The Americans Season 4: The SSL Review

The Americans Season 4

As I've said before, I LOVE the Americans, and I'm about to watch Season 5 finally, so I thought I should finally SSL Review Season 4. There were 2 SSL Reviewable scenes in this season and both included a woman coming during intercourse in missionary style. One is slightly more realistic in my opinion, but we'll get to that.

As you know, only depiction or discussion of female orgasm and/or female masturbation and/or the clit are eligible for SSL Review. Nothing else counts, including plain 'ol sex if it doesn't include anything listed above. I specifically critique the realism (for instance, were the physical things happening to that women while she orgasmed things that could realistically cause orgasm for a woman?) and also speak on what the depiction/discussion reflects from and adds to the larger cultural discussion around lady-gasms and female sexuality.

You can see all the SSL TV Reviews HERE (and as always you can find all the movie SSL Reviews HERE).

S4 Episode 5: Solid Missionary Depiction 

In this scene the main characters, Philip and Elizabeth, have sex in bed. They are in a missionary-ish position when the lady-gasm occurs. It's shot mostly from bed level looking towards their bodies from the top of their heads (see the last 30 seconds in the clip below), but we can't really see anything but their heads and upper chests because they are tightly pressed together and their bodies block their torsos, hips and legs from view.

So, I can't really say what was happening in the pelvic region at the time she orgasms. Clearly they were meant to be having intercourse, and as you know intercourse alone would not realistically cause a woman to orgasm given that there is no physical evidence in scientific literature showing that stimulation inside the vagina without additional external clitoral stimulation has ever caused orgasm.

However, it is completely possible for a woman to have an orgasm during intercourse if she is able to get enough stimulation on her clitoral/vulva area. Obviously that can be done with hands or vibrator placed down there, but it can also be done if she is able to grind against her partner or the bedding or what-have-you in such a way that the ol' clit gets enough stimulation to take her over the edge. I don't accept this grinding possibility is happening in sex scenes unless I see active bodily movement from the woman and feel there are body parts or bedding continuously (and that doesn't mean intermittently during banging situations) pressed up against the vulva area during the intercourse. Only then will I accept it's possible that the woman is getting consistent enough pressure and stimulation to realistically orgasm.

So, that's what I need to see in order to entertain the possibility that the fictional woman's orgasm is depicted in a realistic way: consistent pressure against clit/vulva area and active bodily movement from the woman. I think it's a fair assessment. I mean, if I saw a depiction of a dude that came from a woman moving her head back and forth in front of his penis, only touching the tip with her lips intermittently each time her head ended up back at the penis, then I would say that was pretty silly. Maybe if he was crazy horny it could happen as a fluke, but just like a dude banging a woman and maybe having his body intermittently pushing up against her vulva/clit during each thrust, it's just not likely, people. Females need consistent clit stim and males need consistent penile stimulation. It's simple really.

Anyway, this scene hit the mark. Like I said, I couldn't see their lower bodies, but judging from their upper bodies, they were pressed together pretty tightly and consistently, so that satisfies one of my conditions. The other condition gets a check mark too because Elizabeth was grabbing his body and moving her core kinda desperately, and to me, even though I couldn't see the lower parts, it was enough to assume she very easily could be grinding like a motha fucker against him. I love that because it's realistic enough, but I also just like seeing women's bodies actively moving during sex. We are often depicted not moving at all while a dude bangs into us, and that sucks because we need depictions that help model actual ways women might orgasm during intercourse, and laying still ain't one of them.

S4 Episode 9: Loud Come

So this is another missionary sex scene where the woman orgasms, but this just isn't as good a depiction as the one above. It's two Russians, Oleg and Tatiana, but I sometimes call them Russian Pete Campbell (because his personality kinda reminds us of Pete Campbell on Mad Men) and Russian Miranda July (because she looks the tiniest bit like Miranda July). She's super loud and vocal about it because it's a thing with them. He's rich and lived in homes with walls thick enough to be loud during sex in his youth, and she was poor and had paper thin walls in her apartments. Now, she's in a place with sensibly thick walls. So, she's specifically loud. It's cool. I get it. it makes sense, and it's not a fake porny depiction.

Other than that, it's just basic intercourse sex. He was close down on her, which is good, so her vulva/clit area may be getting consistently pressed upon, but she doesn't seem to be moving her body much, and so I don't buy that there would really be a sufficient amount of appropriate clit stimulation there if she's not actively making that happen with her own body. Really, it just looks like every other sex scene you'll ever see. He fucks her...she comes...and we are left to assume that intercourse in and of itself is as orgasmic for females as it is for males...and that's just not true. Her coming in that situation is simply not that realistic, but it's also super status quo, so it's not super egregious.

Oleg and Tatiana

The Vulva Rating

I liked the depiction of the Philip-Elizabeth orgasm because their bodies were such that she could have been consistently pressed up against him and grinding the whole time, and that could realistically get a woman her orgasm. The Tatiana-Oleg one was a bit too status quo though. I'll give this season a mixed review of 3 1/2 vulvas.

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