Sex Education

[Brainstorm21]

Not sure if this has been discussed before but I've just finished Sex Education Season 3 and found it quite disturbing.

Previously I'd written it off as a rather light hearted silly show but it actually seems more like a vehicle for some rather unpleasant ideology.

Even though they made the villain Hope such an obvious baddie I did find myself agreeing with her in parts.

I can't quite articulate why I found this season more problematic but interested in anyone else's thoughts.

Certainly if I had teens I wouldn't want them to be watching in without having the chance to discuss it with them.

Yeah this was a harder watch than the other series wasn't it?

The non binary girls and the breast binder subplot....problematic.

Yeah I loved the previous 2 series (they weren't without their problems but still, lots of fun) but this one was hugely problematic in parts. The non-binary chest binding, the weird baddie Hope and the I hated the sex ed lessons with the shaming of childbirth and focus on perineal tearing, it was grotesque and humiliating for laughs. Horrible. Feels like they're really box ticking now, squeezing every possible 'identity' into the show.

Heads up for season 4 casting 2 trans leads being a power couple. Can't wait to watch it.

And no previous acting experience required. Given how young these characters are supposed to be, will this job require a GRC and/or some sort of evidence of transition? Might that massive fame and fortune carrot act as an incentive for a youngster to take the plunge into surgery/hormones? Or is it simply self-ID, which might lead a fame aspiring youngster to a Tootsie situation?

I think it’s because if they used male bodies non binary character it would show up how correct the teacher is to be insisting the use the boys toilets-because of the risk any boy in the girls poses, and to insist they attend the boys sex Ed class- because why is a boy going to need to hear about periods.

If the nb character was male there would be no need to use binders, that are hugely dangerous, despite the character claiming how safe they are.

A girl dating the male nb character when he insists they are in a queer relationship and she better accept it would look like he was gas lighting her.

The request unisex uniform were fine. Unisex changing and toilets -single use ones-should always be available for anyone who prefers them, however no one should need to id as nb to use these or wear unisex uniform.

It was a major head fuck of a series. I adored the first two, although there’s other problematic things in those at times also, but I’ve loved Gillian Anderson in her role in this, and have always thought she seemed very intelligent and an independent thinker (although that’s an old perception, not anything I think I could base on things she’s said that I can recall) and feel utterly disappointed at her now. The only worse thing imho would be Jamie Lee Curtis going full woke agenda (don’t you lot dare tell me she is or I’ll cry into my wine!!).

As a side point I don’t like Maeve with Otis, I like Issac (although obviously not the deleting the message part) and I feel a bit miffed she wasn’t going to live with her sisters foster care permenantly. I know it’s because she got a great opportunity, but as someone in and out of care as a teen I actually think a bond with a sibling and a stable nurturing home is a better opportunity. (But that’s my bias).

I haven’t been able to watch this series because I read about the NB breast binding situation beforehand. I can’t be doing with that- I’m guessing they didn’t give a run down of all the risks involved?

...and why NB= must wear binders really baffles me anyway.

Oh I thought it was ok.

The 'nasty' head was ultimately the only one behaving like a grown up. I think we were supposed to agree with her and feel conflicted about why, given she was supposed to be wrong.

I think it was supposed to show what way madness lies if you allow things to be ruled by teenagers. I thought it was quite clever.

One of the things that I found interesting when Jackson and the NB character split up. If I recall correctly it ended with the NB character saying something along the lines of 'you will always see me as a girl' and Jackson agreed. It didn't end with a huge tantrum (as some would like us to believe) just an acceptance that this was the reason their relationship wouldn't work.

@TheMarzipanDildo

I haven’t been able to watch this series because I read about the NB breast binding situation beforehand. I can’t be doing with that- I’m guessing they didn’t give a run down of all the risks involved?

It was ‘don’t be tempted to wear a size to small or to wear two at once, if you don’t do that it’s safe’.

That was the most terrifying thing about it. I’m not sure if Netflix is beholden to any regulatory body the same was bbc etc are, but if it was i would be complaint because that part was horrifically negligent.

