Throughout all of the classes I have taken in my college career so far, I rarely made note of how the simple terms that were written in textbooks and discussed during lectures and recitations were portrayed in my everyday life and in fictional shows on media platforms. After reading my textbook while rewatching the episodes of the show, I discovered how close in relation my textbook was to each episode. This influenced my decision to point out the particular show that consistently mirrors terms that are displayed in my Interpersonal Communication textbook written by Kory Floyd. As you read along, you might come across some spoilers from the Netflix original Sex Education.
Sex Education is about Otis, a boy, in high school with a sex therapist mother that teamed up with Maeve, another classmate, to construct an underground sex therapy clinic at their high school. Throughout my paper, I discussed the use of Androgyny, Instrumental Talk, In-Group, Out Group, and Uncertainty Avoidance.
During episode five of Sex Education, it was Eric, Otis’ gay best friend’s, birthday. Every year for Eric’s birthday they attend a show called Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical that tells the funny and emotional tale of an East Berlin transgendered diva on a journey to find stardom. Eric and Otis both dressed in women’s clothing such as crop tops, skirts, blonde wigs and a full face of makeup. Before going out, Eric’s dad confronted him about changing to something more masculine while warning him that it wasn’t safe to be open with his outfit. This is an example of androgyny, which is defined as a gender role distinguished by a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. Since Eric and Otis were very androgynous with their chosen clothing they were given many unwanted and negative stares that eventually led to an attack on Eric.
Expressive Talk and Instrumental Talk are used frequently throughout Sex Education. Instrumental Talk is verbal communication whose purpose is to solve problems and accomplish a task. Otis usually used Instrumental Talk during his interaction with clients from his sex therapy clinic. In episode three, Otis is in a session with a lesbian couple. The couple explains that their connection during sex isn’t matching the same energy of their non-sexual relationship. After doing some research on their sexual problems, he came back to inform them of what they were doing wrong in their sex life. He solved their problem by informing the couple of different positions, techniques and trying new things, such as in a pool. Otis differentiates the use of instrumental talk and expressive talk between his clients, his best friend, Eric, and Maeve, his business partner. Expressive talk is verbal communication whose purpose is to express emotions and build relationships. When Otis talks to Maeve, he watches closely to what he says around her because as the season progressed, he developed a crush on Maave and definitely tried to impress her and get her attention often. With Eric, Otis could trust him with more and the conversation is a lot more playful and open, especially when it comes to Otis’ own sex life or his crush on Maeve.
The last concept within the show would-be uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the degree to which people try to avoid situations that are unstructured, unclear or unpredictable. During episode four, a popular classmate from the in-group at Otis’ school is searching for him. Although Otis’ doesn’t know what the classmate wants, he soon starts to avoid eye contact and walks the other way every time he sees this popular student. Otis completely changes his path and morals to avoid his classmate. Soon after the student finally gets a hold of Otis’ to ask him for relationship advice on his friend Maeve. I believe this is uncertainty avoidance because of the different heights that Otis went to in order to avoid the situation.
During the first and only season on Netflix, Sex Education is a show that portrays the real-life of teens in today’s society and how they think. Sex Education portrays these different cultures and gender roles because of the accuracy of these terms in our everyday life. After recognizing the terms in the textbook within the Netflix original, it made it easier to understand them and how they are depicted in everyday life reenactments.