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"I just watched a woman orgasm on-screen and thank you, Gwyneth Paltrow."

 

Never has a sentence been truer than this: “women need to learn how to run the f***.”

Last night I watched a woman bring herself to climax with the help of a 90-year-old sex educator, in the most realistic and up-close depiction of female pleasure I’ve ever seen on screen.

There was no squealing, no synchronised orgasms, no hiding of lady parts, and no jackhammering.

Halle-freaking-lujah. Welcome to 2020 everyone.

WATCH: Here’s the trailer for The Goop Lab on Netflix. Post continues after video.

Video by Netflix

Even Gwyneth Paltrow was blushing as sex coach Betty Dodson told her she should be running her “f***s” before scolding her for referring to her “vagina” instead of her “vulva.”

“The vagina is the birth canal only, we want to be talking about the vulva which is the clitoris and the inner lips and all that good s*** around it,” she explained.

Seriously, where has Betty been all of our lives?

She talks about sexuality, vulvas and orgasms like every single one of us should; openly and unequivocally.

Gwyneth Paltrow
Thank you Gwyneth, for putting this on our screens. Image: Netflix.
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In episode three of Gwyneth's new show The Goop Lab, we watch body sex workshops about sensuality where women learn how to ask for what they want.

We watch women inspecting themselves in a mirror while others watch on in a literal 'genital show-and-tell'.

We see actual vulvas up close, and they're of every shape and every size imaginable.

We see true body confidence.

We are told that we don't need to "earn" the right to feel sensual.

We realise that the words to describe female genitalia (think p**** and snatch) aren't overly positive, which probably hasn't been helping us all very much.

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We are reminded that a lot of the time, the women in porn have their genitalia surgically altered.

We are (gently) scolded for ever faking pleasure with our partners.

We are reassured that women can take up to 40 minutes to reach climax.

The list of bloody greatness just goes on and on.

orgasm on Netflix.
We see women supporting women. Image: Netflix.

It's the kind of gentle but blunt, empowering and sensitive approach to female sexuality we should have been watching in high-school.

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By the time the episode gets to the climax (pun definitely intended) and we witness Betty's creative partner Carlin Ross have an orgasm on screen, it doesn't even really feel sexual.

It's intimate yes, but it almost just feels like you're watching an extension of massage, or a woman eat something really delicious. All sexualisation has been removed  - and we simply watch a woman receiving pleasure.

There's no other motive attached.

It's, dare I say it, beautiful.

Orgasm Netflix
This is the kind of sex education we needed at school. Image: Netflix.
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Betty and Carlin talk about the difference between a "tension" orgasm and the "rock and roll" orgasm they demonstrate on camera, which is Betty's tried and tested technique using the movement of your pelvis and pelvic floor instead of the very common "squeezing holding your breath" type technique, they explain.

The episode reveals that 500 people who struggled with anorgasmia were taught The Betty Dodson Method, and 465 were able to reach orgasm using it.

Given that 10-15 per cent of women have never reached orgasm ever, this is the kind of detailed information that needs to be way more normal than it is.

I am quite honestly ringing everyone I know with a teenager (male and female) and plonking them in a room with this episode, stat.

Netflix
This is Carlin Ross and Betty Dodson, demonstrating their favourite female pleasure tools. Image: Netflix.
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In 2016, Eve Appeal, a UK cancer charity found that 44 per cent of women were unable to identify their vagina, and 60 per cent weren't able to point out their vulva.

As this episode points out, we need to see more vulvas on our screens because we simply don't see... any. We see plenty of penises, but society has this deep-seated resistance to female genitalia. It's considered crude, rude, and crass.

"The idea that women inherently deserve pleasure, I feel I am finally at 46-years-old, starting to knit that together. I think I was very much raised in an era where it was very much about the guy, and trying to look good for the guy and do what the guy wants," Gwyneth admits in the show.

This is the most important 40 minutes of television I've watched this year. Not just for the showing of the orgasm part, but for the calling out of all of the bulls*** being peddled making women feel shameful about their own body parts.

Somehow the woman who brought us the utter ridiculousness that was the vagina scented candle has somehow managed to create a masterclass in teaching women about why they think the way they do (thanks society) while normalising a healthy, normal, female right to pleasure.

Absolutely everyone needs to watch it.

Feature Image: Netflix.