In pursuit of pleasure
SLUTEVER ★★★★
Series return, Tuesday (April 16), 9.30pm, SBS Viceland
US Vogue online sex columnist, Karley Sciortino, presents herself as a cross between Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and a “slutty senator’s wife”. In the first series of Slutever, which, as the title suggests, reclaims the sexual slur and blends it with the Millennial verbal shrug, she shocked and intrigued with tales of bondage and discipline, eco-sexuality (sex with plants), monster fantasy, and the million-dollar dildos of luxury erotica. This time around, she covers more “accessible” topics – polyamory, sex education, virtual reality sex, and sugar babies. With her trademark pink fluffy microphone in hand, the gonzo sex investigator takes to the streets, the homes and the bars of America, to deliver her audience an education in pleasure.
“The cultural conversation around sexuality has progressed so much in recent years and it’s inspiring that people are more open,” Sciortino says. “It’s really powerful for me to overcome sexual shame.”
Having grown up Catholic in a small town in New York State, Sciortino knows about repression. Her approach is entertaining and academic, so it makes sense that her own sexual awakening was influenced by two writers: Sex and the City novelist Candace Bushnell; and controversial feminist author Camille Paglia. In a post #MeToo landscape, Sciortino is aware that her ideas around gender dynamics in the bedroom could rub some feminists the wrong way.
“We’re talking about sexuality in more nuanced ways but it’s also confined to a really dark time. We’re warning women about the dangers of sexuality without also teaching them about the ways sex can be fun and confidence building. There’s a lot of benefit in intimacy and sexual pleasure and men aren’t necessarily scary. That’s why [series co-creator Adri Murguia] and my intent was to make a really positive show that celebrates sexuality. We’re trying to subvert the narrative. At the core of this #MeToo movement is women reclaiming power over their bodies, but when we veer into conversations about bad dates, that should not distract from the central goal of the movement.”
Male bisexuality is also explored in season two, as a response both to the “fading of heterosexual standards” and to what Sciortino sees as a need for men to explore their vulnerability.
“The people who publicly talk about sex and sexuality are super-predominantly women. The way that men have been programmed how to talk about sex, is by bragging and objectifying women. The idea that sexual sensitivity is emasculating is so sad. It’s tragic for men and it’s tragic for women and that’s not healthy for a romantic or sexual relationship. Spoiler alert: men are actually sexually repressed too and women need to start accepting that. There is a faction of the feminist movement that’s man-hating and I find that off-putting.”
Sciortino further explores sexuality in Now Apocalypse, a surreal comedy series she co-wrote with queer filmmaker Gregg Araki. In her book, Slutever: Dispatches from an Autonomous Woman in a Post Shame World, she redefines “slut” as “a person who seeks out visceral experiences of sex and doesn’t have shame around having the sex life that they want”. But she warns that it’s important to retain the “naughty” essence of the word.
“We don’t want to just flip the word from bad to good. There is something transgressive about being a woman who’s slutty and that’s kind of fun. There’s a bad girl component, and that’s cool.”