Wilfred (S1 Ep 1-8) - The SSL Review
I just started watching the show Wilfred on Netflix. I guess I just couldn't resist a show that revolves around a relationship between a man and a man dressed up in a crappy dog suit that is actually a dog to everyone but that man. Funny enough, there happen to be 2 instances of depictions or discussions of female sexual response within the first 8 episodes, and you know that means I have to do an SSL review. So here goes.
Firstly, I like the show. It's pretty funny, acted well (but only really by the 2 main characters), and strangely kind of like Fight Club. What it has insinuated so far about female sexual response is a little more complicated.
I'll start with the more direct statement. Ryan, the main character played by Elijah Wood, was in a situation in which he had to have sex with a woman in order to get out of paying for the big ol' dent he put in her car. That woman was Jane Zaczmarek, or you might know her as the mother from Malcom in the Middle. She was depicted as a successful, yet super bitchy business woman, but softens up to a sickening degree when she thinks Ryan might be interested in getting it on with her. It's sickening because she starts talking in a baby voice and calls herself a "wittle wabbit." It's pretty annoying, not just because of the baby voice, but also how hard the writers tried to play the undesirable-ness of the pushy, successful, middle-aged woman stereotype. So, Ryan is a squeamish dude anyway about sex, and he keeps telling Wilfred he doesn't want to have sex with someone he doesn't have feelings for. But he's eventually reluctantly in bed, about to get things going - still kinda trying to avoid it, and she starts forcefully pushing his head down and telling him what "wittle wabbit" wants. He is pushing against, refusing to go down, when she says more aggressively, that she must not be making herself clear; she tells him Wittle Wabbit can't have an orgasm unless he goes down. He actually gets out of any sexual interactions with her at this point, but you'll just have to watch to see why.
In one way, I like that someone, somewhere, on some show said that cunnilingus is the only way that she can come, cause that's true for a whole hell of a lot of women in partnered sex activities. So, kinda this was a fresh take on the intercourse is king style of most other media. However, I don't love that the person who said it was written as a pushy, sexually unattractive, bitch.
And on that note, let me compare that scenario to one in another episode. Ryan's neighbor and Wilfred's owner is a cute young woman that Ryan kinda likes. She has an annoying and uber-masculine boyfriend that Wilfred hates and Ryan is intimidated by. Wilfred calls Ryan up and says that Ryan needs to break them up because he can't stand the all night sex with back to back to back to back orgasms from his owner. That's right, uberboyfriend is also ubersex god. We see a little glimpse of the couple. The boyfriend is on top in classic intercourse pounding style, and she is coming like a porn star. Ryan can even hear it from next door.
This is so often the case (the 40 Year Old Virgin also sins in this way also) that the "crazy" girl seems to ask for other methods, besides intercourse, to be included in the sex act (I know! Crazy, right?), but when the normal, desirable gal gets on screen, she can come from some good ol' poundin' - you know, like a normal girl should. So, although cunnilingus was mentioned as a primary way for women to get off, it was also sort of trivialized as what pushy, crazy, bitchy, or high maintenance, gals need. Regular gals just need a masculine man doing them in a classic way! Yay for normal girls!
As a whole, this show reinforced that it's weird or unlady-like to expect (and certainly to outright ask for) other types of activities besides intercourse within the sex act. It also reinforces the sense that the more uber masculine a man, the more he can use his uber masculine dick to screw a woman into an all night orgasm diva. All of this is absolute bullshit, so I give this show 0 vulvas out of 5 (but I'd still recommend it to watch. What can I say, I like the show.)