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Ruminating on the latest season of Sex Education

Hello hello!  

Apologies for the unplanned four weeks hiatus (eek!). Between family, conferences, sickness and other work commitments, my sense of time was unexpectedly obliterated! I’ve learnt a good lesson though — which is all part of starting something new, I guess — I need to have a few weeks in the pipeline to give myself some breathing room! 

Paid subscribers, I have a few apology gifts in the pipeline for you.

This is a short newsletter this week but I’m back properly next week with a fun Q&A!

Sex Education, the finale: A mini review

It’s been very exciting watching the new season of Sex Education thanks to my first ever interviewee, Eshaan Akbar, making his TV debut as Principal Lakhani, the headmaster of the college. Every time his face is on screen, I scream and take a photo. 

Aside from Eshaan though, this season lacks brown representation. I missed the explicitly South Asian characters of seasons gone by: There was Simone Ashley’s Olivia having sex to classical Indian music so her mum would think she was practicing kathak, for example, and Chaneil Kular’s openly gay character Anwar coming out to his Indian mum (although off screen). Seeing brown people on screen not just going through ‘the struggles’ but also experiencing joy, love, pleasure and sex shouldn’t have felt revolutionary, but it did because how often do we see really see brown men and women being desired on screen?

OK aside from this Kate and Anthony moment in Bridgerton

South Asians make up the second largest percentage of the population at 9.3%. You would never know that by watching British TV in general. I know, I know, they’re just TV shows and not documentaries — but they do help shape the social narrative and the wider culture — they play a large role in the perception of South Asians. Sex Education did a great job of changing that in seasons 1-3.

After finishing the season, I did find out that Roman, who is transgender, is half Pakistani. Although his ethnicity isn’t mentioned nor is it obvious, having positive brown trans representation in this current climate is so incredibly important. It’s a “tumultuous time for trans people globally, with vicious political and media backlash” and there needs to be wider representation of the trans experience that isn’t just trauma driven nor just trans people defending their right to exist in spaces. It’s an area I want to explore more with Brown Bodies and I’ve already reached out to a few people to interview so watch this space.

Although I have a lot of criticisms about the season, the standout plot line for me is Eric’s relationship with religion, his Church and his faith…I mean the fact they managed to make that distinction is incredible in and of itself. I won’t spoil it for those who are yet to watch but I will say what it doesn’t do: 

• It doesn’t depict religious characters as backwards as we often see on Western TV and film. 

• It doesn’t depict religious characters losing their faith on their way to “finding themselves” nor does it show them angry and hateful towards their communities (disappointed and sad, yes). 

• It doesn’t show queer people having to compromise a part of themselves.

It’s a representation I’ve rarely ever seen and it was a beautiful watch and reminded me of the earlier groundbreaking, narrative changing work Sex Education has done. Teen Vogue writes about it way better here. 

As a final note, my wonderful friend, Alix Fox, was a script consultant on the show and has written about what it takes, behind the scenes, to get representation right and why it is so important: “People finally felt seen by scenes about gender dysphoria, performance anxiety and vaginismus.” 

What did you think of it? The good, the bad? I need people to talk to about it! Let me know in the comments!

A couple of other things from this month! 

What’s sex therapy? This is one of the best explanations I’ve seen so far. 

A political sex strike. What happens when women withhold sex in return for power? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one! 

I spoke about sex! I was invited to speak on a sextech panel about why I started Brown Bodies and it was honestly terrifying but I was held with so much love and compassion by the incredible room. They shared their stories with me and their hopes for personal and (tech) industry wide change. 

And a couple of fun musical bits to end

Here’s one for my Bollywood loving millennials. 

Bringing hip hop together with classical Tamil sounds is something Usha Jey does flawlessly. 

And an ask…

I’m in the process of organising a **a very cool and secret event👀” in December and am looking for a couple of sponsors to make it a bit easier on me. If there’s anyone you could connect me to who could be interested, please do let me know! I’ll get you lunch! 🧡

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Until next week with that promised Q&A.

Anisah