Theo James dropped it with wonderful fanfare in the first episode of The White Lotus, but is it progress?Maddy Mussen on the rise of the big penis on the small screen
You may have been surprised this Monday morning when you woke up to see British actor Theo James trending on Twitter. Sure, the second season of The White Lotus premiered that day, but it may also have postponed an Emmy-winning feature that replaced the zeitgeist in a singles episode?
Well, no. Although James’ functionality is perfectly good, it is his penis that gets everyone talking. Or rather, not his penis. As everyone can tell, it’s a prosthesis.
The scene in question shows James’ genitals becoming the mirror behind Aubrey Plaza speechlessly. It surprised the audience enough to get them to tweet, but not as much as it could have.
Because actually, we’ve already noticed a lot of prosthetic penises this year. The prop penis is fashionable, but why?
For starters, it’s because many of the penises we’ve seen on the screen are erect. It is a requirement, even legal, to wear a penile prosthesis for all scenes in which you will have to think that it is erect, because otherwise it is classified as porn.
“Let’s be clear,” says Marci Liroff, the U. S. -based intimacy coordinator. In the U. S. , “the use of prosthetics is because in the United States, the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] requires by law that if we see an erect penis on the screen, the production will have to use a prosthesis. Every time you see someone touch a penis, it’s a prosthesis.
Theo James and Meghann Fahy in season 2 of The White Lotus
Liroff adds, “Another explanation for why a production uses a prosthetic is that it would be difficult for an actor to endure a scene with the many camera angles you want to shoot. “
Earlier this year, we were shown the kind of scene that an erect penile prosthesis would require. The website was enraged after the spin-off Sex and the City And Just Like That revealed Charlotte’s husband’s penis, Harry Goldenblatt, an intimate scene. who saw them interrupted through his daughter Lily.
The (especially large) penis caused a sensation, and showrunner Michael Patrick King later confirmed that it was a prosthetic to calm angry gossip.
Just Like That star Evan Handler wore a prosthetic penis on screen for an episode that aired earlier this year.
Possibly furious gossip would have in common, but Theo James’ incident of being exhibited at The White Lotus, however, did not involve an erect penis. Neither does Eric Dane’s recent prosthetic penis scene in Euphoria, also on screens earlier this year. where he fell into the circle of the relatives’ house and urinated on the ground.
However, this scene also required the use of a prosthetic due to the detail it urinates, as Doniella Davy, head of Euphoria’s makeup department, told Thrillist: “It’s a tube that goes through the [prosthetic] penis itself, and is pumped out.
It turns out that prosthetics are increasingly being used to make actors look more comfortable in nude scenes, even when no penis “action” is required, so to speak. That is, he is right there, flos angelesbby, à los angeles Theo James in The White Lotus.
Euphoria star Eric Dane also noticed rocking his cock, but for reasons of urination.
One of the most memorable recent examples of this is the flaccid penis seen in actor Adam Demos in Sex/Life, which sparked a global internet investigation into whether it was really genuine or not. A source showed Newsweek that the giant appendix was really a prosthesis, flaccid at the scene.
And in a Hollywood Reporter Roundtable interview in 2018, actor Matthew Rhys shared how he even had a voice in the length and shape of his prosthetic for his appearance on the HBO series Girls. Bottom line: “An artist has the option of applying for a prosthetic and that doesn’t deserve to be dishonored,” Liroff says.
But Liroff’s point of view is more debatable than you think. Part of the explanation for why everyone is so pleased with all the prosthetic penis action we’ve had is because it brings nudity to the screen between men and women, which is traditionally tilted towards women. , at the height – still does, if the penis even real?
Many expressed their dismay on Twitter after James’ white lotus scene, sharing how disappointed they would be if the penis officially turned out to be a prosthesis. “No more prosthetic penis on TV,” pop-culture pop-culture Evan Ross Katz tweeted. His tweet agreed, commenting, “It sucks so much that women never use fake breasts. Men also deserve to show genuine parts. “
That’s the crux of the discussion: actresses have had to go through full nude scenes for years, but only now that we’re seeing penises on screen are other people presented with prosthetic replacements of their genitals.
Renowned cultural editor Christina Izzo described the penile prosthesis as a “dick for escape,” explaining: “The use of penile prostheses by male actors on television, especially when their female counterparts do not have the same choice of physical intimacy or professional adaptability, means that any supposed progress will be superficial.
But Liroff disagrees and claims that actresses can achieve equality in this regard by wearing a merkin (a synthetic canopy of hair for the pubic area, necessarily like a pubic wig) if they so choose. “For those with vulvas, some artists have asked for a mirkin (pubic wig) to avoid inadvertent exposure of the genitals in nude or semi-nude scenes,” he says.
“The presence of the merkin protects the actor from inadvertent ‘frontal’ nudity, which most studios/networks do not allow. “
Whether we have achieved nudity is up for debate; Either way, be prepared for the prosthetic penis to keep coming out.
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