Netflix’s new original series Sex Education has been groundbreaking in the realm of representation. The show follows a teen named Otis as he provides sex advice to his peers while dealing with his own sexual phobias and feelings of inadequacy. The show addresses the intense pressure that many teens feel to become sexually active at progressively earlier ages, and the damaging impact that feeling sexually “behind” your peers can have on mental health and self-confidence. The show also provides some awesome and diverse representation.
With the abundance of TV shows today portraying high schoolers as having wild and mature sex lives, Sex Education does a wonderful job reminding young viewers that everyone develops at their own pace. There is no “right time” to have sex, and fewer people are sexually active in high school than one might believe. In fact, a study conducted in 2015 found that only 41% of high school students reported having had sex before. With so many shows depicting sexually active teenagers, but less than half of teens actually engaging in sexual activity, the pressure that teens feel to “catch up” to their peers can be enormous.
There’s even a scene in Sex Education in which Otis’s best friend tells him that everyone in the school is either “thinking about shagging, about to shag, or actually shagging.” However, Otis’s experiences throughout the show are a perfect reminder that the mentality that everyone in high school is having sex is often wrong, and that it’s important to allow yourself to learn and experience at your own pace.
While Sex Education does a great job raising awareness of the over-sexualization of teenagers by the media today, it also follows many characters and families with diverse and underrepresented storylines. The show tackles the struggles of being a single parent and the damaging effects of addiction on families through the characters of Otis and Maeve. Marcus, a star-athlete, has two moms, and his story reveals the intense pressure that parents can put on their children – even when their actions may seem well-intended. Additionally, the couples looking for sex advice from Otis stray from the overly-represented white heterosexual couple, including a lesbian couple and multiple interracial couples as well.
Another character providing some extremely important representation is Otis’s best friend, Eric. Eric’s storyline follows the unique struggles of growing up as a black gay man, an experience that is rarely represented on television. Ncuti Gatwa, the actor who plays Eric, told PinkNews that, “The black gay experience isn’t one that is often told. And that community is struggling to find its feet because being a minority within a minority is an extremely difficult thing.” Eric struggles to remain the positive, confident, and fiercely unique person he has always been while experiencing homophobia and violence and searching for acceptance from his family. Eric’s story is not the butt of a joke, nor is it a heavily stereotyped or overly violent plotline. Eric is a well-written, inspiring character who provides some wonderful representation for black gay teens today.
While Sex Education definitely got many things right throughout its first season, it’s important to recognize the things that went wrong as well. If you’re trying to avoid spoilers, stop reading here!
A big issue with this show is the negative trope perpetuated by the relationship between Adam and Eric that is introduced towards the end of the season. The revelation of Adam’s attraction to Eric is quite the change of pace after watching Adam constantly bully and ridicule Eric at school. The supposed explanation for his cruelty is that Adam is coming to terms with his attraction to another man and that repressing his attraction manifested in violence towards Eric. These actions may follow the depraved homosexual tv trope, in which writers reveal that a character’s violent and cruel behavior stems from insecurity about their sexuality and therefore gain sympathy for that character from the viewers. Not only is this trope super harmful to the LGBTQ+ community, but it also insinuates that violent homophobes are motivated by attraction towards their victims rather than by aggressive homophobia. Think of the “little boy pulling little girl’s ponytail” trope, except magnified to a scary and violent extent. However, as this romantic plotline between Adam and Eric is very new and has yet to be developed, it’s important to reserve judgment until we see more of this pairing.
Another uncomfortable issue with this show is that almost every episode begins by showing two teens having sex, often the teens that will be seeking advice from Otis in that episode. These scenes are interesting because they deconstruct the picture-perfect, flawless sex scenes usually depicted on TV, instead of showing that sex can be awkward and messy and thereby normalizing sexual experiences that don’t mirror television or pornography. This is super important, but it’s also important to remember that the characters depicted are meant to be around 16 years old. By portraying minors in detailed sex scenes in almost every episode, Sex Education does unnecessarily sexualize its characters.
While these scenes are important in the context of other media that only show the attractive, perfect parts of sex while ignoring the awkward and messy, the abundance of detailed sex scenes featuring minors on television today is a bit alarming considering the low number of sexually active teens that actually exist and the age-range that these shows are meant to appeal to.
While it’s definitely important to recognize where the show could improve, Sex Education has truly changed the standard for tv shows today. By portraying so many unique characters and breaking stereotypes left and right, Sex Education strikes a chord with all of its viewers.
Through its important commentary on the pressures that teens face today to become sexually active and its important representation for underrepresented communities and familial structures, the show has truly raised the bar for future writers.
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