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Real Sex, Real People: The Top 10 Documentaries About Sex

By Mark Graham @unclegrambo

Published April 21, 2017, 9:00 p.m. ET

Do you enjoy sexytimes but wish you could learn something at the same time? Then this list of the 10 Best Documentaries About Sex should be right up your alley.

**TITLE:** *Real Sex* (1990)
HBO stopped producing new episodes of the groundbreaking documentary series described as "the *60 Minutes* of sex" back in 2009, but you can still enjoy episodes on HBO Go.
[Watch *Real Sex* on HBO Go]Photo: HBO

**TITLE:** *Polyamory: Married & Dating* (2012)
This Showtime series about swingers ran for two seasons, and trust us, you've never seen a show quite like it! The emotions and dynamics are nuanced, and the characters are deep, smart and seem like actual humans. Oh, and they're super hot, too!
[Watch *Polyamory* on Showtime]Photo: Showtime

**TITLE:** *After Porn Ends* (2012)
What's the transition like from being paid to have sex on camera to, well, *not* being paid to have sex on camera? This 2012 documentary explores how former porn stars like Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Mary Carey and more adjusted to their life after adult films.
[Watch *After Porn Ends* on Netflix]Photo: Netflix

**TITLE:** *Real Life Wife Swap* (2004)
Remember that ABC show *Wife Swap*, where wives lived with different families for a week? Well, this is NOTHING like that. In this BBC docs-series, swinging isn't something you just do on a swings.
[Watch *Real Life Wife Swap* on Netflix]Photo: Netflix

**TITLE:** *Cathouse: King Of The House* (2014)
*Cathouse* was a popular docu-series that ran on HBO in the early aughts, capitalizing on the runaway success of HBO's documentary films *Cathouse* and *Cathouse 2: Back In The Saddle*. There hasn't been a new episode of the show centered around the Moonlite BunnyRanch, a legal brothel in Nevada, in a few years, but you can watch a "new" (ish) documentary on Dennis Hof and his crew of sexy employees called *Cathouse: King Of The House* on HBO's streaming services.
[Watch *Cathouse: King Of The House* on HBO Go]Photo: HBO

**TITLE:** *Escorts* (2015)
There are a lot of documentaries out there about the world's oldest profession. *Escorts*, which was originally titled *High Class Call Girls* when it debuted on the BBC, shows the day-to-day lives of Cookie Jane and Emily B., two prostitutes who operate almost exclusively using the internet.
[Watch *Escorts* on Netflix]Photo: Netflix

**TITLE:** *Hot Girls Wanted*
Netflix always claims that HBO is not their competitor, but their decision to release this controversial doc about online porn in 2015 shows that they've paid close attention to the formula that made HBO successful. How popular was this show? The sequel to *HGW* is not a movie, but rather, a 6-part docu-series.
[Watch *Hot Girls Wanted* on Netflix]Photo: Netflix

**TITLE:** *X-Rated 2: The Greatest Adult Stars of All-Time* (2016)
Hosted by none other than Mr. Skin (!), this "documentary" puts the spotlight on the most popular porn stars from past to present.
[Watch *X-Rated 2: The Greatest Adult Stars Of All-Time* on Hulu]Photo: Showtime

**TITLE:** *Respectable: The Mary Millington Story*
This documentary film chronicles the extraordinary life and tragic death of Mary Millington - Britain's most famous pornographic actress of the 1970s.
[Watch *Respectable: The Mary Millington Story* on Netflix]Photo: Netflix

**TITLE:** *Best Of Sex: 2016 AVN Awards* (2016)
Do you love the Oscars but wish they spent more time talking about sex scenes? Then this Showtime documentary about the 2016 Adult Video News awards is for you!
[Watch the *2016 AVN Awards* on Showtime]Photo: Showtime

Where to Stream:

Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On

New on Netflix today is Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, a docu-series that serves as a sequel (of sorts) to the streaming giant’s wildly popular 2015 documentary film, Hot Girls Wanted. The original doc, which was executive produced by Rashida Jones (The Office), probed into the frequently shady techniques that professional porn producers used to lure fresh, young talent into the business, but this new 6 part series has a much wider purview. Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On explores not only the porn industry, but also the adjacent realms of erotic photography, cam girls, and dating apps.

We’ll have much more to say about HGW:TO over the next few days, but tonight, we wanted to pay homage to some of the documentary films and reality shows that paved the way for this series. For starters, who could ever forget HBO’s pioneering series Real Sex? Or Cathouse, their reality show about the country’s most infamous legal brothel? Showtime took HBO’s lead and ran with it, producing fascinating cultural anthropological series like Polyamory: Married & Dating alongside more titillating fare like X-Rated 2: The Greatest Adult Stars Of All-Time. These titles, as well as handful more that can be easily streamed on Netflix, demonstrate once and for all that sexytimes and learning don’t have to be mutually exclusive events.

Watch Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On on Netflix