By Madeleine Raven, Theatre & Film, First Year
The Netflix series has been a big hit online, with its mixture of American and British school life, surprising amount of nudity, and, most of all, earnest and inclusive commentary of teenage sexual exploration.
Sex Education is the latest Netflix series to get everybody talking. Every time I try to recommend it to a friend, they’re either halfway through it, or they’ve already finished and want to gush about it - the music, the costumes, the writing, or the way it takes classic high school character archetypes and turns them on their heads.
Youtube / Netflix
Perhaps Sex Education has received so much love because it authentically highlights the diversity of the teenage experience as opposed to being yet another airbrushed, acne-free caricature of adolescence and young adulthood. The series follows awkward teenager Otis (Asa Butterfield), whose mother is a sex therapist. He is joined by ‘bad-girl’ Maeve (Emma Mackey), who sees a gap in the market, and they begin a sex therapy business together in their school toilets.
Representation in this show is not highlighted in neon with giant arrows pointing to it, unlike in other shows where it usually feels like the producers want to cynically win themselves a few Social Justice points online. The two gay men in the show are men of colour, which allows Sex Education to explore intersecting identities, instead of rehashing the same story about how difficult it is being a white, gay man.
Netflix / Sam Taylor
Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Otis’ best friend, is a second generation immigrant. Instead of dismissing his parents as typically homophobic church-goers, the writers explore the ways in which immigrants in this country have to protect themselves from abuse by fitting in as much as possible. Eric learns that his parent’s church is inclusive; he is loved and accepted there. His family also accept him; they are just scared for him, considering how hostile an environment this country can be for them.
Elsewhere, Maeve is very talented, but her family situation means that she is not in a position where she can access information about university, and thus assumes that she can’t go. This scenario is all too familiar. She also shuts herself off from teachers because of her experiences with adults - an understandable trait, but one that might lead her down the path of her older brother, whose problematic past I won’t spoil.
— no context sex education (@sexeducation) January 2, 2019
On top of this, the show normalises the idea of sexual consent without internet driven hyperbole. It is used in a contextual way, rather than through cheap jokes about how consent is ruining modern romance. Seeing a young man like Otis be so sensitive and mature about sex is a real breath of fresh air. Otis’ intelligence and sensitivity is a central point in the series, and he learns to embrace his differences as the show goes on.
Although Otis is the protagonist in Sex Education, the way he is written allows the people around him to also become developed characters. He is, above all, a listener - he helps people. It’s so rare to see a male protagonist be someone who listens, rather than some sort of enlightened saint who monologues endlessly while his trusty gay sidekick and token female friend listen in awe.
Otis does not obsess about sex, and he also lends another important kind of representation: he is a virgin. While this does not affect his overall self-esteem, seeing a teenage boy who is not mocked for his lack of sexual experience adds to the whole message of Sex Education.
Netflix / Sam Taylor
Everyone is just as confused, worried and scared about their bodies and the perception of others as each other, but there’s always a funny side to the characters’ struggles with being teenagers. One memorable moment is a Spartacus-like scene where most of the Sixth Form stands up in solidarity, shouting: ‘It’s my vagina!’
Adolescence is a maelstrom of very strange, confusing, and hilarious experiences - and sex. Sex Education communicates all this in a way which is sensitive, while maintaining a sense of humour, and it deserves our full attention. And if you still need persuading: Gillian Anderson plays Otis’ sex therapist mother. Saved the best for last.
Sex Education is streaming now on Netflix.
Featured Image Credit: Netflix / Jon Hall
Was your secondary school life anything like Sex Education?
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