Kate Chisholm

Talking too much

Let's Talk About Sex (BBC Radio 2); The Jeremy Vine Show (BBC Radio 2); Something Understood (BBC Radio 4); Afternoon Play: Grace (BBC Radio 4)

issue 26 April 2008

Something so weird has happened to the way we live now that Radio Two has decided it needs to dedicate a week’s programming to Let’s Talk About Sex. It’s designed, says the billing in Radio Times, ‘to encourage parents to speak more freely to their children about sex and relationships’. But there’s already so much ‘talk’ about sex on film, on TV, in the adverts, do we really need any more? And in any case what teenager with any sense of rightful pride would welcome a ‘conversation’ with The Parent about it? I can just imagine the scene: teenage boy in kitchen, just off the soccer field and starving hungry (or having dragged himself away from his computer only because he’s desperate for dinner) being accosted by his mother and given the full monty on the physical mechanics and the possible outcomes. Where’s the mystery, the excitement, the sense of self-discovery? Sometimes talking just isn’t good for you.

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