Guess what? I watched some Archer episodes last night, and there was some lady-bations/lady-gasm type stuff in there, so I thought I'd do a quick and dirty SSL Review. If you haven't seen Archer, and you like to watch some crude, crass shit, I suggest you check it out. I think the first seasons were funny as hell, and Archer is a cartoon, but he's hot. I wrote about the sexy vs. sexual gender balance on the show HERE. I think it lost a little in the later seasons, but maybe that's just me. I still watch it though.
As my most of you already know, an SSL Review is a critique specifically of a depiction or discussion of female orgasm and/or masturbation. I look toward realism (for instance, were the physical things happening to that women while she orgasmed things that could realistically cause orgasm for a woman?) and to what the depiction/discussion reflect from and add to the larger cultural discussion around lady-gasms and female sexuality. A show could be good with a bad SSL review or vice versa, and I really try to keep and SSL review to the SSL reviewable scenes, but if I feel like it, I can talk about anything I want to - because it's my blog.
You can see all the SSL TV Reviews HERE (and as always you can find all the movie SSL Reviews HERE).
So here we go:
Archer S6 E9 "Pocket Listing"
The Slide Show
So, Pam and Lana are getting into position for a mission headed by Slater (played by Christian Slater), an asshole CIA dude, and Lana is complaining to Pam about Slater's ridiculous missions and the stupid french maid costumes they were made to wear.
Pam walks over to her with her phone and says, "I think these costumes are awesome. Here let me get some pics of ya," to which Lana quickly and dryly replies, "to masturbate to?" Pam plays it off with a little, ".hhhuhhhuu pfft..please!" and then looks right at Lana and sincerely says, "Please."
So, for some background, Lana is like a bad-ass hot secret spy and Pam is the HR person for the secret spy agency, and she is a shockingly hardcore bad ass that is crude as hell and always DTF. She talks of masturbating a lot, but pretty much everyone on the show has been known to masturbate including Archer's mom, the stone-cold bitch, ex-spy and secret spy agency director.
So, this scene, as part of a bigger picture of the show, I think really normalizes the idea that women masturbate. The jokes pertaining to female masturbation are an equal match to the talk of male masturbation in the show, and masturbation seems like something that everyone does and that they are not particularly ashamed of.
I like this because anything that makes it feel less strange for women to masturbate is a plus for the future of women's orgasm...'cause, by god, orgasm equality in partnered sex acts ain't gonna happen without more ladies masturbating at earlier ages and then taking the knowledge of their orgasm into partner sex starting right from the first times they engage in partner sex...and that's more likely to happen if people get over feeling like women masturbating is wierd or unusual.
Plus, I'd just like to say I'm just a big fan of Pam's unabashed sexuality - and I like that in the show she often finds partners who are as well.
Lana and Archer
At the end of this episode, Lana and Archer are fucking in a bathroom. It's the first time they've fucked in quite a long time. She's standing facing the sink with her hands on it, and Archer is standing behind banging her. Nothing, including anyone's hands are near her clit at all. So, since simple ol' stimulation of the vaginal walls doesn't actually seem to be something that can cause orgasm in women (seriously, it really doesn't), this doesn't seem to be a sex situation that would actually make a woman orgasm. And to be fair, it cuts before Lana orgasms, but it really plays as though it's super good and I feel like there would be a strong assumption from the viewer that whatever is happening in this scene is going to make her come... which is why I'm SSL Reviewing it even though it's not technically an SSL Reviewable moment.
Here's the interaction
Archer: uhhh, oh myy goddd. uh, Lana, it's like, it's like..So, clearly there is a strong sense here that she thinks his dick is making it soooooo good, which I think can easily translate to sooooo orgasmic. Now, I won't argue against the fact that sometimes a dick can feel real nice moving up in the vag, but I will (and do constantly on this blog...it's like kinda what a huge part of what this blog's all about) argue that orgasm from merely stimulation to the vagina from a penis has never ever in all the years people have been studying this stuff been observed or recorded causing orgasm in scientific literature. If this penis inside vagina = orgasm thing is a thing that happens, science hasn't physically documented it yet, and it's probably a lot less common than we think.
Lana: uhhh
Archer: the danger makes it that much hotter. uhh
Lana: yeah
Archer: uh
Lana: yeah, that. Plus your dick! uhh!
Archer: right?
Lana: uh
Archer: uhhh
So, this scene with Lana and Archer is another of the many, many, many scenes in movies and TV that insinuate women orgasm from a penis moving in their vagina. It helps build the fake cultural argument that this is not only a known thing, but that it's common. In fact the actual thing that is known to make women, stimulation to the external clitoris/vulva area, is almost never shown in male-female sex scenes or when a woman is orgasming during intercourse. So, although this scene is not an unusual scene, it is unrealistic and adds to the already badly skewed cultural understanding of how exactly women physically orgasm.
Archer S6 E10 "Reignition Sequence"
More Penis Stuff
So the scene in this episode is similar to the one above in that it's not specifically a discussion or depiction of orgasm, but it insinuates, by the level of "good" the sex was, that Lana has orgasmed - and again, it blames the "goodness" on the dick. So just take all the stuff I said above and apply it to this scene too.We don't see them doing it. The scene starts just after they finished.
Lana: That was insane. It's insane like every time now. What is going on with you?
Archer: Going on with me how? What do you mean?
Lana: I mean, and, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but did your dick get bigger?
Archer: I don't think so, is that a thing?
Lana: I think I would have heard of it.
Anyway, they go on to talk about other things, including maybe an old French book or something I never heard of...I think, But point is, it's just another piece of media adding to the strong and deeply ingrained feeling that penises cause lady-gams and the bigger the better. It's a bunch of BS. Why, oh why could she not have asked him something else - like "don't take this the wrong way, but when did you start noticing the clit." (that would have been appropriate too because Archer is the most selfish of people in almost every way).
Rating
So, I do love the way this show so casually speaks of masturbation and how fully engaged the women are in the talking about and doing of the masturbation. I think that's a positive and fundemental force for Orgasm Equality.
However, the strong reiteration of the status quo idea that penises cause lady-gasms is a net negative for Orgasm Equality. We'll never be able to make a dent in the orgasm gap if media continues to drive home the incorrect assumption that intercourse is as orgasmically stimulating to the vagina as it is to the penis.
I give these Archers a 2 vuvla rating - and they only get those because I liked the lady-bation stuff.
(!)(!)
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