A Few Thoughts on Undead Loving on In the Flesh

This aspect of In the Flesh crept up on me, in part because I’m not sure if the show consciously made this particular connection.  However, in the penultimate episode, specific focus on one symptom of PDS – physical insensibility – has retroactive implications for romantic/sexual dynamics throughout the series.  (A few pairing-related spoilers, and frank discussion of sex.)

Though it’s evident that the undead have no tactile sensation (when she’s accidentally impaled, Amy just laughs,) it’s not a prominent PDS trait.  We don’t see people with PDS being oblivious to weather or taps on the shoulder, and there’s no sign that the treatment center reteaches them how to grip things now that they can’t feel them.  It just stays in the background with the odd reference here or there.  Then, along comes episode 5 of series 2.  Here, to set up later plot stuff, Amy drives home the insensibility point to Phillip.  She stresses that she doesn’t feel heat, cold, wind, rain, or anyone’s touch.  Demonstrating, she pinches his cheek (prompting a yelp from him) and then her own, to no effect.  Like I said, Amy brings it up for plot reasons, and there’s no evidence that the show connects it to sex or romance, but it ignited a light bulb for me.

Since Amy is the one to emphasize it with her living boyfriend Phillip, I’ll start there.  When the two hold hands, kiss, or have sex, Amy doesn’t feel it and Phillip does.  Ace that I am, I see an allegory to a sexual/asexual romance.  Amy gets no physical benefit from any of this, but she still does it.  I see it as an expression of her feelings for Phillip, a way to show that she cares, and I suppose it’s partly convention:  just what people in relationships do.  Amy isn’t the type to do things she doesn’t want to do, so I don’t see it as an imbalanced dynamic where she’s an uninvolved vessel for his pleasure in their physical relationship. 

That imbalance, though, is a factor at the PDS brothel.  This subplot touches on some interesting points, like the shame men feel for attraction to women with PDS, or the work discrimination that leads the women to prostitution.  But when you add in that the women literally feel nothing when they have sex, it’s very intriguing.  Most sex workers, of course, don’t do it because the sex is just that great, and part of their job is to convince the client that they enjoy it.  This idea is much more evident here, where the undead prostitutes really serve as receptacles for their living clients’ sexual desires, and I assume they fake physical pleasure for the clients’ sake.  Do the clients trick themselves into thinking these insensible women are moved by their prowess, or does it just remind them how fake it is?  Or does the women’s numbness not occur to them?

Finally, we have Kieren and Simon, the most intriguing example of the theme.  They’re the only undead/undead couple we get, meaning neither of them feels the other’s touch.  And yet, they do touch, kiss, and hold each other.  (The relationship builds slowly enough that sex doesn’t come up during the series.  And actually, we only ever see PDS women having sex; I’m not sure if PDS men can.  Are they able to get hard, on their own or with ED meds (maybe it’s no problem – cue rigor mortis joke)?)  As with Amy/Phillip, I suppose it’s partly just convention, but when neither gets any physical gratification from it, it becomes more.  With Kieren/Simon, I see touch as a product of intimacy more than arousal, and as an ace, I think that’s neat.  Simon first takes Kieren’s hand when Kieren feels alone, and Kieren first kisses Simon after a harrowing night, desperately, as if it’s the only way he can breathe.  It’s something they use to say, “Someone’s here for you,” or “Help me,” “Be brave,” or “We’re in this together,” and I love that.