Watchdog fines Turkey’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ over sexual innuendo

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet Photo

Turkey’s television watchdog has fined the Turkish version of the world famous Desperate Housewives series, “Umutsuz Ev Kadınları,” over an innuendo associating dessert with sex.

One of the main female characters in the serial, Gülşah, touched her husband in a recent episode while saying, “We will have dessert after dinner,” which disturbed the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). The watchdog moved to fine the station hosting the series 115,000 Turkish Liras, (around $60,000), according to online news portal GazetePort.

“Gülşah and Kudret (her husband) decide to have a baby. Gülşah, wearing a special outfit, comes to talk to Kudret and tells him they will first have a good dinner, and then have dessert. Gülşah insinuates something other than dessert by making his hands touch her body ... Kudret says to Gülşah, ‘Let’s make a baby if the kids are not back from school.’ As Gülşah and Kudret make laughing noises under the blankets on their bed, their daughter Alara comes into the room and asks, ‘Can I watch mom?’” RTÜK said in its report, describing the scene that prompted the fine.

It added that the scene was “harmful to children” and “provided untimely sexual education.”