[upbeat retro music plays]
THE NEWEST SEASON FOR ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOWS, SEX EDUCATION, WAS RECENTLY RELEASED ON NETFLIX.
[Sex Education clip audio plays]
THE TEEN COMEDY DRAMA FOLLOWS THE SOMETIMES AWKWARD ADVENTURES OF HIGHSCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS AS THEY NAVIGATE THEIR LIVES. EVERYTHING CHANGES WHEN THE SON OF A SEX THERAPIST IS CONVINCED TO START HIS OWN CLINIC AT SCHOOL, AND STUDENTS START TO TALK OPENLY ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS, BODIES, AND PERSONAL ISSUES IN GENERAL.
[retro music continues]
JUST LIKE IN THE SHOW, PEOPLE OFTEN HAVE A HARD TIME TALKING ABOUT SEXUAL SUBJECTS AND OPENING UP—MYSELF INCLUDED. IT GOT ME THINKING ABOUT THE CONVERSATIONS USUALLY SURROUNDING SEX, AND HOW SUCH CONVERSATIONS CHANGE OVER TIME.
[Anonymous] Raised in the Midwest, with a Catholic education through grade school and high school. So, basically there was very little true…sex education, as we call it today, that was ever even offered. We had nuns and priests…
I INTERVIEWED A WOMAN WHO TAUGHT HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES IN FRENCH, WORLD HISTORY, AND PSYCHOLOGY FOR 30 YEARS. SHE WISHED TO STAY ANONYMOUS.
[Anonymous] There was a short health section with our lay person in my general P.E. class at high school, but anatomy-wise it was basically never discussed. And the way I learned about my own personal female processes and maturation would’ve been through my Girl Scout or campfire…
I NEEDED TO DELVE DEEPER INTO THE MATTER, SO I TURNED TO AN EXPERT ON SEXUALITY STUDIES.
[Professor Fenrich] Hi, I’m Lane Fenrich. I teach American History. I also teach Gender and Sexuality Studies. I developed this class, Introduction to Sexuality Studies about a decade, maybe 12 years ago now.
I ASKED HIS THOUGHTS ON SEX EDUCATION, OF WHICH HE HAD SEEN THE FIRST SEASON.
[Fenrich] What I did like about the show was exactly what you just said, which was the attempt to be not judgmental and actually affirming. I liked, even though I thought it was unrealistic, right, that the high school kid is giving what I considered very good advice. So, I did like that and I liked very much that he actually tried to listen to everyone and just take their descriptions on their own terms. I don’t think that is very typical, actually.
[Sex Education clip audio plays]
[Fenrich] I think that representations of sex and sexuality tend to be…what’s the word that I want…in order to portray extreme examples or to portray examples in really judgmental ways of sex that’s dangerous or harmful. Yeah, it also makes sex much more problematic than it is for a lot of people. It just makes sex, you know, depending on who you are. Right, if you’re not a kind of normatively bodied, normatively gendered, normatively hetero person, then your sex is always already weird.
AS SAID BEFORE, SEX EDUCATION ATTEMPTS TO TACKLE THESE TOPICS. IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE PEOPLE ARE STRIVING TO NORMALIZE CONVERSATIONS PREVIOUSLY DEEMED UNCOMFORTABLE, THIS TELEVISION SHOW PROVIDES A SAFE SPACE FOR PROGRESS.
GO CHECK IT OUT. FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M MAX MILO.
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