in on the parents engaged in a 69.

[selenak]

...which reminds me that I still haven't gotten around to watcing The Americans...

[jesuswasbatman]

Isn't there a scene early in Six Feet Under where Nate gets caught performing oral sex on Brenda by the rest of the family? I don't remember if she initiated it, though.

[selenak]

They were caught by Ruth, thanks for reminding me! It was during Brenda's first "official" dinner with the family, too. I can't recall who started it. Ruth blamed Brenda, but then Ruth would...

[kalypso]

I'm trying to remember the conversation about it in Six Feet Under's Can I Come Up Now. The gist of it, as indicated by the title, was Claire complaining that her boyfriends were prepared to do it, but kept looking up as if to ask "can I come up now?" My impression was that she was the one asking for oral sex, but I can't remember enough to be sure.

[selenak]

Don't remember about Claire, but as jesuswasbatman has reminded me, Brenda and Nate get caught by Ruth while Nate is performing cunnilingus on Brenda.

[msilverstar]

I remember being struck that Viggo's character in both Perfect Murder and A Walk on the Moon went down with evident satisfaction.