**Spoilers ahead** A lot happened on last night’s episode of “Westworld“: The Man In Black and Dr. Ford crossed paths; Dolores showed herself to be far more than just a damsel in distress; Maeve began to unravel more about what she is; and oh yeah, there was a giant orgy sequence. For a network that is routinely criticized for how much skin they show, HBO didn’t flinch in a scene that showed the visitors of Westworld indulging their sexual desires with wild abandon, but the sequence has ran afoul of The Nation Centre Of Sexual Exploitation.
In a press release issued this afternoon, the non-profit organization also known as Morality In Media, criticized HBO for “mainstreaming pornography as entertainment.”
“The latest episode was replete with gratuitous depictions of female nudity, and included an orgy depicting several explicit sex acts, as well as a scene focusing on exposed male genitalia. I would love to hear [episode director] Richard Lewis explain to me how these scenes reflect a ‘modicum of taste.’ No plot necessitates this level of explicit depictions of sex acts and nudity. In fact, one wonders if HBO producers are capable of creating plots that don’t depend on pornography for shock value,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
READ MORE: HBO’s ‘Westworld’ Is A Deeply Textured & Alluring Sci-Fi Series [TV Review]
“What the creators of ‘Westworld’ don’t understand, is that graphic sexual scenes are not artful or compelling. Instead, they are toxic fodder for our societal crisis of using people — especially women — as sexual objects, and minimizing the sexual trauma or violence that can result,” she added. “The creators of ‘Westworld’ and executives at HBO need to start focusing on plotlines instead of prurient and pornographic scenes that objectify women and men.”
Part of the outrage from the organization comes from this quote, given by Lewis to THR, about the creation of the scene.
“…it does feel like there are a lot of influences there, from ‘Eyes Wide Shut‘ and some Kubrickian stuff that’s there, as well as the movie ‘120 Days of Sodom‘ by Pier Paolo Pasolini — a ’70s movie that’s a crazy, orgy-tastic ordeal. (Laughs.) We wanted to do something that’s epic. [‘Westworld’ showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy] always wanted to do the biggest, best and most mind-blowing stuff, so we wanted to create the best sex orgy you can imagine. To that effect, we had some stylists. We really curated the scene to the T. Sometimes, to me, it has almost a medieval flavor. You can’t categorize it, because it’s so uniquely strange and beautiful in a way,” he said.
It was certainly crafted with a high level of aesthetics, but the sequence had the opposite intention of trying to titillate. Instead, it was used as a symbol of the growing divide between Logan (Ben Barnes) and William (Jimmi Simpson), the former becoming consumed with consequence free activities of Westworld, with the latter growing queasy by it. It’s part of the framework of the show’s larger themes about the moral and ethical layers that are shed by those inside Westworld.
People are free to dislike whatever they want, but you can choose to watch “Westworld” or not. And it’s easy to be shocked if something is viewed completely out of context (something tells that the folks at NCOSE haven’t watched any other episodes of “Westworld”). If NCOSE were really concerned about women in the mainstream being treated as sexual objects, perhaps they would issue a statement about a certain presidential candidate who is facing countless allegations of sexual assault, and tosses aside some truly misogynistic quotes as just “locker room talk.” Just saying.