Whenever I watch TV with my family, uncomfortable silence always seems to follow when a sex scene comes on. No one looks at each other, all of us shifting from side to side awkwardly, deciding whether or not to run or just let the wave of agony wash over the room. Cringing on the inside, I pray that one of my parents will leave.

At one point or another, all of us have experienced this moment of despair, and even now at 20 years old I still turn red when I’m watching “Game of Thrones” with my mom. Around fourth or fifth grade we all watched (and laughed) at the sex-ed tapes shown in class. In high school, some of us experienced sex for the first time, and in college it became all about “hooking up” and one night stands. So if it’s just sex, why are we all so embarrassed about it?

In the last 10 years, sex on TV has become a prerequisite when it comes to producing a hit show. It’s no secret that sex sells, but in the last year or so it has been female producers who are encouraging all the heart-thumping, sweaty-palmed and hair-raising sex scenes.

Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” producer Michelle Ashford is on the forefront of the sexual revolution when it comes to her characters Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) and Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen). The show focuses on the research done by Masters and Johnson during the 1950’s, when sex was still a topic never discussed at the dinner table.

In 1896, Thomas Edison distributed the first kiss ever recorded on film. Since that time, TV has made tremendous progress when it comes to what can and can’t be shown to viewers. Skirts became shorter, underwear became skimpier, and women became more assertive in the boardroom, as well as the bedroom.

“Masters of Sex” not only demonstrates how far we have come as women, but also how far we have come as men. Johnson is a woman before her time, gallivanting at parties and having sex with multiple men, all while getting home in time to tuck the children into bed. Her drive to get her degree in science rather than in marriage is what sets her apart from the other women in Masters’s office.

In an interview with “Glamour” magazine, Ashford said, “To me, sex on TV usually looked boring and like it was trying too hard to be sexy.” There is no shortage of sex on “Masters of Sex,” but the show isn’t by any means classified under the category of pornography. Masters and Johnson are trying to prove what a woman’s body is capable sexually, not just reproductively.

It’s easy to make sex look great when there is a perfect musical score playing behind a choreographed sex scene and lighting that would make anyone appear flawless. However, that’s not how real life works. Sex can be bad, sex can be good, it can make you cry, and it can make you laugh. But in no way will it ever look the way it does on TV. For the first time ever “Masters of Sex” is putting women’s pleasure before men’s, and it is no longer only what a man wants.

For every breast on TV, you might see one shirtless man, but you will never see a man expose himself the way women expose themselves. These odds don’t seem fair, and maybe that’s what we will be working towards in the next few years. For now, don’t be embarrassed and turn off the TV when a sex scene comes on with your parents in the room, because, in the words of Marvin Gaye, it’s time, America, for some “sexual healing.”