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Conservatives: Let's see good (marital) sex

By Kelly Jane Torrance (Contact) | Friday, August 15, 2008

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"The worst thing we can do in the media is dissociate good sex from good relationships," declares Michael Medved, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and a member of the advisory board of the conservative Parents Television Council. The PTC released a study last week complaining that "broadcast networks depict sex in the context of marriage as either nonexistent or burdensome."

Yes, this is the same PTC heretofore known best for its complaints to the Federal Communications Commission over indecency on broadcast television.

The nonprofit group, headquartered in Los Angeles and Alexandria, has campaigned against portions of, among other shows, "Without a Trace," "Nip/Tuck," "NYPD Blue," "Big Brother" and, perhaps most famously, Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime show. One television executive described the group as "the primary driver … in terms of indecency as an issue now."

So it might come as a small shock to learn that the PTC is demanding better sex on TV — as long as it's marital sex, of course.

The PTC's report, "Happily Never After: How Hollywood Favors Adultery and Promiscuity Over Marital Intimacy on Prime Time Broadcast Television," examined all scripted prime-time programs on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW in a four-week period last season. It found that "verbal references to nonmarital sex outnumbered references to sex in the context of marriage by nearly 3 to 1, and scenes depicting or implying sex between non-married partners outnumbered similar scenes between married couples by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1."

Melissa Henson, PTC's director of communications and public education, wrote the study and summarizes it succinctly: "Marital intimacy is almost never depicted on TV these days, and if it is, it's almost always painted in a negative light. By contrast, extramarital sexual relations are almost always portrayed positively."

So what TV needs is … more sex between married couples?

"It's not necessarily that we're clamoring for more sexual content on TV," Ms. Henson is quick to clarify, "but more positive portrayals of marriage would be a positive change. The cliched joke on TV is husbands complaining their wives are frigid or have no interest in sex."

She would welcome tasteful treatments of marital intimacy, "if it's done in an appropriate way, handled responsibly and not graphic in its depiction."

Mr. Medved doesn't hesitate to voice his support for more depictions of marital intimacy on TV. Not what you might expect from a man whose family doesn't even own a television. It almost certainly wouldn't have been the conservative response almost 50 years ago, when married couples like Rob and Laura Petrie were obliged to sleep in twin beds on "The Dick Van Dyke Show."