In-flight film "explains" mysteries of female pleasure

Grounded Qantas planes are seen at Sydney's domestic airport June 22, 2011.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The in-flight entertainment on some planes run by Australian airline Qantas currently contains a somewhat unusual offering -- a movie that purports to elucidate the mysteries of female sexual pleasure.

The 50-minute French film "The Female Orgasm Explained," which includes naked scenes, is carried on long-haul "Video on Demand" aircraft in the airline's "The Edge" channel -- complete with a warning that it is for mature audiences only.

"In general programs are selected according to quality of content, box office/ratings, topicality and Qantas customer demographics," Qantas said in a statement, adding that programs were screened by their program team before licensing.

"With the Edge, we source programs that are out of the ordinary across all genres."

Airline crews are able to block content to the seats of minors and at the requests of their parents, it added.

The film will be run until November.

The choice of film may be a bit risky given the fact that airlines are usually quite careful about what they show, said Catriona Eider, an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Sydney University.

"I think sociologically it's interesting they are showing something that has the potential in that quite confined space to have people say 'Oh, what are you watching?' or shows that might be understood as titillating as porn," she said.

But she added that changing social norms mean that off-limit topics have shifted.

"'In Sex and the City', the orgasm is something pretty much spoken in everyday levels. It's no longer the taboo subject it was."

(Reporting by Pauline Askin; editing by Elaine Lies)