Masters of Sex

Posted 10/24/2013

After watching three episodes of "Masters of Sex" on Showtime (based on the Masters and Johnson clinical studies of human sexuality), here 's my take. First, we're still FUBAR about sex. If the woman is attractive you can see her bare breasts. If she's old you can't. Even though this is Showtime and airs late in the evening the sight of pubic hair or a penis--erect or otherwise--remains unthinkable. Simulated sex scenes are cold, as in devoid of heat, as in the opposite of what the sex act is. 

The subjects in the study are paraded like faceless robots who simply perform--singly or with a partner--on command. And talk about the observer effect skewing the experiment! Is there anyone who could preform sexually while being watched and not experience an added, shall we say, "intensity" arising from the sheer kinkiness of others looking on? The Fifties are famous for sexual repression and fucking yourself or another while being observed would add an exhibitionist or uptight element that could not be denied (and would certainly distort the data being recorded on the various medical devices used in the experiments).

This show is a standard-issue soap opera and I don't think I'll be tuning in again. I should have known that a majority of the cable viewing public, enamored of murder, gore, and violence, still have to be spoon-fed like babies when it comes to sex.