In the show, Jules (Courtney Cox) is feeling somewhat unneeded, so when her son, Travis, gets dumped by his girlfriend, she makes it her mission to make him feel better. At one point, she and Travis are in her kitchen, and her neighbor, Grayson, comes in. He asks to be borrow a spatula. He can't find one right away, so Jules gets up to get it for him.
Grayson tells her son not to worry, girls go for that sad and depressed thing. Travis thanks him for those words of encouragement (if you can call them that) and leaves.
Jules calls out after him that they'll talk again later and then, after he's gone, she whacks Grayson across the bottom with the spatula and tells him to butt out, she needs to be the one to help him. Grayson makes a big show out of rubbing his bottom and says, "That really hurt!" He then gets a coy smile on his face (never a good look on a guy), sticks his bum out and says, "Do it again." Jules complies with a laugh, gives him the spatula and tells him to get out of her kitchen.
That's the extent of the scene.
The reason I like this? It's done not just to make a joke out of the small amount of spanking action, but it shows a playfulness and good humor on the part of both participants. He asks for more, she happily gives him a smack and then they both smile and laugh about it. Far too often, TV shows and movies will make a spanking reference as a joke, and the reaction of the other person (or people) in the scene is one of disbelief, dismissal, or disgust.
For example, a show I talked about in an earlier post, Romantically Challenged, had one of the main characters go out on a date with a lady who asked him to spank her. Later, in talking about it to one of his friends, he says the date was fine, although the lady had one "disturbing" quirk. Not just "a quirk", mind you......a "disturbing" quirk. Why that word? It doesn't seem "disturbing" to me. Heck, I wish I had a date that went like that.
Another example is the show Castle. Every week in the opening of the show, there's a bit that came from the first episode. Writer Richard Castle is in the squad room with Detective Kate Becket, and in the course of the conversation he says, "I'd be happy to let you spank me." Her reaction is the very predictable eye roll, heavy sigh, and a look that says, "You are sick, you know that?"
The two above examples are, sadly, still the way spanking is looked upon by the vast majority. Anytime we start to think that spanking might be becoming mainstream, we have only to look at how it's presented and represented by the media. It's treated as a joke, and as something not to be taken seriously. The way it was represented in Cougar Town, however, gives me some hope. Let's hope we see more depictions like this regarding adult consensual spanking in the future.
Oh, yeah--and because you all know me so well, and this is a spanking blog, after all, here's a better picture of Courtney Cox snapped by some paparazzi while she was on vacation in Mexico
