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The Documentary Podcast

The orgasm gap

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.32.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What did you learn about sexual pleasure when you were growing up? Chances are, you didn't learn much in school. And if the latest research is anything to go by, we still have a lot to learn now. According to a US based study, 90% of heterosexual men said they climaxed during sex, while only 60% of heterosexual women said the same. In the UK, when the new sex education guidelines are introduced in September 2020, pleasure will remain off the agenda. In this programme, we talk to people in the UK and Rwanda to explore how society and culture influence how we experience pleasure. We look at what we were, or weren't, taught about sex at school and meet a man who is finding ways to close the gender pleasure gap outside of the classroom.

In Rwanda we find out about a cultural practice that allegedly puts female pleasure first, but is also linked to a controversial form of female genital modification.

The World Health Organisation does not explicitly mention labial elongation as a form of female genital mutilation. It periodically reviews the typology and classification of certain practices and the next review is envisioned for 2020-2021. In this documentary, we look at competing attitudes when it comes to female sexual pleasure and explore the collision zone between individual rights and preserving cultural practices.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, this is the BBC World Service.

0:03.0

And you're listening to the orgasm gap, which is part of the life-changes season.

0:08.0

Lily, what do you remember about your first orgasm?

0:14.0

Straight in.

0:17.0

That is a really... Direct.

0:20.0

Direct.

0:21.0

Direct question and you're going straight in with it.

0:24.0

Oh, it's just like, I don't know, it's just something embarrassing, isn't it?

0:28.0

It was kind of just like a warm tingly sensation I guess.

0:32.0

What about you? Tell me about yours. I had my first

0:37.8

orgasm last year. So 28? 28, yeah.

0:43.0

What was it like?

0:44.0

Have your first orgasm at 28?

0:45.0

Well, a bit sad actually because I thought, wow, I've been missing out on orgasms

0:50.0

for the best part of my 20s, you know,

0:52.0

I just thought, why? Because, okay, so... for the best part of my 20s you know they just why because okay so my friends who are

0:58.3

29 30 some of them still say now oh I'm the type of girl who can't orgasm during

1:06.8

penetrative sex or I'm one of those weird girls who really struggles to walk us at them and obviously now that

1:14.6

we've been looking into this a bit more I'm like no you are not weird yeah

1:19.8

actually like you are the norm and so I guess I feel a bit sad that for a huge

1:28.5

part of my 20s I have been having unequal sexual interactions.

1:35.0

Hello, I'm Kay.

...

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