Writer: Holly Delefortrie
In the week of International Women’s Day, a lot of discussions have centred around the gender pay gap. For comedian and performer Holly Delefortrie, though, more pressing is the gender pleasure gap: while 95% of cisgender men report pleasure and satisfaction from sex, only 65% of cis women say the same.
Part of the problem, Delefortrie posits, is the inadequacy of sex education in schools. For her, this meant a focus on not catching STIs and avoiding pregnancy, and nothing about consent or pleasure: from her invitation with audience members to share their memories of sex ed classes, her experience is not an isolated one.
In a rambunctious, fun hour that kicks off with a sequin-clad Delefortrie dancing to Spinning Around (the first of several Kylie Minogue hits throughout the evening), the performer explains that the lack of in-depth instruction meant that pornography became a secondary source of information. That medium centres everything on men’s anatomy and pleasure, however, so she grew up unaware of her own anatomy and its ability to contribute to her sexual pleasure.
To counteract this, Delefortrie has created a show which starts off by framing itself as a self-help group, with occasional forays into a game show format. Sex-Ed Revisited’s status as a work in progress really shows in these segments, as what appear to be setups for punchlines to a skit fade away, replaced by jarring shifts to another section.
Moments of personal revelation demonstrates what the show can be. The experience of having to ask for a morning-after pill at Boots as someone scoured the sun cream shelves nearby is touchingly revealing, while a segment describing pubic grooming styles with a mango and a sharpie delivers the comedy and education mix that Delefortrie seems to be aiming for throughout.
One of the key takeaways from Sex-Ed Revisited (other than the one about just how many pop classics Kylie has been responsible for) is an unmitigated success: that sex is not a race, that everybody has their own tastes and boundaries, and that negotiating those boundaries with a partner is a vital part of sex.
Such lessons should be a fundamental part of sex education at an early age: until they are, shows such as the one Sex-Ed Revisited is aiming to become will continue to be necessary.
Reviewed on 9 March 2022
