Sex Education vs Sex and the City: A Comparative Analysis of TV Sex Education

Barbara Frigerio compares two iconic TV series, Sex and the City and Sex Education, in their approach to sex education and representation. Sex and the City, created by Darren Star, aired in the late 1990s and followed four women in their thirties in New York City, openly discussing topics like fellatio, vibrators, anal sex, female masturbation, bondage, vulvodynia, fetishism, threesomes, and more. It scores 9 points for its explicit content, with a bonus for being 25 years ahead of its time. Sex Education, a British series set in a fictional town reminiscent of Wales' Maine, follows contemporary teenagers navigating sex without adult guidance, relying on advice from Otis, a virgin teen and son of sex therapist Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson). The series covers orgasms, vaginismus, chlamydia, testicular lumps, queer sex, polyamory, and asexuality, scoring 7 points for topics, plus 2 for addressing abuse and consent. In queer representation, Sex Education excels with characters like Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Adam, Lily, Ola, Abbi, Roman, Cal, and Aisha, scoring 8 points versus Sex and the City's 2, which relied on stereotypes. Both series are glossy and avoid extremes like Euphoria or Girls. Neither addresses pornography's impact on adolescent sex education, a missed opportunity. The article is published on Artribune.