If you’ve been watching any of the major American TV series recently, you may have noticed some new members in the cast. Some notable members. Some lower members. From the animatronic talking todger of Pam & Tommy to the bathroom bugle bared by Harry Goldenblatt in And Just Like That …, plus a whole panoply in the latest season of Euphoria, we seem to have entered a dust storm of dick.
Despite having instances of full-frontal female nudity on screen since the experimental Dutch TV show Hoepla in 1967, the male equivalent seems to have lagged behind for several decades. This may have been partly caused by so-called obscenity laws, which prohibited the broadcast of an erect penis on national TV. Indeed, it wasn’t until August 2020 that British viewers got their first glimpse of an erection on telly, as part of Channel 4’s documentary Me and My Penis. British viewers have also been treated to glimpses of male nudity, even the odd nubbin, in a range of shows for many years – from War and Peace to Top Boy, from Misfits to Cucumber. Flaccid, yes. Fleeting, yes. But they were there.
