This segment transpired out of an interview I did for a segment on sex education in Sweden. Erik Centerwall, a fellow who wrote a comprehensive amount of Sweden's currrent sex education curriculum, is involved in many projects related to sexuality.

One of these endeavours was a book for adults designed to educate them about their questions on sexuality after they watched porn and were somewhat confused by what they saw. It seems that much of the sex education is centered around the mechanics of having sex, with little attention paid to the emotions and behaviour of different individuals. That meant when adults saw the varied types of sexual encounters depicted in pornography, many people who hadn't had those experiences (e.g. group sex), began to wonder if something was missing from their own sex lives. "Am I normal?" was a question that kept coming up.

Centerwall sought to answer that question and explore the sex lives of adults throughout Sweden with the book, "Ways to Make Love," which was featured in this segment. It was originally incorporated into the "Swedish Sex Education" segment, but we decided it could stand alone as a separate piece. What didn't make it into this particular story was that Centerwall was also working on a book for children, who also had a lot of questions which were sparked by general curiousity but also by what they saw in pornography. Centerwall told me that when he talked to 12-year-old children, about 50% had seen pornography, but by the age of 16, virtually all kids had seen a dirty movie. The aim is to provide children with a realistic picture of what sex is like. The educational book geared for youth seeks to answer actual questions posed by the kids.

"The kids, when they are 10, 11 or 12, they are very open in their questions, so they ask about pornography, about anal sex, they ask about masturbation, they ask about what girls and boys do and perhaps what they want in bed. They also ask about adult people and how they have sex. Everything (in the book) comes from the young people themselves. When this book comes out, I know some people will say that this is not realistic, this is not how young girls and boys think, but I can confirm everything is on paper, this is their questions, this is their voices, and this is their worries around sexuality," said Centerwall.

The book features graphic illustrations of male and female genitals, including erect penises. Imagine what would happen if you tried to make that kind of literature available in a North American educational instiution!

Karen Murray
Associate Producer, SEXTV