“Lets Talk about Sex”
Christiane Amanpour’s Miniseries about Love and Sex Around the World
Christiane Amanpour’s too brief legacy on love and sex in the lives of women: Lets Talk about Sex: Love and Sex Around the World aired for only one season, proving that as soon as women begin to broadcast their sexuality on national television their permission to do so will be cancelled.
Lauded as a highly respected journalist for decades in some of the hottest war zones on the planet, in March 2018 Amanpour moved outside her comfort zone, showing another side of her bravery. Interviewing women in six different cities: Tokyo, Delhi, Beirut, Berlin, Accra, and Shanghai, Amanpour and CNN launched a sea-change miniseries showing a woman’s perspective on sex and love.
Photo from CNN
Photo from The Wall Street Journal
Though the show received mostly positive reviews, it was cancelled after only one season on a liberal leaning network? Why? That’s an important question for women and men to ask in soon-to-be 2021.
While it’s true that miniseries generally run for only one season, CNN held off deciding whether or not to renew it for months. Could one reason have been the fear of the audience’s hidden sexism and prudery? Was the first-season viewership not as robust as expected? How many executive decision makers at CNN are women? Only one it turns out, Amy Entelis, Executive Vice President for talent and content development of CNN Worldwide. Yet for this show, along with Anthony Bourdain and Christopher Collins, there were four women executive producers: Lydia Tenaglia, Anna Chai, Amy Entelis, and Lizzie Fox.
Another even more important question is this one: why didn’t I and other women write to CNN to let them know we wanted more episodes? Why haven’t more women demanded to know why the show was cancelled after only one season?
To begin to answer this question, I point to a quote that aptly points to the culprit— the lingering double standard between men and women in all things sexual.
Photo from PsycheAlive
In an online article in PsycheAlive (“Are We Still Condemning Women for Their Sexuality?”), author Lisa Firestone, PhD, writes, “One of the most shameful insults to a man is the accusation that he is not masculine. For a woman, it is that she is sexually loose or a slut. For a man, sleeping with a lot of women can be a point of pride. For a woman, it’s a point of shame. These contradictions and double standards should have us asking why it’s considered shameful for a woman to be sexual.”
https://www.psychalive.org/are-we-still-condemning-women-for-their-sexuality/
This double standard—that when I was in college in the sixties was more pervasive than COVID-19 is today—is still infecting our culture taking its highest toll on the lives of women.
Perhaps the reason women have not called out CNN for its shortsighted decision is that many women have long given up believing the double standard can ever go away. Why do so many women still say, “Well, that’s just the way it is. You can’t change it”?
Why do women have such a pessimistic view about their ability to rid the world of prejudicial attitude that harms them and keeps them from full equality with men? We exhort women to be themselves, reach for as many stars as men, yet bar them from the constellation at their core that can truly launch them into a more authentic universe—the permission to state out loud that they like sex.
Photo from CNN
“It’s incredibly intimate and powerful material," says executive producer Anthony Bourdain
"I think it’s really going to surprise the hell out of people."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/christiane-amanpour-explores-sex-love-cnn-series-1094253
This Bourdain quote about “Let’s Talk about Sex” is from March 14, 2018, three days before the series premiered on CNN. Sadly, Bourdain died on June 8, 2018, not long after season one ended. If he had lived, might he have championed the show and lobbied CNN more strongly for a season two?
For those of you who missed this miniseries, you can find it streaming on Netflix.
Below are excerpts from reviews along with a few viewer comments:
From The Washington Post
Analysis
“In Christiane Amanpour’s new CNN series, she talks with women around the world about sex”
In her new series “Sex and Love Around the World,” CNN’s Christiane Amanpour talks to women about love, intimacy and the struggle for equal rights in the bedroom. The series includes conversations with women in Accra, Ghana…as well as Tokyo, Delhi and Beirut. (CNN)
By Alexandra E. Petri
March 16, 2018 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
Most people are used to hearing CNN’s Christiane Amanpour interview world leaders and report from war zones. These days she’s having a very different sort of conversation. “Let’s talk about sex,” the decorated correspondent tells a group of Japanese women as they sip cocktails at a restaurant in Tokyo.
Yes, sex. That’s the subject of her new series “Christiane Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World,” a shift from the political and conflict coverage that earned her global acclaim and the title of the network’s chief international correspondent. She says the idea for the series came to her three years ago while brushing her teeth and listening to a radio broadcast about Syrian refugees fleeing to border camps. As she listened, Amanpour’s mind wondered about more intimate questions about the refugee experience.
“How do they maintain their relationships? How do they keep their intimacy? How do they stay human? How do they have sex? Do they have sex? They clearly are still having babies,” Amanpour says. “How do you seek your physical pleasure, your sexual satisfaction, when you can’t have a shower even?”
It was these types of questions that led to her six-episode series, in which Amanpour travels the globe to explore the nuances of modern love, sex and intimacy. One episode features dating in Ghana, while another reveals what it’s like to be married and sexless in Tokyo.
Solo-ish sat down with Amanpour ahead of the series premiere, which is Saturday, March 17. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Solo-ish: What, if any, are the similarities between covering sex and intimacy and war and conflict?
Amanpour: They are the flip side of the same coin. It is the difference between the extreme survival and hardship that people go through. They can’t pay as much attention to their emotional selves, their emotional lives and their emotional health. This is the other side of what makes you human. It’s not just about getting through the day and surviving; it’s also about loving and having relationships and being intimate, whether you are with your partner or a parent.
Solo-ish: What makes sex and love just as important to cover as the conflicts in Syria?