@Justme56

One of the things that I found interesting when Jackson and the NB character split up. If I recall correctly it ended with the NB character saying something along the lines of 'you will always see me as a girl' and Jackson agreed. It didn't end with a huge tantrum (as some would like us to believe) just an acceptance that this was the reason their relationship wouldn't work.

That and the female no character insisted that if he was in a relationship with them he would be in a queer relationship therefore be queer, and he thought about it -asked one of his mums how she knew she was a lesbian, which came off super homophobic of the show since he is so clearly a straight character who was certain he was straight- and then because he couldn’t accept being queer -because he wasn’t- the nb character ended the relationship.

It was all very strange. Dictating another person’s sexuality to them based on your identity. Which would be obvious as the gas lighting it was if a male nb character was doing that to a straight girl.

It hugely irritated me when I watched it just the massive push to shove something/anything trans into every show. I recently watched Good Girls (which is ridiculous in many ways anyway!) but one of the main characters has a short haired daughter in the first series who becomes her son then later there is a comment on how this transboy decides to give up lacross because the boys won't let "him" use their changing room! Heaven forfend we endorse safeguarding
Although I did enjoy that they used lacross as the sport; it's the reverse of football usually played by boys in the USA & by girls in the UK. Ahh stereotypes are tricky to maintain across the Atlantic.

It infuriated me how in the end of the third series, a teenage boy gives perfect advice to a woman who has suffered multiple miscarriages because he is just so clever and he knows better than her! Beyond mansplaining, mangynaesplaining? Totally agree with the previous posters, the jolly bonding-over-breastbinding was absolutely ghastly.

Does anyone remember how, in the second series, the Gillian Anderson character discussed safe 'breath play' (speaking about suffocation) with one of the teens? Let's normalise choking because it's all so playful!

@RedCarpetRebellion Jamie Lee Curtis is likely to be suffering from motivated reasoning on that front, given one of her kids has come out as trans.

I actually didn't think it was that bad. The head who you were supoosed to dislike because all the kids hated her, well actually she was more reasonable and sensible than the kids would have liked to have admitted.

The reason they didn't like her was because she didn't pander to it all.

The bonding stuff was disturbing but then the character was also basically portrayed as full of it, and needy/demanding and everything was all about how it affected them and yet when given the opportunity to put a case across and be listened to and help all these students they claimed to care about they didn't wanna know.

Even when they had someone who cared about them ajd liked them for who they were they went and ruined it by demanding he changed his reality . All they did was constantly create victim hood.

I thought it made some subtle points actually

[quote GAHgamel]@RedCarpetRebellion Jamie Lee Curtis is likely to be suffering from motivated reasoning on that front, given one of her kids has come out as trans.[/quote]
Ahhh I meant don’t tell me. Only so much disappointment I can take at a time!!

Yeah, dreadful binding stuff aside, I’m kind of with @Whatwouldscullydo - I thought the portrayal of Jackson’s failed relationship with Cal (the NB character) really highlighted the insufferable narcissism that made everything dull and impossible. Jackson couldn’t have cared less about Cal’s gender presentation. He just fancied her (or should that be them) in a very uncomplicated teenage way. Cal ruined it with navel gazing, deep unhappiness about their own body and a need to control the narrative around language used to describe the relationship. I think that’s probably quite accurate.

At least the new trans characters are a couple, so they can bore each other with their endless navel gazing!

Yy um

The uniform stuff was very telling. They were so determined to kick off about it and were almost deflated when the head said they could wear trousers. They were merely asked to wear something that fitted properly and all the kidsnwerebhekd to the same standards

The changing room thing was just dramatic nonsense cos presumably they used it all the time for the years they have been there in which case either they hadn't requested somewhere ekse which was entirely on them or they were just making a fuss for the attention.

I particularly liked the son of two mums being spoken to by like he had no idea about different kind of relationships erm he'd been amongst one for years befire they came along to tell them all about it. I like to think he actually felt the respect fir his mum's being lesbians and didn't feel like appropriating their struggles.

I thought it made some subtle points actually

Yes, this.

I felt it showed the (sometimes extreme end of) conversations that ARE taking place between teens these days and shines a light on it.

I didn't agree with all of it, but I don't think you are supposed to.