I haven’t watched broadcast television for many years. I watch an hour or two of shows every evening that he who controls the remote has selected for our nightly viewing to relax . He selects from Netflix, Prime, Apple TV and other pay to view offerings.
Initially it was a shock to the system, as in this new world of private entertainment the censorship was practically non-existent. Game of Thrones was a case in point. All of a sudden I was faced with soft porn. However, the incredible plot lines, wonderful characters, superb acting and detailed and creative costumes more than made up for the preoccupation with nudity and sex. The graphic violence was cringe-worthy too, but that is what your hands are for. I spent many a torture scene blocking my ears and covering my eyes.
Of course, it was not just Game Of Thrones that made the most of this new censor free land. Other shows seemed to delight in providing full frontal shots of men’s genitals at every available opportunity. Apparently, this is what true equality looks like (flaccid and dangly).
A few years down the track I have managed to get used to this change and was enjoying the variety and the quality of productions, but then ‘progressive’ themes started to creep in and I started to get really annoyed. I have noticed the ‘progressive’ themes and propaganda in a number of the shows that we have watched recently, but I will use the historical drama Black Sails as my example for the purpose of this article.
He who controls the remote chose the show. It promised to have lots of violence and of course nudity and sex. But for me at least it had a superb lead actor in Toby Stephens and interesting costumes. I hadn’t been watching the series for long when the ‘progressive’ themes kicked in and I started mocking the show each night, referring to it as the “Gay childless pirates of Bi-sexual island”.
Despite all the sex and the complete lack of contraception, there was not a single child or baby on the pirate island. The pirates regularly had sex with the prostitutes but none of them ever got pregnant. One episode did show a grotesque device for sucking out the semen after a prostitute had been tied down and raped by an entire ship’s crew, but that was it.
The lead male and female characters in the show are not heterosexual. Both of them are bisexual, but they have not had sex with each other. The main female character is loved by a lesbian prostitute, but that ends badly. The lesbian prostitute then seduces the longtime female pirate partner of a heterosexual pirate and they fall in love.
The main male character has a sexual relationship with a husband at the same time as he sleeps with his wife, and throughout it all not one woman becomes pregnant.
Once you get past all the gay and bisexual themes you then have to deal with all the messages about slavery. We all know that slavery is bad, but the show goes out of its way to make sure that we understand that it is bad, and they pretty much hammer you over the head just in case you are a little thick.
The lesbian prostitute is an ex-slave (the daughter of a white father who owned her slave mother) and she outmanoeuvres the white patriarchy, AKA the female white governor who ran the island (her ex-lover).
Which brings me to the next theme: Female empowerment.
Despite the island being a hotbed of vicious heterosexual pirates who spend all their time bedding the prostitutes when they are not killing other men at sea, they are controlled by a pretty young blonde governor. How does she do this? Apparently, it is all about saying “Fuck” a lot, having henchmen to be your enforcers and shagging one of the most feared pirates in order to bend him to your will.
Another female empowerment theme that stood out like dog’s balls was the consensual sex scenes. The women were on top 90% of the time. They were the ones in control. It happened so often it was clear that the producers were making a point. In this fantasy version of history, women cut throats, manipulated men with sex, were clever and calculated enough to run and control an illegal trading operation and took control in the bedroom. Pointedly, the women in control were not heterosexual.
I prefer my historical dramas to be historically accurate and I want the male and female leads to be heterosexual unless the historical reality was that they were not. I resent having ‘progressive’ themes rammed down my throat when I just want an hour of entertainment to relax with in the evenings. Why should I pay to be lectured to?
Am I the only one who has noticed this change?