Jennifer Rathwell: The Queen Of Screen

May
12
2015

Can Canadians Handle the Outlander Breastmilk Scene?

Seriously, Showcase?

Jenny_Outlander_baby

Really, Showcase?

In a show that features regular, close-up images of extreme torture, not to mention sexy time with everyone’s naughty bits on display, you thought Canadians couldn’t handle a breastmilk scene?

(SPOILERS AHEAD: you may not want to read further if you haven’t seen the May 10 episode of Outlander.)

First of all, there is no cooler female character on TV right now than Jenny Murray (the hubs likes her better than Claire and asked me if we’d see her again when she and Claire parted ways!)

It’s a hard, cool fact of life that if you hit the road a week after giving birth to a baby, and you don’t bring that baby, you’re going to have breast engorgement issues. I haven’t seen the scene that was cut out, of course, BECAUSE IT WAS CUT OUT, but if Americans can handle seeing Jenny Murray squeeze out a few ounces to relieve her rock hard boobs while on a cross-country quest to free her brother…I think we can handle it north of the border, eh?

Showcase, you forget yourself. This is a nation that, in the early 1990s, witnessed Caitlyn screaming at Joey “You were FUCKING Tessa Campanelli?” on the nation’s national broadcaster, no less. Those were taxpayer-funded bad words and mature themes! And Kids in the Hall was pretty risky in it's time - and on Sunday nights, no less! (Clutches hankie.) These are television events that I recall because they were in my formative years, which I assure you, I am now well beyond. I’ve seen some breastmilk, friends.

Of all the things Jenny Murray does on Outlander, including the most recent episode (in which she sports a super-sweet lady holster that she wears above her billowing skirts, one pistol in front and one in back) expressing breast milk is not exactly shocking. We watched her give birth, fairly graphically, the week before. We see her, in this same episode, torturing a man by burning his foot with a hot ramrod she pulls, glowing, from the fire. But expressing breastmilk? That’s too twisted to show us?

The episode will air in its entirety later this month, breast milk scene and all, which, according to a statement from Shaw Media (owners of the Showcase Channel) was edited out in error. I love Outlander and I love Jenny Murray, and as Jamie Fraser might say (or warn): you’d best leave my family intact.

Image Source: Sony Pictures Television

Did you miss the news? "Outlander" is back!