Meanwhile, the movie business has changed radically. As studios have chased larger profits, they’ve reverted almost exclusively to making franchise films with built-in audience recognition. And bigger and bigger investments for major stars and massive special effects have meant that these movies play to the widest audiences, both in the United States and abroad. The result: lots of CGI and explosions but very little sex. In targeting a global audience, Hollywood has become very aware of regional sensitivities and taboos regarding explicit content. The few hits that do feature lots of skin, like Fifty Shades of Grey and the Magic Mike franchise, are all but labeled “THIS IS ABOUT SEX.” There is little room for subtlety here. And the box office numbers bear out the family-friendly approach: Jurassic World and Pixar’s Inside Out beat Magic Mike XXL in its opening weekend, pushing the strippers-on-the-road movie to number four in box office returns on its opening weekend.



Taking chances

Grey's Anatomy made TV sex feminist, with cunnilingus scenes, serious lesbian relationships and a prominent call-out to the “va-jay-jay”

Writer-producer Shonda Rhimes’ explosive breakthrough with Grey’s Anatomy in 2005 started US network TV simmering with its large cast of beautiful doctors getting it on in supply closets and break rooms in between lifesaving surgery. And Grey’s didn’t just exploit sex; it made TV sex feminist, with cunnilingus scenes, serious lesbian relationships and a prominent call-out to the “va-jay-jay” almost by name. Rhimes kept her brand consistent throughout her subsequent soapy creations, Private Practice, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder. Her shows also pioneered explicit gay sex scenes outside the boundaries of pay-cable shows specifically about gay characters, such Queer as Folk and The L Word.

Orange Is the New Black, meanwhile, has rescued lesbian sex scenes from pornography. There’s nothing more clichéd in porn than two chicks getting it on in prison (and the show, it must be noted, sometimes veers). But Orange has humanised such interactions, making them as idiosyncratic as the women who engage in them. Some are sweet. Some are exploitative. Some are romantic. Some are cringe-worthy. Several of the women do not have traditionally idealised body types. In the end, what’s most clear is that woman-on-woman sex in prison is normalised. We root for some of the relationships and hate others, the same as we have done for decades of heterosexual relationships on screen.