March 9, 2009
60 minutes of Sex
Oxford Playhouse, 6th March 2009
It is often said that sex sells - however this was not the case for 60 minutes of Sex, which played to a half empty auditorium at the Oxford Playhouse. But the event, which was part of the Oxfordshire Science Festival 2009, failed to succeed for other reasons. Set up as a Question Time-format discussion around fertility, sexual identity and desire, it never really gathered any momentum and suffered from a lack of focus and, above all, science. Oxford Playhouse, 6th March 2009
During one and a half hours a panel of six 'sexperts' answered questions from the audience. But the panel, seated on the stage of the Playhouse, stuck mainly to questions that had been submitted in advance and often seemed oblivious to the raised hands in the auditorium, which prevented a more lively and direct involvement of the public into the discussion.
The members of the panel, which included a science journalist, a professor of zoology, a lecturer in the history of medicine, the bishop of Swindon, a psychiatrist specializing in gender issues, and a sex educator, all had their own perspectives on sexuality and could have provided a good basis for a multi-faceted and in-depth discussion. But the topics that were addressed were too widespread, ranging from the view of the church on contraception, to the difference between trans-sexuality and gender ambiguity, to the physiological mode of action of Viagra.
Although the chair, former BBC Tomorrow's World presenter Judith Hann, did a good job trying to tie the different questions together, the discussion only scratched the surface of each issue and turned into little more than an amiable ramble through our nether regions, emphasising cultural issues more often than scientific ones. Topics that could have offered fascinating insights into the science of sex, for instance the human equivalent of the peacock's tail or the nature of sexual arousal, remained largely unexplored. What therefore promised to be 60 minutes of sex, turned out to be little more than 90 minutes of foreplay.