The Principles of Pleasure

Last updated
The Principles of Pleasure
Genre Docu-series
Directed by Niharika Desai
Starring
  • Supriya Ganesh
  • Gina Nicole Brown
  • Michelle Buteau
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes3
Production
Running time48–55 min
Production companyThe Front
Original release
NetworkNetflix
ReleaseMarch 22, 2022 (2022-03-22)

The Principles of Pleasure is a 2022 Netflix docuseries that examines the world of female, transgender, and non-binary sexual pleasure, and its surrounding lack of understanding in modern science. [1] [2] The series consists of three episodes and premiered on Netflix on March 22, 2022. The series is directed by Niharika Desai and is narrated by actress Michelle Buteau. [3]

Contents

Synopsis

The series seeks to empower and educate viewers about the female body and female pleasure. Topics discussed in the series range from the history of sex education, the orgasm gap, gender roles in the media and society, the lack of research about women's sexuality dating back centuries, and consent.

Interviewees include Emily Nagoski, author of the book Come as You Are. [4]

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byOriginal release date
1"Our Bodies" Niharika Desai March 22, 2022 (2022-03-22)
2"Our Minds"Niharika DesaiMarch 22, 2022 (2022-03-22)
3"Our Relationships"Niharika DesaiMarch 22, 2022 (2022-03-22)

Reception

The Principles of Pleasure has received positive reviews from critics who lauded the series for emphasizing "that women of color, trans women, fat women, and women with disabilities in particular [generally] get excluded from the dialogue, and most sex educators are white, cisgender, and able-bodied. This isn’t a one-time acknowledgment in the docuseries. Instead, the project consistently wrestles with, to paraphrase one interviewee, how the world relates to our bodies and how that impacts our ability to be sexual. It is a through-line." [3]

Beth Ashley of The Guardian pointed out, "Part of the show’s importance is in highlighting how far behind even the science on the subject is...Psychologist Dr Lori Brotto and sexual psychophysiologist Dr Nicole Prause explain how many research proposals – including Prause’s own – which could uncover a lot of missing information about female orgasms, ejaculation, arousal and dysfunction have been rejected due to male discomfort in the science community." [4] Ashley commended the show for its handling of the topic of consent, and said "It is refreshing to see [female pleasure] discussed so openly on screen."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clitoris</span> Organ at the top of the vulva

The clitoris is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches, and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra. Unlike the penis, the male homologue (equivalent) to the clitoris, it usually does not contain the distal portion of the urethra and is therefore not used for urination. In most species, the clitoris lacks any reproductive function. While few animals urinate through the clitoris or use it reproductively, the spotted hyena, which has an especially large clitoris, urinates, mates, and gives birth via the organ. Some other mammals, such as lemurs and spider monkeys, also have a large clitoris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human sexual activity</span> Manner in which humans engage sexually

Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone to acts with another person in varying patterns of frequency, for a wide variety of reasons. Sexual activity usually results in sexual arousal and physiological changes in the aroused person, some of which are pronounced while others are more subtle. Sexual activity may also include conduct and activities which are intended to arouse the sexual interest of another or enhance the sex life of another, such as strategies to find or attract partners, or personal interactions between individuals. Sexual activity may follow sexual arousal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orgasm</span> Intense physical sensation of sexual release

Orgasm or sexual climax is the sudden discharge of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, resulting in rhythmic, involuntary muscular contractions in the pelvic region characterized by sexual pleasure. Experienced by males and females, orgasms are controlled by the involuntary or autonomic nervous system. They are usually associated with involuntary actions, including muscular spasms in multiple areas of the body, a general euphoric sensation, and, frequently, body movements and vocalizations. The period after orgasm is typically a relaxing experience, attributed to the release of the neurohormones oxytocin and prolactin as well as endorphins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Sprinkle</span> American pornographic actress and sex educator

Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981). Through the production of feminist based pornographic content, include understanding of female genitalia and pornography based on women's desires, Sprinkle has contributed to feminist pornography and the larger social movement of feminism; she is also known for contributing to the rise of the post-porn movement and bisexual/lesbian pornography. Sprinkle, a bisexual woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community, married her long-time partner Beth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female ejaculation</span> Expulsion of fluid during orgasm

Female ejaculation is characterized as an expulsion of fluid from the Skene's gland at the lower end of the urethra during or before an orgasm. It is also known colloquially as squirting, although research indicates that female ejaculation and squirting are different phenomena, squirting being attributed to a sudden expulsion of liquid that partly comes from the bladder and contains urine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doggy style</span> Sex position

Doggy style is a sex position in which one participant bends over, crouches on all fours, or lies on their abdomen, for sexual intercourse, other forms of sexual penetration or other sexual activity. Doggy style is a form of a rear-entry position, others being with the receiving partner lying on the side in the spoons sex position or the reverse cowgirl sex position. Non-penetrative sex in this position may also be regarded as doggy style.

