Tag: Sex

Watch “Sex Education” atleast once

“SEX EDUCATION” is a show on Netflix. Socially awkward high school student Otis may not have much experience in the lovemaking department, but he gets good guidance on the topic in his personal sex ed course — living with mom Jean, who is a sex therapist. Being surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, Otis has become a reluctant expert on the subject. When his classmates learn about his home life, Otis decides to use his insider knowledge to improve his status at school, so he teams with whip-smart bad girl Maeve to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their classmates’ problems. But through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realizes that he may need some therapy of his own.

Every performer is wonderful, not least because the script is wonderful, playing the sex for laughs and the search for intimacy as something serious, good and noble. Not a single character is a cipher – even the smallest parts have a sketched backstory and some good gags. It’s all of a piece with the charm and generosity of spirit that suffuses the whole thing. Sex Education sets so many conventions cheerily but firmly aside that you feel like an entire forest of received wisdom is being clear-cut. Light floods in, new growth springs up. Such a sense of revelry and optimism abounds that you can feel it doing your heart and soul good as you watch. And all without missing a comic or emotional beat or deviating from its moral core, which urges us all to connect.

So welcome once more, Otis (and your newly excitable penis), Maeve with her troubles to seek, Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) whose mental health plummets to new lows as his swimming career reaches new heights, Aimee through whose experience on a local bus the issue of sexual assault is channelled, and all the magnificent rest of you. Nobody does it better. In fact, nobody does anything quite like it at all.

Sex Education manages to achieve the best of both worlds; it’s a highly entertaining and often delightful binge watch that’s so good that the real world just melts away, but it’s also shockingly relatable and might wind up being a newfound source of hope to apply to real-world relationships.

First off, for those who might be in it for the sex, that’s definitely there. Frequent masterbation, fetishes, dirty talk, a variety of forms of experimentation – you name it, Sex Education probably has it. And the series rarely holds back when it comes to showing such acts. No, it doesn’t cross the line of its maturity rating by getting unnecessarily graphic, but it does make a point to lean into the grounded awkwardness one might experience when going into new sexual territory. Sex Education also rocks a playful tone with these scenes, successfully suggesting that there’s no reason to feel ashamed if you’ve found yourself in a similar predicament.

The show also doesn’t hold back when it comes to tackling weighty topics either. There’s an especially powerful episode about abortion early on in Season 1 that absolutely blew me away with how it took the time to make the experience so deeply personal for a number of characters, whether it’s someone who’s going through the procedure or the one who’ll be there to walk them home after. There’s also a sexual assault storyline in Season 2 that’s completely different from anything I’ve ever seen on screen before. Rather than limit that particular plot point to a select few episodes, it reverberates from Episode 3 on, taking the time to show the possible stages of experiencing such trauma and how one can come to terms with it.

SEX VS GENDER (IDENTITY) VS SEXUALITY (SEXUAL ORIENTATION)

A long-time running misconception among people is that sex, gender and sexuality are the same. And that there exists only 3 genders/sex/sexuality in the world i.e. Male, Female and Intersex. Often people do not even know about Intersex and believe that Male and Female are Bisht 2 the only two beings possible. Therefore, before we move forward, I’d like to make these concepts clear and spread some basic knowledge about the difference between them.
Sex: In general terms ‘sex’ refers to the biological differences between males and females, such as the genitalia and genetic differences. (Chromosomes) Gender (Gender Identity): Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men.
It varies from society to society and can be changed. This is the ‘binary’ view of gender, where only two genders are accepted i.e. man and woman. The norms laid for the way a man and a woman should behave in society is known as gender role.
Gender Identity on the other hand, is an individual’s view of themselves. It is one’s internal sense of being a man, a woman, both or neither. How much do you feel like a man, a woman, or something else? This is your gender identity. Gender is a spectrum, because you could feel a little like a man, a lot like a woman, and maybe also a bit like something else. Or you could feel like none of these. That would make you agender, meaning that you don’t feel any of these gender identities fit you. Since every individual has a unique sense of experiencing things differently, gender can’t be restricted to just male and female.
When talking about gender we have many gender related terms that are a must-know for anyone. Here are some of them listed below!

