5 TV Shows That Taught Me About Sex
Picture this - you’re barely a teenager again and all you know of life is playing pranks on your bezzies and sending chain mail like there’s no tomorrow on the lynx-fuelled school bus. However, today is different to normal as you walk into form class only to find out all lessons have been scrapped. Instead, Tuesday has been dedicated to ‘sexual education’, something that is as familiar to you as doing your own laundry. Yes, you had the period talk in Primary school where you had to label all the bits whilst the boys smirked and ran around the playground saying the word ‘penis’ in different accents, but encountering sex education as a teenager was a different ball-game (excuse the pun).
During lockdown, I finished an e-book about dating abroad for a travel platform (I see the irony in this btw). In one of my chapters, I go on a pretty long rant about how bad sex and relationships education has been, what we were seriously lacking, and how we can improve.
Not so surprisingly for a Catholic school, in my experience at least, the education of the bible was drilled in a lot deeper than the birds and the bees. And you can’t blame the schools for this entirely, but you can definitely blame society. Sex Ed in the United Kingdom, and in a lot of other places *cough* *cough* *the USA* has infamously been pretty shocking. Did you know that not even half of US states have compulsory sex ed. Of course, none of this ever really bothered little teenage Dani who thought sex was a swear word at the time. But believe you me, it failed us all a little bit.
I’m really into finding ways for young people to engage in sex ed. I’m talking ways better than a one-hour class where the ‘lads’ would spend their time laughing about very common STIs which, let's be honest, half of them have probably had by now. One of the most subtle and 99% effective ways of getting educated about s e x for me, has been through the little black box - television!!!
From shows such as Sex Education to I May Destroy You, we can see that there isn’t one bog-standard conversation about all that jazz. There are endless stories and endless L’s that we all face. Here are some of my favourite shows which have taught me a hell of a lot more than school ever did.
When we normalise it on tv, we’ll normalise it a little more in our day to day. Sing it with me...
Let’s talk about sex (TV)
Sex Education - If you haven’t watched this Netflix show, you need to get on it. To put it pretty simply, it’s about a boy whose mum is a sex therapist. It’s all about being a (bratty, annoying, and wonderful) teenager, sex, love, and family. The show talks about it all, from vaginismus to female pleasure - we love to see these subjects seen on screen!
Broad City - I recently finished Broad City and, after a shaky start, I really really fell in love with the characters, the in-jokes, and the city. Though this show is more about friendship than it is about sex, the main characters have quite a *liberal* approach to romance and it’s such a fun watch. It’s great to see women enjoy sex in a sitcom! So important.
I May Destroy You - Just give me a second for the biggest virtual sigh for the best show of this year. You’ve probably heard a lot of people raving about it and they ain’t wrong. Obviously, Michaela Cole’s Chewing Gum is the most hilarious tv show in all the land, but this one - this hits different-ly. You’ll be introduced to conversations about consent, sexual assault, casual drug use, London, writing, sexuality, and friendship all in as little as 6 hours. You’ll laugh, cry, dance, bite your nails, cry again. I genuinely felt privileged to experience it.
Pose - This show invites us into the glamourous and emotional world of ballroom culture in the 80s, mixed with phenomenal dance scenes and a whole a$$ education on love in the LGBTQ+ community. Where was that in school? Thanks Maggie Thatcher - thanks a lot! I adore the way this TV show discusses sexuality, gender, and class with sprinkles of glitter and glam.
Love Sick - The premise for this was effortlessly brilliant. Soppy British guy gets chlamydia and recounts each girl he’s slept with as he had to notify them to get checked too. Each episode is framed around him contacting one of the girls. When the show was in the beginning of development, it was called… Scrotal Recall. For real though, as he relives his ex-blunders, he *learns* so much about himself, and his toxic behaviour. Yes, we may have learnt how to put a condom on in school using a banana, but when did we EVER talk about healthy and unhealthy relationships, self-sabotaging, f*ck boys, and all the rest?
These days, I do think sex-education is getting better for young people. With brilliant representation in tv, films, and on social media, there’s finally a space to speak up about dating and sex - in a cool accessible way.
Some notable highlights that didn’t make the word count but definitely give a good commentary are; Queer as Folk, Cucumber (Banana and Tofu, too!), Skins, She’s Gotta Have It, Easy, Jane the Virgin, Pure and Fleabag. Comment below any ones I’ve missed!
Written by Danielle Conlon
Danielle is a Filipino born, North-East girl at heart who’s lived in London and Barcelona the past few years only to find herself back up North (UTB) since Ms Pandemic. She now spends her days writing about food, travel, anything funky and dancing (badly).