Janelle Monáe Explains Sex To You In New Netflix Docu-Series

Through two seasons and 30 short, information-packed episodes, the Netflix series Explained, produced by Vox Media, the company behind the news site Vox.com, has enlightened viewers on a startlingly wide variety of topics, ranging from “Political Correctness” to “Why Women Are Paid Less” to “Cryptocurrency” and “Why Diets Fail.” While the series has somehow managed to turn even dry topics such as computer coding and the stock market into rather riveting viewing, a new, five-episode Explained spinoff series that debuted on Netflix last week zeroes on on the one topic that interest everyone: sex.Carrying viewers through deep dives into the origins of sexual fantasies, the mysteries of sexual attraction, and the mechanics of childbirth is an unwaveringly calm, largely dispassionate narrative voice belonging to pop star Janelle Monae.The five episodes may not be a substitute for the abysmal state of sex ecducation in schools, but according to a Daily Beast review, the “series provides adults with a valuable supplement to whatever knowledge they may (or may not) have gleaned from school and experience.”The episode on sexual fantasies, for example, uses as its foundation a massive, one-of-a-kind survey conducted by psychologist Justin Lehmiller, who interviewed more than 4,100 people, who confessed their deepest sexual fantasies to him, thus allowing him to group human sex fantasies into seven basic categories. AVN.com covered Lehmiller’s research last year. But viewers of Sex: Explained will see the psychologist spell it out in his own words.“We chose five topics—sexual fantasies, attraction, birth control, fertility, and childbirth—where new research has raised new questions and offered up surprising new answers,”  Claire Gordon and Sanya Dosani write on the Vox site.  â€œSome of it’s uncomfortable, or even taboo, but they’re all topics that affect our health and well-being throughout our lives in more ways than we realize.”The show has received a TV-MA rating, but with only 29 states now requiring sex-ed as part of a public school curriculum, and only 15 states mandating that sex education in school be medically accurate, the latest Explained miniseries is worth watching by high school age teens as well.Photo By NASA/Bill Ingalls / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain