Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Principles Of Pleasure’ On Netflix, A Docuseries That Talks About What We All Should Learn About Women And Pleasure

How did you learn about sex and pleasure? From the gym teacher uncomfortably talking about it in “health” class? From reading Playboy or watching porn? As clueless as many men are about women’s anatomy and what gives them pleasure, women can be equally clueless, mainly because of what society has taught them about sex. The Principles Of Pleasure is a docuseries that discusses how women get pleasure from themselves and their partners, and busts a lot of myths.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PLEASURE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman stands behind a display of sex toys, sings “Toyyys!” and laughs.

The Gist: The Principles Of Pleasure, narrated by Michelle Buteau, is a three-part docuseries where the facts and myths of women’s sexual pleasure is explored. The episodes focus on how women have learned about their bodies over the years and what myths might still be keeping women from their best sexual selves, how women’s minds help them determine what turns them on, and how women navigate pleasure with their partners.

The format of the episodes consist of interviews with a diverse set of women of various ages. They talk about how they learned about sex — most of it was on their own — and the fact that they were almost all taught that it’s “dirty” and something women shouldn’t desire. Plenty of experts are also interviewed, including sex educator Dr. Emily Nagoski, who has a “vulva puppet” to illustrate something that most women and pretty much no men know: The entire structure of women’s private parts is the vulva, containing the labia, vagina and clitoris.

After giving some of the historical perspective on why women have been led astray about their own anatomies for so many centuries, there is a discussion about the different kinds of orgasms, which is where Dirty Lola, founder of Sex Ed A-Go-Go, discusses the myriad of sex toys that are available, and recommends who should use each. One great piece of advice was about butt plugs: “Without a base, without a trace.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Principles Of Pleasure has the feel of Vox’s Sex, Explained, complete with animated interstitials, graphical stats and lots of factoids. But this show is more geared towards women.

Our Take: It may sound cliché to write that The Principles Of Pleasure should be essential viewing for people of any gender, it’s absolutely true in this case. While the episodes are geared towards women — and, while they talk about anatomy, the people the series talks to are cis, trans and non-binary — it takes an approach that makes the information it’s imparting accessible to a wide audience, at least one that’s willing to learn more about how to have a more satisfying sex life.

It’s done with a funny but informed narration from the ever-effervescent Buteau, but also with experts that are not trying to lecture anyone, but take the knowledge they’ve learned and educate. Some of the takeaways audiences should get from the first episode of the series include the fact that self-pleasure is as big a part of a healthy sex life as pleasure coming from and given to a partner, and that much of what women were told about their bodies and about sex is one of the reasons why so many report that they have never experienced an orgasm.

Why do we think that this is good for a wider audience than for whom it’s targeted? Because if you know more about your partner’s anatomy, desires, and pleasure points, the better sex will be for both of you. And who wouldn’t want to get some more pointers in that department, even if you’ve been with your partner for years?

Sex and Skin: Considering the show is all about sex, there’s lots of sex and skin in this show.

Parting Shot: Previewing the next episode, Buteau says, “There’s a lot of myths about the mind, and superpowers you don’t even know about.”

Sleeper Star: We’ll give it to Dirty Lola and her assortment of toys.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Principles Of Pleasure is entertaining and informative. Hopefully, sex ed teachers in school will think of using this show as part of their curricula.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.