Is Sex Box ‘TV porn’? Mixed reviews from therapists

It’s sex, in a box, on TV, and it’s dividing Australian sex therapists.
The BBC’s Sex Box, coming to SBS 2 on Friday, has a simple premise and claims noble intentions.

Couples enter what looks like a sustainable housing competition model, “a private, clean, sound-insulated” brown hut that sits in front of a studio audience.

The lovers get it on over the next 35 minutes before emerging rosy-cheeked to discuss their experience with a panel of three sexperts.
Host Mariella Frostrup says the format is based on research and the practice of leading sex counsellors.

As panel-member and sex therapist Tracey Cox explains: “If you get someone who has actually just act had sex they are all high on it, all the hormones are racing through their body.

“You’re going to get a much more honest recall of what they actually got up to and how they felt about it.”

But Sydney-based sex and relationship counsellor Susie Tuckwell said she knew of no evidence to support immediate post-coital therapy.

She felt the show’s premise was “creepy” and “invasive” in spite of the respectful discussion and some healthy messages. “It’s TV porn, playing on that prurience,” Tuckwell said.

She also thought the panel made at least two false claims: that people in long-term relationships naturally lose libido and that everyone enjoys sex.
Australasian Institute of Sexual Health Medicine director Brett McCann was more positive, saying Sex Box had “a lot of potential”.

“It puts a face to normal sex, normal experience,” he said. “It’s about how people are happy, and what they do and what they don’t do.”

Sex Box formed part of the BBC’s ‘Campaign For Real Sex’ which aimed to reclaim sex from a damaging fantasy land of online porn.

Commissioning editor David Glover called the show “a rather mischievous, fun idea that actually allows sex to be completely private but the conversation to be truthful and immediate”.

Anti-porn advocate Melinda Tankard Reist called Sex Box “voyeuristic”.
“Why do they have to have sex in the studio?” she said. “While I agree we need to ‘reclaim sex from porn’, I don’t think a contrived sexual encounter in an ugly box on a stage in front of an audience is the best way to achieve this.”

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