The Masters and Johnson research team, composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual stimulation</span> Stimulus that causes and maintains sexual arousal

Sexual stimulation is any stimulus that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to orgasm. Although sexual arousal may arise without physical stimulation, achieving orgasm usually requires it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial (sexual act)</span> Sexual activity involving ejaculating on the face of another

A facial is a sexual activity in which a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more sexual partners. A facial is a form of non-penetrative sex, though it is generally performed after some other means of sexual stimulation, such as vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, manual sex or masturbation. Facials are regularly portrayed in pornographic films and videos, often as a way to close a scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Dodson</span> American sex educator (1929–2020)

Betty Dodson was an American sex educator. An artist by training, she exhibited erotic art in New York City, before pioneering the pro-sex feminist movement. Dodson's workshops and manuals encourage women to masturbate, often in groups.

A fake orgasm occurs when a person pretends to have an orgasm without actually experiencing one. It usually involves simulating or acting out behaviors typically associated with orgasm, such as body movements, vocal sounds, and sequences of intensification followed by apparent release. It can also include giving verbal indications that orgasm occurred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masturbation</span> Sexual stimulation of ones own genitals

Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person sexually stimulates their own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve the use of hands, everyday objects, sex toys, or more rarely, the mouth. Masturbation may also be performed with a sex partner, either masturbating together or watching the other partner masturbate.

OneTaste Incorporated was a business primarily dedicated to teaching the practices of orgasmic meditation (OM) and slow sex. Though it embraced ideas based in Eastern philosophy, the central focus was a meditation practice around the sensation of a man touching a woman's genitalia. It was founded by Nicole Daedone in San Francisco. The company started to receive more widespread attention around 2007.

The one-sex and two-sex theories are two models of human anatomy or fetal development discussed in Thomas Laqueur's book Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Laqueur theorizes that a fundamental change in attitudes toward human sexual anatomy occurred in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. He draws from scholars such as Aristotle and Galen to argue that prior to the eighteenth century, women and men were viewed as two different forms of one essential sex: that is, women were seen to possess the same fundamental reproductive structure as men, the only difference being that female genitalia was inside the body, not outside of it. Anatomists saw the vagina as an interior penis, the labia as foreskin, the uterus as scrotum, and the ovaries as testicles. Laqueur uses the theory of interconvertible bodily fluids as evidence for the one-sex model. However, he claims that around the 18th century, the dominant view became that of two sexes directly opposite to each other. In his view, the departure from a one-sex model is largely because of political shifts which challenged the way women's sexuality came to be seen. One result of this was the emerging view of the female orgasm as nonessential to conception after the eighteenth century. Women and men began to be seen as opposites and each sex was compared in relation to the other. Freud's work further perpetuated the sexual socialization of women by dictating how they should feel pleasure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human female sexuality</span> Physiology, identity and behavior

Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sexual activity. Various aspects and dimensions of female sexuality, as a part of human sexuality, have also been addressed by principles of ethics, morality, and theology. In almost any historical era and culture, the arts, including literary and visual arts, as well as popular culture, present a substantial portion of a given society's views on human sexuality, which includes both implicit (covert) and explicit (overt) aspects and manifestations of feminine sexuality and behavior.

PorYes is an initiative of sex-positive feminists that advocates for feminist criteria in pornography and honors outstanding depictions of sexuality. Since 2009, the PorYes Award has been held every two years as a feminist European porn film prize in Berlin. The PorYes awards were created as a feminist counter-action to the Venus Awards, a Berlin-based mainstream porn festival.

Porn for women, women's porn or women's pornography is pornography aimed specifically at the female market, and often produced by women. It rejects the view that pornography is only for men, and seeks to make porn that women enjoy watching instead of what is being offered in male-centric mainstream pornography.

Explained is an American documentary television series on the streaming service Netflix. The show is produced by Vox Media and is based on Vox's previous YouTube video series which followed a similar format. The show's episodes averaged between 16 and 24 minutes, with each focusing on a different topic. Each episode is voiced by a different guest narrator. The series premiered on Netflix on May 23, 2018 with episodes released on a weekly basis. The second season premiered on September 26, 2019 and the third season on July 16, 2021.

The orgasm gap or pleasure gap is the disparity in sexual satisfaction—specifically the unequal frequency in achieving orgasm during sexual encounters—between heterosexual men and women. Across every demographic that has been studied, women report the lowest frequency of reaching orgasm during sexual encounters with men. Researchers believe that multiple causes contribute to the orgasm gap. Orgasm gap researcher Laurie Mintz argues that the primary reason for this form of gender inequality is due to "our cultural ignorance of the clitoris" and that it is commonplace to "mislabel women's genitals by the one part that gives men, but not women, reliable orgasms."

<i>The Goop Lab</i> Netflix documentary series

The Goop Lab is an American documentary series about the lifestyle and wellness company Goop, founded by American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who acts as host and executive producer of the series. The series premiered on January 24, 2020 on Netflix.

References

  1. "The Principles of Pleasure: All You Need to Know About Netflix's Upcoming Docuseries". Leisure Byte. 20 March 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  2. "What to watch on Tuesday: 'The Principles of Pleasure' on Netflix". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Berger, Laura (March 22, 2022). "Pick of the Day: "The Principles of Pleasure"". womenandhollywood.com. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Ashley, Beth (March 23, 2022). "The orgasm gap: can Netflix's new sex ed show revolutionise women's lives?". The Guardian . Retrieved March 25, 2022.