The only thing separating a studio audience from a couple having sex on stage is a “soundproof box”. Then the couple emerges from their connubial enclave to sit on couches and talk about the experience—and their relationship—with a panel of “experts”. AMC, purveyor of classic movies, picked up the show “Sex Box” from the UK for its We tv unit.
There’s nothing classic, or classy, about Sex Box. It’s crass, craven, and frankly, disgusting. What kind of person would sit in that studio audience? How does the cast “warm up” the audience when they are sitting there vicariously focused on a couple having (undoubtedly bad) sex on stage? Talk about performance anxiety, how does the couple who are in “the box” get themselves in the mood, or even remotely consider consummating the act? How do the show producers assure anyone that they did (I don’t want to know)?
Those questions address only the logistical aspect of such abject nonsense. The main question is: what kind of television audience would dare to watch Sex Box? It’s really only one step away from crossing the line into live sex on TV. Sex Box is mental pornography, barely removed from video porn. People who would watch it are watching porn on network TV. Then the couple talks about it sitting on couches.
There is so much wrong with the concept that, at first, I simply didn’t believe such a show exists. Has our culture devolved into the abyss of immorality to the point where we treat sex as a public exhibition without any shame? There’s always been pornography. Nobody can argue there hasn’t. In the last 30 years, it’s found its way from back room 8mm skin flicks to a multi-billion dollar industry, with video, internet, and print units more profitable than major studios and newsmagazines. But everyone has always acknowledged that pornography is not for the widest audience; even the pornographers haven’t attempted to mass-market their wares to network television.
Porn as a business has always been the ultimate self-selecting venture. People who want it would seek it out. But that’s no longer true. Now, with smartphones, sexting, and SnapChat, teens are increasingly exposed to pornography at a very young age, and they are even producing their own. A high schooler taking a nude pic and sending it to another is producing porn. Many times, these photos find their way onto the Internet, “into the wild” so to speak, and are collected by disturbed individuals. These kids are making themselves victims, and are becoming sexual predators at the same time. They don’t even realize it.
The sexualization of TV and movies, along with personal experiences with porn, has deadened our young to real sexual experience, in the context of love, passion, and marriage. When my wife and I were attending pre-marital counseling, our pastor referred to sex as “God’s super-glue.” This is so accurate. Couples were meant by God to “become one flesh”, and the act of sex no only accomplishes that, it has the potential to produce the fruit of one flesh: children. Abstinence before marriage is now so widely condemned as “impossible” that attempting to teach it in schools results in controversy and ridicule.
It’s like trying to teach keeping your clothes dry while walking through a field of sprinklers. It takes agility and focus. There’s not much dry ground left. And now, AMC and We tv has moved us from internet porn and sexting to cable TV, and not the adult channels. This isn’t “movie sex”. It’s a mental sex tape starring two people we don’t even know. Then we get to hear them talk about it.
You know, I think I’ll rent movies or watch NetFlix for my classic films instead of browsing through AMC. They might want to rethink what kind of trash they pick up in the future. There’s no good place this trend leads—I can see where it leads: live sex on television. Oh yes, the kind of “wardrobe malfunction” fusion with sexting and reality TV. It has to stop. Join me in avoiding AMC until they drop the vile “Sex Box” and abandon the whole concept before all the “me-too” shows crop up.
Really, it’s gone too far already. It has to stop.
