0/5

Girls “Money Shot” too hot for Foxtel

Foxtel was forced to edit a controversial scene from Girls because it was too hot under current censorship rules.

2013-03-15_1400Foxtel was forced to edit a scene in this week’s episode of Girls because it was too hot under current censorship rules.

The scene from “On All Fours” involved Adam (Adam Driver) and his new girlfriend, Natalia (Shiri Appleby) having rough sex and finished with Adam masturbating semen onto her chest.

Showcase edited very little out of the MA scene but shots of the fluid were excised.

A Showcase spokesperson confirmed to TV Tonight, “It was not allowed by Australian censorship laws.”

Under the MA classification for Pay TV “sexual activity may be implied.” Under the R classification “Sexual activity may be realistically implied. The general rule is, simulation yes, the real thing, no.”

The episode attracted attention in the US for the rough foreplay by Adam towards Natalia, particularly after he asked her to get on all fours and crawl to his bedroom before sex (and she obliged).

As the LA Times notes, This was not a first for cable TV, or the movies. An episode of HBO’s Sex and the City showed fluid but played it for laughs, as did a well-known scene featuring Cameron Diaz in the comedy There’s Something About Mary.

However, this time it was a jarring end to a violent and hard-to-watch scene. Even theatrical movies with sexually explicit material and adult pay-per-view channels typically steer clear of such displays, especially if it’s not for comic relief.

Asked about the scene, an HBO spokeswoman said, “Girls has a raw honesty that viewers appreciate.” In a prepared statement, she added, “This is nothing more than use of props.” She declined to respond to questions about whether there had been any debate at the channel or the show over whether the scene might be going too far.

The Hollywood Reporter noted:

Yes, HBO “went there,” and it’s not like it hasn’t done so before (who can forget that post-blowjob mouth- and chin-wipe that Littlefinger gave the prostitute before he sent her to her next client on last season’s Game of Thrones?), but this sort of ultra-shock moment drowned the bigger message, so why shoehorn it in? And isn’t the suggestion of it enough?

In classification context is everything. The way the characters depict sex whether with fluids, violence or even comedy is crucial to the overall effect of the scene.

It’s arguable that in this scene having the character crawl to Adam’s bedroom before manhandling her was far more questionable than a little bit of fluid. But Natalia was also compliant rather than resisting.

Under MA classifications, “Sexual violence may be implied, if justified by context.”

15 Responses

  1. “The general rule is, simulation yes, the real thing, no” – but this wasn’t the real thing, was it? I’m sure it came out of a bottle.

    Isn’t it amazing, no problems showing rooms blanketed in blood, but a couple of drops of another bodily fluid…

  2. If you are a regular viewer of the show, then a money shot is not going to offend.

    Shots of Lena Dunham in just underwear playing table tennis or trying to pee next to a train platform just as an elderly couple come along, now that is confronting.

    But, it is what makes the show so intriguing and engaging in a world of Two Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, etc.

  3. Canada have to gay porn channels on cable tv… we can’t even show fake money shots… this is 2013 right? not 1953? (yes I am aware tv wasn’t in Australia then, lol).

  4. I wasn’t offended by what I saw on Monday night, just a bit surprised, but I’d better try and find the full version just in case !
    He was very considerate to do as she asked.
    Her bum did look very sexy as she crawled along……

  5. I recorded the first airing of it (around Monday at 5pm I think?) and there was definitely a shot of semen on her naked chest then he wiped it off with a shirt or something. If that was edited then I wonder what else could have been there… So yeah there’s no way the first airing was the censored version, Foxtel telling some lies it seems.

  6. Well then they didn’t edit things out as well as they though they did. You could clearly see the conditioner or watered down hair gel on Shiri Appleby’s chest.

  7. “having rough sex”
    Really! that is what’s called having rough sex! looked pretty ordinary to me, I’ve seen the original and they shouldn’t have cut it, after all it was on PayTV which has parental locks etc Pathetic!

  8. It was still in the fast tracked episode on Monday afternoon.

    There was no sexual violence. And anyway it would be easily justified by context as it relates to the nature of the characters and fits with how they have been developed over the two series, and also the theme of porn culture which the show as often brought up.

Leave a Reply