  1. Gender Expression: Gender expression is how a person publicly expresses or presents their gender. This can include behaviour and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronoun are also common ways of expressing gender. Therefore, you should always ask a person’s Bisht 3 pronoun when you meet them in order to address them properly and not misgender them as it can be hurtful and disrespectful.
  2. Transgender: “Transgender” is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity or expression does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a transgender person may identify as a woman despite having been born with male genitalia.
  3. Genderfluid: Gender fluidity is a gender identity that may change over time or according to relational or psychological state, and also incorporates the feeling of not having a gender. In practice, gender fluid people may express masculinity, femininity, or an androgynous self in their personality, sexual experiences, and self-concept.
    Sexuality (Sexual Orientation): Sexuality or sexual orientation describes a person’s enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. In short it is the individual’s preference to the sex he/she/they feel attracted to, be it sexually or romantically.
    (for e.g. straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual) Coming Out: Coming out is a process of understanding, accepting, and valuing your sexual orientation/identity. It involves both exploring your identity and sharing your identity with others.

IMPACT OF PORN ON MODERN SOCIETY

We are living in the 21st century where the term ‘sex’ is considered as a taboo by our society. Since sex, a very basic human necessity, has been dealt so covertly, people ended up being hesitant to talk or discuss it openly in public. Sex education was included in the school curriculum as a result of relentless demands by the liberal and freethinking blocks of the society but has ended up more like a human biology and anatomy education rather than actual sex education. This has led to the scenario of people being poorly aware of the topic even after being taught about it.

Unlike a few years ago, with the advent of modern technologies like the internet, smartphone etc, porn has become a readily accessible material to everyone, especially teenagers. The lack of proper sex education and overexposure to pornographic contents set forth a complex scenario of our young generation mistaking the fantasies portrayed in porn for real. Porn often manipulates one’s idea of an ideal partner with unrealistic expectations which eventually leaves a considerable impact on our relationships with one another. As time passes, the enticing fantasies of porn drag one into the psychological traps of darker themes such as incest, rape, racial stereotypes, child porn etc. 

Though many studies and researches are yet to be conducted on the effects of porn and porn addiction, the report from the American Psychology Association provides us with a short insight into the topic. The annual traffic statistics of popular porn websites reported that an average Indian spent around eight minutes watching porn at a stretch. Another entrancing insight is that one-third of porn viewers are women and 48% are of the age group 18-24. Many consider porn as a private and harmless way through which people can enhance their sex life and relieve tension by releasing latent sexual energy. But watching porn regularly develops addictive behaviour resulting in an unhealthy lifestyle and broken relationships. The male-centric porn culture deceives its viewers into the devious mentality of objectifying women as mere sex tools to satisfy their urges. Porn drains love, respect and intimacy off a human being when he gets addicted to it and seeks for aggressive sex they’ve been exposed all their lives through porn. Lack of interest, sexual dissatisfaction, body image issues etc are a few among the list of relationship issues caused by porn addiction.

A revamping of the sex education imparted in schools by experts along with medical professionals, school managements and parents is essential to reduce the negative impacts of porn on teenagers to an extend. In addition to biology, sex education should consider the socio-psychological factors to ensure the eradication of taboo and reticence that persists regarding the topic. Setting a clear cut distinction between fact and fiction is necessary to prevent our children from having damaging unrealistic sexual fantasies. It is a natural instinct of teenagers to explore their sexuality and have sexual curiosity. Instead of blaming them for their sexual inclination and muffling the discussions regarding sex, timely guidance is what our society should provide our teenagers with.

Porn is a multi-billion dollar industry spread across the web which makes it nearly impossible to reduce or cut off the exposure to it. It’s just like any other commercial movie industry, a definite work of fiction with actors and directors producing contents for a targeted audience. One should realize that what porn showcases are an exaggerated product which is far from reality and attempts to imitate it in real life will result in issues with confidence and self-esteem. While you might learn a thing or two from watching porn or reading a sexy book, it shouldn’t be considered an alternative to sex education. A doctor or sex therapist should be the ones to be approached to clarify your queries rather than porn sites.