Vulva, anus—either would be fine. It doesn’t even need to be a close-up. What matters instead is the implication, and the transgression that pushing our cultural boundaries on prestige TV can provide. White—who has won three Emmys for his incisive portrayal of class, race, and gender in White Lotus—is a writer we can trust to complete this task in a straightforward, yet subtle way. It’s a duty we ought to encourage him to fulfill.

Obscenity laws may well be holding him back from this. While there’s little in the way of formal rules and regulations prohibiting something like a labia from being shown outside of a medical or pornographic context, the Federal Communications Commission still cites Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 line “I know it when I see it” as a guidepost for what distinguishes obscenity. So then, what makes flaccid penises a-OK while vagina—or butt—is nowhere to be found?

It’s a matter of personal interpretation, but it’s also probably because many viewers are simply incapable of seeing hole as anything other than pornographic. A flaccid penis is a symbol of a lack of horniness, while a vagina or anus can still be perceived as erotic whether it’s aroused or not. We’re missing something in the way we interpret orifices, something that perhaps a broader visual presence in media could provide.

Despite this genitalia-related discrepancy, women appear nude on screen far more often than men. The roster of female celebrities on international nudity-in-film-and-TV catalog Mr. Skin is nearly three times the size of male celebrities on its sister site, Mr. Man. But when you narrow this down to genitalia specifically, a new dichotomy emerges. Though “bush” and “full frontal” still outnumber dicks, the former represents vulva in an obscured form. Per Mr. Skin’s keyword searches, there are only 287 clips from film and television featuring labia and 173 featuring “vagina,” most of which come from niche erotic art films like Nymphomaniac or pornographic flicks that have been canonized as culturally significant like Debbie Does Dallas. Meanwhile, on Mr. Man, there are 4,386 clips featuring penis. There are no instances of anus, regardless of gender, that are not from pornography.

Isn’t it time to change the story? If any network were going to do it, it would be HBO, home to the most dick-shots of any show in history. In fact, it would even seem appropriate for hole to appear on a show like Euphoria, where it would quickly become absorbed by the broader stunt and spectacle of the series itself. On a show like White Lotus, however, hole would retain the power to mean something on its own. In the first season, Steve Zahn’s penis wasn’t just there for the fun of showing a penis, but was instead integral to our understanding of his character and his anxieties. It was a symbol not just of his masculinity, but the fragility of his sense of self as he aged as both a father and a husband. It served nothing in the way of sex appeal. Couldn’t hole, in whatever form, offer just as rich a symbolic narrative?

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How exactly a vulva or butthole would accomplish this without getting flagged as obscene is a challenge I trust a writer like White could handle. White has already proved himself adept at handling sex scenes in ways that highlight the inherently bizarre nature of intimacy. The infamous ass-eating scene of White Lotus’ first season is a perfect example, but imagine how much more striking and human it would be had we caught just the slightest glimpse of the ass itself. (Not to mention more inclusive of the many types of sex people have).

One solution could be prostheses, though they’re clearly a cop-out. Earlier this year, I lamented that the majority of penises we’ve seen in mainstream shows and movies have been prosthetic. Zahn’s dick-out scene made somewhat of a stir, despite being fake. In Season Two, we saw penis once more on Theo James who has since described the prosthetic used as looking like it were stolen “off a donkey on a field”—it was nine inches long and four inches wide. Sebastian Stan’s talking penis in Pam & Tommy was fake, as was Taylor Zakhar Perez’s in Minx. I don’t love this—it implies that average-looking, real penises are not appropriate for public consumption—but maybe there’s something there. Maybe we can start with prostheses, then work our way up to the real thing. We’ve got to start somewhere!

Will you also be waiting for actresses to show their actual labia instead of it being covered by fake pubic hair merkins, or no?

— David Polus (@DavidPolus) April 7, 2022

Merkin is a wig for your genitals. For modesty. I think a lot of them look ridiculous. European men from films I've seen usually just show their actual penis. American cinema is embracing full frontal male nudity but with prosthetics and CGI. It's ridiculous. Just don't show it

— ValleyWitch ☽ (@NINETIESWITCH) April 9, 2022

I imagine that even with the use of prosthetics, the task of showing hole is still quite the ask for any actor. But what is the role of the actor if not a vessel through which norms can be defied and dogmas can be questioned? White Lotus showing hole of any variety would set forth a shift in how we perceive the body in media. The only reason it remains obscene is because we haven’t yet been asked to look at it any other way. Mr. White, won’t you please raise us the question?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5251353&forum_id=2#45620459)

I still think it's a cleverly written show, and the weekly speculations are fun. Doing something like the author says would make the story all about that and not the show.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5251353&forum_id=2#45620557)

Why are these people obsessed with doing things you shouldn't do?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5251353&forum_id=2#45620453)

I Called the Federal Judge Who Mocked Me to the Federalist Society. It Wasn’t What I Expected.

There’s No Way I Can Compete With My Kids’ Dads. Should I Just Give Up?

Help! My Mother-in-Law Stages Creepy Photo Shoots With My Daughter.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5251353&forum_id=2#45620512)

"[Judge Pryor] went on to lob comic insults at a number of left-leaning journalists, including Elie Mystal and my colleague Dahlia Lithwick, who have written about the inner workings of the Federalist Society—a bold and unusually personal retort to criticism. He also made fun of me. “No less an authority than Mark Joseph Stern,” Pryor said. And then, responding to knowing laughs from the audience, he added: “And really, is there any less an authority?” "

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5251353&forum_id=2#45620546)