Janelle Monáe Explains Your Sexual Fantasies in Netflix’s Sex-Ed Docuseries
Insufficient sex education in public schools is a tried and true source of comic relief in movies and television shows, typically involving a middle-aged gym teacher in uncomfortably short shorts gesturing at a diagram of the female reproductive system while hormone-ridden teens gawk in horror. Such bits are apt, but they also downplay the serious, real-life ramifications of inadequate sex education. And in some cases, the mocking onscreen depictions are even more informative than what is actually taught in schools, with abstinence-only or abstinence-stressed sex education still the requirement in some states.
Sex, Explained, the docuseries released on Netflix in collaboration with Vox, offers straightforward, nonjudgmental explainers on a wide range of sex-related topics. Though by no means a substitute for comprehensive sex ed, the Janelle Monáe-narrated series provides adults with a valuable supplement to whatever knowledge they may (or may not) have gleaned from school and experience.
The easily digestible, approximately 20-minute episodes, bursting with colorful animations and engaging interviews, cover basic information about subjects like fertility, birth control, and attraction. Each segment is framed with a question—“Birth control has been around for millennia, so why isn’t it better?” or “Why is childbirth so tough and how can it be made better?” At the very least, you’ll come away with cheeky trivia to whip out at your next dinner party. (Over three-quarters of Americans surveyed last year responded that they had fantasized about bondage.)
The first installment, titled “Sexual Fantasies,” is the most salacious of the five. Between footage of orgies and stills of ropes and leather harnesses, Monáe explains that sexual fantasies are typically divided into three genres—group sex (self-explanatory), novelty (having sex in new ways, like in public or using toys), and power/control (BDSM). The Band-Aid of cultural taboo is ripped off within the first 30 seconds of the episode when a bright yellow graphic illustrates that three of the six most-searched terms on Pornhub in 2018 included the word “mom.”
More compelling than the statistical info about kinks, though, is the reflection that “sexual fantasies are an extension of our culture.” For example, the rape fantasy, in which a woman falls in love with her rapist, has been a prevalent fixture in American literature and film for centuries. The lack of consent implicit in rape was believed to free women from the shame of choosing to have premarital sex, which was historically harshly condemned in the U.S. Conversely, in Sweden where premarital sex was not as heavily stigmatized, romance novels about rape fantasies were less common.
Monáe’s warm, even voice carries a reassuring lack of judgment that defines the series. It’s especially effective as the introductory episode works to normalize kinks and convey the vast spectrum of human sexuality. “There’s a lot of variability in sexual fantasies and they don’t tell you anything reliable about you,” explains psychologist Lisa Diamond, gesticulating in neon orange glasses. “If you have fantasies that disturb you or scare you, and you wonder what they mean, they don’t mean a lot. So, don’t worry so much about them.”
The most impressive feat of Sex, Explained is the way that it guides viewers to consider a specific element of sex from all angles. The episode about attraction starts off with a linguistic viewpoint by introducing different phrases used to describe the experience of being attracted to someone in different languages (the French “coup de foudre,” for instance, translates to “lightning bolt.”)
Later, psychologist Viren Swami breaks it down socially and culturally by citing a study in which he found that Zulu men in South Africa preferred a larger body size for a female sex partner than Zulu men living in the United Kingdom because, he explains, “being extremely thin in that particular context was associated with HIV.”
Then there are anecdotal explanations of attraction in confessional-style interviews, as with one young man in a white hoodie who says that he has recently found himself turned on by people who resemble him. “So, I guess it’s about loving the self ultimately, you know?” he reflects with a laugh.
Sex, Explained is currently streaming on Netflix and, though this should go without saying, it is most definitely NSFW.
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