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The Drunk Duck QuackcastAuthor: Michael Morris
The QuackCast is a theduckwebcomics.com podcast hosted by Ozoneocean, Banes and Tantz Aerine who run DrunkDuck, the oldest Webcomic hosting site on the net! They chat about all things webcomics, writing and art techniques, social and cultural issues, pop-culture, and a whole variety of interesting subjects! Language: en Genres: Arts, Design, Visual Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Quackcast 786 - What the butler saw
Episode 786
Tuesday, 7 April, 2026
We're talking about the changing depictions of sexuality in media over the years. A big misconception is that trends are purely linear, so a popular belief is that things started out all very pure and safe and gradually degenerated into a kind of sexy free-for all… which is not true. Humans have always been the same, sex is a massive part of our cultures, since the first media existed sex was a part of it (back in the ancient world and pre-history). The 19th and 20th centuries where no different. Prudish Victorians are a myth. Film, books, music, comics and more in the early days included depictions of sex and sexuality, the first porn films came out at the same time as the first mainstream films and it was a similar story with all other media. But there was always push-back from other parts of culture and so that toned things down. This is a continuous process: Sexuality and censorship, the pendulum swings. In the the 1930s in the USA they had the Hays code which got rid of sexiness and sexuality in Hollywood and that had knock on effects for the rest of the world. By the time of the 1960s though things had gone the other way, especially since the Hays code wasn't a thing in Europe and their sexier content came over and influenced the USA. Since then things have continued to go up and down: with the rise of porn on home video, sexuality in film and TV decreased in the 1980s. By the 90s with the rise of cable TV became sexy again and so on. Comics in the USA had the Comics Code Authority, which took out all adult aspects from comics for decades and affected comics in different countries too, but not all. Meanwhile in Europe, Asia, and South America there was interesting stuff being created. We got a taste of that through things like Heavy Metal magazine and some of the Manga that was imported and translated. In the USA and UK it encouraged the growth of an alternative culture that wasn't subjected to the Comics Code Authority and so artists like Robert Crumb proliferated. A push-pull with censorship is always going on for all sorts of reasons. Another misconception is that Christianity and religious conservatives are the main enemy so that there's a proxy divide between progressive left-wingers and the conservative right but the truth is that it's far more complicated unfortunately. We cover this in the Quackcast, but briefly, depictions are often driven by commercial interests rather than simply the needs of art so we have had over-representations of certain kinds of eroticism in media, like things only really made for the male gaze (because men were imagined to be the main audience), which led to distorted depictions (exploitation films), and objectification. This led to to a push-back in art and intellectual circles against that sort of thing. Then there are factors like the protection of children, which crosses all political divides: all of us want to keep them safe. These processes happens in all countries at different rates and different times and the creative products of every culture influence those in other cultures and cause further change. How do you handle sex and sexuality in your own work? When I started Pink TA my goal was not to have any barriers to what I wanted to show, but as the years went on I realised I had to tone things down so my comic could be seen more widely and as I've gotten older I have a lot less interest in sexy things than I did when I was younger anyway so that caused further change. This week we have another best off from Gunwallace and this time it's - X up - 6 … is this a theme for a comic? … no! It could be a theme for X Up, it does have some Wah Wah guitar (the sexiest guitar), after all, but it isn't. This is a theme for the number 6. That number that a certain user, plymayer, gives to comics all when he feels they deserve it. A 6. A 6 out of 5. This is a theme for a concept. The concept of a supportive DD'er. To plymayer … and to every 6 he has handed out. (Okay, so it's also a theme for X Up … but don't tell anyone). - Disco sex - Originally from Quackcast 256, the 1st of February 2016. Topics and shownotes Links Thread that was inspiration for the topic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180234/ Featured comic: Kuro Shouri - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/mar/31/featured-comic-kuro-shouri/ Featured music: X UP - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/X_UP/ by Plymayer, rated A. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ VIDEO exclusive! 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