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Nine questions ACMA ruling on gay sex scene

EXCLUSIVE: ACMA is set to rule a gay sex scene in Dante's Cove too hot for MA classification, but Nine is asking why male / female scenes are ok and male / male isn't. Warning: photos contain nudity.

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2015-07-09_1428EXCLUSIVE: An episode of gay ‘gothic-soap’ Dante’s Cove which aired on GO! and is set to be ruled a breach of the Code of Practice has left the Nine Network wondering if ACMA has ruled unfairly because it simulates male / male sex rather than male / female.

A scene in the first episode in which two males simulate intercourse has been ruled too hot for the MA classification under which it was screened last December.

TV Tonight understands the Australian Communications and Media Authority is about to issue a breach of the Commercial Code of Practice.

But Nine is questioning the decision-making and points out that similar depictions between males and females have been aired without incident.

Nine says Dante’s Cove, produced by US gay cable network Here!, was passed by the Film Classification Board with an MA rating for its violence while the sex scenes were deemed to fall under an M category. On GO! it aired as MAV, the equivalent of the higher classification.

But ACMA is believed to have ruled the sex scene a breach of the MA classification while passing the violence.

Richard Lyle, Nine’s Chief Classification Officer told TV Tonight, “We told them we were relying on the Classifications Board viewing of it and the fact they gave it MA for the violence and noted that the sex scenes could be contained at M. We nevertheless maintained the MA classification, which is AV for television.

“We felt the sex scenes could be contained at MA given the Classification Board said it was contained at M,” says Lyle.

“Film at the M level says sexual activity must be discreetly implied and justified by context. Television at the M level says visual depiction of sexual behaviour may only be implied or simulated in a restrained way. It’s the virtually the same thing with a few more words.”

Lyle says the standard for such sex scenes is to not show detailed genital areas or penetration. While the actors can turn on their best acting skills, visuals have to be restrained.

“You don’t actually show them doing the deed so clearly, that you know they’re not acting.”

But Lyle says other scenes on television have included similar male-female depictions without any breach including an episode of Sex and the City in which Charlotte tried rear-entry sex.

“What annoyed us was we’d shown exactly the same visuals implying rear entry intercourse between a male and a female.”

Lyle believes the ACMA decision has being influenced by the fact the characters were both male.

“The Code doesn’t say anything about the gender of the people participating in the sex scenes as it shouldn’t. It’s completely gender neutral,” he said.

“We said to them ‘You’re overweighting this and bringing, unintentionally, a kind of homophobic judgment into it …because it’s male on male sex you’re judging it differently than if it was male on female.’ They denied it, but I can’t help but feel there is a bias whether they’re aware of it or not.

“We asked if they were sure they weren’t lending more weight to it because they were seeing two men have sex rather than male with female.”

ACMA denied it had influenced their decision.

TV Tonight understands a number of classification officers at Free to Air networks are concerned about an increasing trend where series classified MA by the Classification Board are being found not suitable for television by ACMA.

Dante’s Cove has finished its current run on GO! Lyle says some later cuts were made to the second season due to receiving an R Classification from the Classifications Board.

He also indicated Nine had received just 13 written complaints.

The breach of the Code by ACMA is expected to be issued soon.

59 Responses

  1. @ryan – or watching the crap in the first place LOL Maybe if parents monitored their kids more or change the built-in settings on most set top boxes then they wouldn’t need to complain.

  2. ACMA should take into account that people’s complaints aren’t always valid. I mean, are people valid to complain about a sex scene because it happens to be interracial? Of course not, it’s a racist complaint. Why should homophobic complaints be valid?

  5. I agree with the guys who said the pic wasn’t appropriate for the front page of your website- I’m not offended in the slightest and not a fan of censorship but a lot of people check your website at work and if someone behind me complained i’d be in a whole world of trouble.

    I’m sure the revised code should cover this type of decision arising in the future, it is however slightly worrying that an set of people who are supposed to be independent and impervious to bias have made such a decision. There are plenty of warnings, and anyone who doesn’t get what the show is about from the promo’s and still complains really shouldn’t be listened to.

    It appears as though the legitimacy of a complainant is never called into question and the ratio of complainants to happy viewers isn’t taken into account.

  6. The sex scenes in this show are so laughable anyway along with the acting – I’m offended that nine advertises this as a drama when its clearly a comedy. I’ve seen better acting in porn, which I only watch it for the acting too.

