Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood wants women to take ownership of their sexuality
‘The female orgasm is basically a myth while you’re at school - it’s all about the boy’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Netflix show Sex Education has sparked important conversations around relationships, consent and sexuality – and one of its stars has spoken out about what she hopes young women will take away from the series.
Aimee Lou Wood, who plays Aimee Gibbs, said she felt proud to play a female character taking ownership of her sexuality because women are often sold the myth that sex is not for them.
“We’ve all been through that phase when we were younger, and some women never come out of it, which is the mindset of, ‘This is for the guy, sex is for the man’,” she said in an interview with Teen Vogue.
“And at school, guys are seeking pleasure and girls are seeking validation a lot of the time.
“Like, ‘I’ll have sex with this person because it will validate me,’ rather than, ‘I want to have sex with that person because I’m going enjoy it and it’s going to be great.’”
The British actor went on to explain how female pleasure is often ignored when you’re young.
“The female orgasm is basically a myth while you’re at school, it’s all about the boy,” she told the website.
At first, Wood’s character Aimee seems like one of the most sexually liberated people in the show.
“But she’s actually not,” Wood pointed out, explaining how Aimee approaches intimacy with a people-pleasing mentality, putting her partner’s needs before her own so as to avoid having to explore her own desires.
She references one scene in particular when the male protagonist, Otis, asks Aimee what she wants when she’s with her partner Steve, to which she earnestly responds: “No one’s ever asked me that before”.
“I get that because I remember being that age,” Wood said, “and if someone had asked me that, I would have been so embarrassed because I would have had no idea what to say.”
She explained how this is very much a gendered issue, describing the boys she went to school with as “shameless” when it came to talking about sex and masturbation, whereas these topics were a “complete taboo” among her female peers.
Sex Education addresses these topics head on, which may partly explain why it has been so successful.
The series is on track to be watched by 40 million subscribers before its first month is out.
Netflix has historically kept viewing numbers to itself, but the streaming service decided to reveal figures for three of their big January series.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments