Why are we seeing so much penis on TV?

It’s late on a Tuesday night and I’m DMing an actor called Ansel Pierce about his penis.

Sounds a bit dodgy, but let me clarify: Pierce is the ‘guy on the toilet from Euphoria’, and is telling me about the ins and outs (sorry) of getting your dick out on TV — which, coincidentally, seems to be something a lot of actors are doing these days. ‘In the last year I’ve had eight auditions that request some form of nudity,’ Pierce tells me when I speak to him on the phone. ‘Compared to the previous year, it’s a big change.’

The new age of full-frontal penis, it would seem, is very much here. Euphoria, And Just Like That, Pam and Tommy, Normal People, White Lotus, Scenes from a Marriage, Sex Education and even Succession are all getting cocky — and I don’t mean from winning a few Emmys. Episode two of the recent season of Euphoria had no fewer than 30 penises in one locker room scene, enough to make Naked Attraction look like a never-nude convention. Clearly, nudity on screen is nothing new: the first full-frontal nudity on mainstream television was on the Dutch experimental show Hoepla in 1967, in which a woman sat stark naked reading a newspaper. Since then, female nudity has become normalised to the point of a severe imbalance between the genders. Game of Thrones, for example, had 134 individual breasts on screen throughout its run, compared to a measly seven penises.

Now, though, things are changing. And viewers are noticing — and reacting to — the change. Pierce’s toilet scene, watched by 13.1 million people, has resulted in him receiving ‘roughly 800 DMs on Instagram’ from people reacting to the clip, requesting photos and even sending in their own. ‘I bartend from time to time, and I’ll get the weirdest reactions,’ he says. ‘Guys will sit down and feel the need to tell me, “I want you to know, I saw your dick.” Or I’ll grab a receipt and it’ll be signed, “Nice cock.”’

So what’s behind the shift to men now baring all? Lizzy Talbot, intimacy co-ordinator for shows including Bridgerton, The Witcher and This is Going to Hurt, puts it down to those who are creating the shows. ‘You’ve got far more diversity in the writer’s room and that makes a huge difference, as there’s far more desire for parity [between genders],’ Talbot explains. ‘I’ve also never worked with as many female directors as I have in the last year. That’s where the change happens: in the writer’s room.’

The uptick of female executives in TV is noticeable, particularly when it comes to the sex-and-nudity-heavy shows that are dominating streaming services now. From Sex Education’s creator Laurie Nunn and Bridgerton’s Shonda Rhimes to Euphoria’s predominantly female team of directors, the boardroom is moving away from its male, pale and stale reputation, with greater parity in nudity between the genders just one of the resulting effects.

Fortunately for both men and women, productions are making it easier than ever to get your kit off on set. Since 2017 and the #MeToo movement, many actors’ agents now write it into their contracts that there must be an intimacy co-ordinator present, with these co-ordinators working from casting call to wrap party to ensure that everyone is comfortable, advocated for and choreographed in the best possible way.

Moreover, the rise in the quality of prosthetics and CGI means that even in full-frontal nudity scenes, the actor doesn’t actually have to bare all (although an actor’s nudity clause remains the same regardless of whether a prosthetic is used or not). The gasp-inducing moment of Harry and Charlotte being interrupted mid-blowjob in And Just Like That was shot with a prosthetic penis as showrunner Michael Patrick King decided that Harry’s needed to be ‘substantial’, while the talking dick in Pam and Tommy has been described by its creator, Robert Siegel, as being similar to ‘a puppet, or Yoda… I can’t think of a more fun and cuddly way to get away with extended full-frontal male nudity.’