  7. so ACMA has a problem with Dante’s Cove on a niche-format channel showing boys bits at 11.00pm but had no problem with Nine showing ample amounts of bare flesh and explicit sex scenes on Underbelly at an 8.30 timeslot…

    I mean, really, at 11.00pm nobody can complain about sex scenes on TV.

    But perhaps SBS should have shown Dante’s Cove. Seeing as they went for so many years playing Queer As Folk and Oz with barely a whisper from ACMA.

  8. I remember the Scene from Sex and the City – clearly ACMA has turned to the right and is now just another homophobic branch of the government (like we needed any more).

    Meanwhile, religious leaders scream that non-believers and gays will burn in hell in early morning religious shows without a peep from ACMA.

    Clearly someone has an agenda.

  9. Programs rated AV should be rated MA and we should abolish the AV15+ rating. All episodes of Dante’s Cove should be rated MA and should be moved back one hour on GO! and yes I don’t care what you think about that!!!!

  10. Make no mistake people this is not an issue of principle. The raunchier it is the higher it will rate. That’s all Nine care about. Hypocrisy all the way up and down the line.

  11. The FTA classification system is in disarray for two reasons:

    1. It’s complaint based. It should be ‘moral temperature of the population’ based. 5 people complaining can alter the code. 100 000 content and unoffended viewers don’t count. This is not a way to build a ‘code’.

    2. The code isn’t consistent across genres or within timeslots.. News and Caf can put much more to air in any given time slot than other genres, drama more than reality, commercials more than the programs they’re within. If there was any real attempt to guide the audience, the codes would be consistent across movies, DVDs, FTA, Pay TV, Online etc, consistent across genres, consistent in timeslots.

    Codes should be there to guide, audiences are quite capable (or should be) of deciding thereafter. Grow up people!

  12. I simply don’t understand, not only the double standard, but the rationale behind why the people complaining would be watching such a show in the first place. There are plenty of channels to watch (admittedly not all great) and people should exercise their choice as to what they (and their children) watch.
    This sort of show definitely ain’t my cup of tea, but I just avoid it. Trying to go further and moralize about what is or isn’t appropriate sexual content for everyone’s eyes is an exercise in both selective censorship and futility.

  13. I’d be interested to know what time the episode was ? I have viewed Dante’s Cove and yes its not ideal for children, however the sexual scenes are no worse than what ive seen on tv by heterosexual people. The ACMA needs to be consistent and ban all heterosexual sexual scenes then.

  14. ryaneco: I think they rate the DVD as a whole, as there shows which have individual episodes aired as PG but the DVD release for the season is rated M. Same goes for M to MA.

    Good example is Blackadder – the individual season DVD releases are all rated PG, but the complete set is M.

  15. I think we should start a compaign complaining about this ruling to the ACMA. I couldn’t find any where on their site to make a complaint about one of their decisions. If someone can find it let us know so we can bombard them with complaints about this. Or maybe David you might want to do some digging for us???

  16. Hopefully this will be the last such instance of sex scenes being found in breach of the code even though they have already been accommodated under the same classification (or in this case, a lower classification!) by the Classification Board. The episode aired in December, but I believe the new code of practice only came into effect on Jan 1. The new code makes amendments to the propositions for sex at MA level (depictions no longer have to be “discreet”), which should effectively ensure that what has been rated MA on DVD can also be shown on TV. Alas, this won’t do anything to prevent ACMA from treating gay sex differently to straight sex, if that is indeed what has happened in this instance.

  18. I haven’t seen Dante’s Cove, but it seems it’s no more explicit than the gay sex scenes that Nine showed in ‘Six Feet Under’, so what’s the deal?

  19. I quite like this show 🙂 Although it seems as though if they can weave in an orgy, they will. But considering the nudity, violence, etc that we see in earlier timeslots, and the fact that the word ‘sh*t’ is no longer bleeped on the news at 6:00; this is quite tame. its on late, its obviously gay, and its quite obvious what you’re getting into from the promos. How a person could know all that and be bothered to complain is beyond me :S

  23. We get boobs and girls bits, and tampon adds at dinner time and all kinds of offensive stuff but something like this, at an appropriately late hour and they get all self righteous on us … definite double standard …
    Just because it is big and it jiggles around … please, give us a break!
    The sensors classed it MA so MA it is!
    Jack!

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