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Molly Longest / Her Campus
Culture > Entertainment

‘The Sex Lives Of College Girls’: A Series That Breaks The Taboos Around Sex

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Casper Libero chapter.

If you are looking for a series with drama and comedy at the same time, characters that you can identify and a plot that will make you feel a rollercoaster of emotions, ‘The Sex Lives Of College Girls’ is perfect to put on your list and binge watch. If you are already convinced to watch the show, this is the time, because the second season is about to come out. To be more specific, the new episodes will be released this Thursday, November 17th. 

WHAT IS THE SHOW ABOUT?

‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ is an original series from HBO Max, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble. The story revolves around four girls who have just entered Essex College, in Vermont, and become dorm roommates. In the beginning, the characters are presented in archetypes, we have the mean girl, Leighton (Reneé Rapp), the nerd, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), the athlete, Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and the funny one, Bela (Amrit Kaur). 

But, throughout the season, layers that make these characters become more complex and run away from stereotypes are built. It’s interesting to see the journey of the four of them until they become friends. 

They start the show very skeptical of each other, especially Leighton who doesn’t want to get close to any of them and even tries to change dorms. The chemistry between all the characters and the good balance between the different personalities are good, which makes the conflicts more interesting. Yet there is one thing that unites them all and drives the plot of the series: sex.

Trailer of Season 1 of ‘The Sex Lives Of College Girls’

THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS

Whether it’s for the sex they haven’t had, like Kimberly, for what they hide, like Leighton with their sexuality, for the sex forbidden by the age difference, like Whitney, or for being horny but not getting as much sex as you want, like Bela, the sex always ends up surrounding the subjects presented in the series, but anyone who thinks it is transmitted in a shallow way is wrong. 

Sex is also used to address social issues and dive into important matters, such as sexual abuse, sexism, age gap, self-knowledge and intimacy itself, something that has always been a taboo, especially when we talk about women.

IT’S NOT HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE

Something interesting done by the writers was the change of age, we are no longer talking about high school, but college. It is fun how we dive into the difficulties, conflicts, happiness and experiences of women who are no longer children, but are not very much adults either.

We are used to seeing series talking about life in high school and the experiences of teenagers, when there are other phases of life that have new discoveries and growth to be worked on. And ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ brings just that, a new look and attention to life outside of school, but still with characters who are trying to understand who they are and what they want for life, since those doubts don’t end exactly when you leave the senior year.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SEASON TWO (SPOILER ALERT)

At the end of the first season, we saw our main characters stuck in crossroads. Kimberly had her academic scholarship revoked after she was caught cheating on her midterm exam. Bela accused the co-editor of The Catullan, the most prestigious comedy magazine on campus, of sexual assault. After that, she decided to launch her own female-led magazine. 

Whitney’s relationship with her coach Dalton was discovered, which caused the end of it. In addition we see the young woman getting involved with Canaan, which gives her hope to be able to have an age-appropriate and healthy relationship. Last, but not least, we have Leighton, who just had a breakup with her girlfriend Alicia, and finally managed to talk about her sexuality with one of her friends, Kimberly.

With all that, we can look forward to a season that unravels all the problems that were created in the last episode. The friends can get closer and closer because of the difficulties they will go through and we will probably see more sensitive issues, such as how the series will deal with the abuse that Bela suffered and the sexuality journey being more explored by Leighton.

Besides, we hope to see the humor and light and fun dynamics that marked the first season of ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’.

Trailer of Season 2 of ‘The Sex Lives Of College Girls’
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The article above was edited by Julia Queiroz.

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Isadora Costa

Casper Libero '24

Journalism student passionate about any form of art. Telling stories fascinates and that's what I'm trying to do here.