A Girl's Guide to 21st Century Sex is an 8 part TV series about sex, billed as a documentary and running on the British broadcasting station Five. The 45-minute long episodes (including advertisements) were broadcast on Monday nights and presented by Dr. Catherine Hood. The series started on 30 October 2006, with the final programme broadcast on 18 December 2006.
Each episode explained a sex position and covered a sexually transmitted disease. Additionally the following topics were covered: sex among handicapped people, penis enlargement devices, penis enlargement surgery, anal sex, tantric sex, the g-spot, erectile dysfunction, sex reassignment surgery, cosmetic surgery of the vagina (labiaplasty), swinging, sex on public toilets, full body plastic wrap bondage, and sex dolls.
The first few episodes of the series are extremely explicit, showing erect penises and close-ups of a vulva as well as detailed footage of sexual intercourse including penetration and ejaculation (both filmed with a tiny camera from within the vagina). In subsequent episodes, most such footage was heavily (and seemingly hastily) censored through blurring; however, the programme remains perhaps the most explicit ever to be broadcast on mainstream UK television.
Twenty-one people complained to the national television regulator, Ofcom, that the explicitness of the sexual scenes breached obscenity and broadcasting regulations, but in their 29 January bulletin, Ofcom ruled that there was no rule banning the showing of genuine sexual acts on free-to-air television, and that "in their view the portrayal of sex in this programme genuinely sought to inform and educate", concluding that "whilst the visuals were explicit at times, nothing was transmitted in a manner that could be construed as having the potential to harm people under the age of eighteen", particularly given its context as a serious factual programme, and as such it was ruled that the episodes were not in breach of any broadcasting regulations.
Each episode explained a sex position and covered a sexually transmitted disease. Additionally the following topics were covered: sex among handicapped people, penis enlargement devices, penis enlargement surgery, anal sex, tantric sex, the g-spot, erectile dysfunction, sex reassignment surgery, cosmetic surgery of the vagina (labiaplasty), swinging, sex on public toilets, full body plastic wrap bondage, and sex dolls.
The first few episodes of the series are extremely explicit, showing erect penises and close-ups of a vulva as well as detailed footage of sexual intercourse including penetration and ejaculation (both filmed with a tiny camera from within the vagina). In subsequent episodes, most such footage was heavily (and seemingly hastily) censored through blurring; however, the programme remains perhaps the most explicit ever to be broadcast on mainstream UK television.
Twenty-one people complained to the national television regulator, Ofcom, that the explicitness of the sexual scenes breached obscenity and broadcasting regulations, but in their 29 January bulletin, Ofcom ruled that there was no rule banning the showing of genuine sexual acts on free-to-air television, and that "in their view the portrayal of sex in this programme genuinely sought to inform and educate", concluding that "whilst the visuals were explicit at times, nothing was transmitted in a manner that could be construed as having the potential to harm people under the age of eighteen", particularly given its context as a serious factual programme, and as such it was ruled that the episodes were not in breach of any broadcasting regulations.
