The English prude inside me is quivering – you want to talk about sex?! But more importantly you want to talk about sex with a live audience, on television, with people watching at home as well!? I feel like Miranda, mouthing the words but unable to say them audibly.
That’s the problem though. We just don’t talk about sex. As a country, it’s not a topic we chat about over a cup of tea, with just under 51% of teens saying they have openly discussed sex with their parents.
So it would appear that any way in which we can try and open up the taboo on sexual freedom could only be deemed as a bloody good thing. But is going on television, and having sex in a box, with people giggling in an audience taking things just a little too far?
In Channel 4’s new show, “Sex Box” that’s exactly what happens. Couples are interviewed before and after they have tried something new in the sack, right there in the studio (albeit hidden from view) with a live audience ready and waiting to hear the couple’s verdict. In this week’s episode, a couple who have up until now just been close friends, were trying out being lovers for the first time.
The premise you ask? That couples are more willing to communicate immediately after doing the deed. It seems that the programme’s goals are noble: to encourage honest communication about taboo issues including our sex lives, sexuality, STIs and where exactly to go to buy a foot that you can also have sex with…all in the name of sexual freedom I guess.
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Part voyeuristic giggle-fest, part sex ed class, the show kind of has the feel of a drunken aunt giving you a lecture about how “aa-mazing your first bonk is going to be darling!” whilst handing you a bottle of lube and winking. It’s trying its very hardest to do the right thing, but it still feels totally cringey.
Yet I have one, rather huge problem with the programme. And that problem is co-presenter Steve Jones. Previously a presenter for X Factor USA and now presenter for Channel 4 F1, what strikes me is what exactly makes Steven Jones qualified for this role as sex vigilante? The other half of this dynamic duo is Dr Goedele Liekens, a Flemish sexologist (stress the PhD in sexology), which to me seems a far more understandable and professional choice in host. When watching the show, it seemed as if Steve Jones was there for a bit of light entertainment, but after watching him force an audience member to practice oral sex on an iPad, strategically placed near his own genitals – which he then jokes has to be thrown away because it was now “soiled” – just seemed distasteful and uncomfortable.
Whilst the whole point of having a professional on board is to promote an open and non-judgemental dialogue about sex, Steve Jones’ puerile comic relief felt jarring and awkward, often discrediting and belittling the show’s effort to open an honest discourse on sex.
In an era where revenge porn is becoming a stable of online dating and 93% of teenage boys are being exposed to porn, programmes such as “Sex Box” have all the right intentions. The more we can discuss sex without having it coloured by the pressures of porn can only be a good thing.