Amanpour: I spent my career in war zones. What I’ve discovered about that, when I finish interviewing the leaders, the military and the militants’ victims … and all of that tragedy and the violation of human rights, I have slowly come to realize that is only one side of what makes people tick. People also need to have their humanity intact. They need to be able to love and to have intimacy, whether it’s with their spouse, partner or children or other family members.
Solo-ish: How did this topic push you outside your comfort zone?
Amanpour: I am very used to covering war, and those are not the most difficult things to talk about. They are difficult and dangerous to cover. But the emotional and intellectual reach [to do this series] for me was more. I’ve never asked these questions before in public, on television. Not only that, but what if people didn’t want to talk to me about it? I had dreaded the idea of having to get pushy about it. I was absolutely stunned and gratified to find how many people just wanted to talk about it.
Solo-ish: You focus a lot on the women’s perspective. What can men learn from watching your series?
Amanpour: I hope men can learn what women have on their minds, what they are saying and what they are feeling, and knowing that [women] want to have these experiences with their chosen partner. Maybe learning … what it means to be in a relationship.
Solo-ish: I noticed your show leans into the #MeToo conversation about consent and sexual empowerment.
Amanpour: That is one point of it. Then there’s the very ordinary human reaction: [Sex is] fun. It’s literally about happiness and enjoyment. There is a political dynamic, too, but the series is not overtly political. I wanted to know how far women were prepared to go and what they would do about their right to happiness, and their right to sexual fulfillment, and their right not just to satisfy men in these countries, which are countries that are not known for their equal rights.
Solo-ish: You also focused a lot on the Eastern perspective. What can the West learn from other parts of the world when it comes to sex and intimacy?
Amanpour: I think people in the West, whether they are men or women, will see a lot of what they share with people all over the world, and some differences. In the United States, we have constitutionally, legally guaranteed rights. We are protected from being forced into marriage. There is accountability, presumably, or there should be for rape and other types of abuse. That is in our laws, in our constitution, in our human relations departments at work. None of that exists in much of the rest of the world. Women don’t have those rights, and if they do, nominally, they are not enforced. So you see the courage of so many of these women and girls who seek their own safety and own freedom and happiness despite the overwhelming odds that are stacked against them. The world out there is changing … the younger generations who are exposed to the whole gamut of the Internet are seeing what is on offer and what could be theirs. A lot of them are refusing to put up with the traditional patriarchy.
Solo-ish: Why did you choose these locations — Berlin; Accra, Ghana; Beirut; Tokyo; Shaghai; and Delhi — and were there any places that were off-limits?
Amanpour: There were some places that I would have liked to have gone, but maybe they were too dangerous or too expensive … but nothing was off-limits in terms of subject matter. We decided not to do more of the West. We did Germany partly because of the refugee influx there, so we did a contrast between Germans and new visitors. There are many cultures that I would like to investigate, and I would also like to explore these topics through the eyes of men. We are in a moment where boys are free to express their emotions — and not to live up to an old, antiquated macho ideal. I think it is a very important social factor right now, and it’s really worth exploring.
Solo-ish: What is the biggest thing you learned in working on this series?
Amanpour: There are so many feisty, powerful and empowered and want-to-be-empowered women around the world who are on the cusp of understanding that now is the historic time to seek out their own sexual and emotional fulfillment, and to dig deeper into what it means to be intimate and to love and to be loved. What does all of that mean to them, and how can they get it? That is what I learned: There is a lot of joy out there — and a lot of excitement and exploration.
From The New York Times
“Christiane Amanpour Believes in the Power of Local News”
By Audie Cornish (Interview with Amanpour) (Jan. 24, 2018)
What was it like studying how other cultures deal with sex for “Sex and Love Around the World” while there’s this crisis back in the United States?
I set out to talk to people about their sense of empowerment, of agency over their own bodies, feelings, futures, marriages, their ability to be free in their own society, how much control they have over their sexuality. It just so happens that it dovetailed with this evidence that many people in the West have less control over that than we would like to imagine.
I have to admit, watching it felt like a departure from the reporting we’ve seen from you in the past. In asking people questions about sex, you inadvertently kind of reveal what you think about sex.
I hope people will not be shocked. One thing I found: Everywhere we went, everybody had the same questions. You realize that we’re all the same.
From Elle
“Christiane Amanpour Wants To Talk About Sex”
BY MATTIE KAHN
MAR 15, 2018
https://www.elle.com/culture/a19417399/christiane-amanpour-sex-love-around-the-world-interview/
“And even as wild disparities persist worldwide, Amanpour was encouraged by what she found. More women who crave and know how to ask for sexual satisfaction. More unions that are formed by choice, not decree. ‘I saw that each of these cultures has their own erotic texts,’ Amanpour recalls. ‘It’s recent that sexuality has become highly politicized, highly bound up with religious fundamentalism and in that way highly prejudiced against women.
‘There is a vitally important conversation that is happening all over the world,’ Amanpour says. ‘As a member of the female sex, I can tell you that this conversation is overdue. We've wondered for many years what the trigger would be that would at last open the floodgates and unleash this pent-up dam of injustice, of inequality, and of historic imbalance. In that regard, it’s an incredibly important time for women and men, and it’s the best possible time to debut this series. Women deserve not just freedom from abuse, but genuine sexual pleasure’ Amanpour continues. ‘The revolution demands it.’”
From TV Series Finale
“Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World: New CNN Series Announced”
by Regina Avalos (Feb. 16, 2018)
“I’ve long been an admirer of Christiane’s brilliant work as a journalist, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with her on this project,” said executive producer Anthony Bourdain. “Between Christiane’s deep and broad experience as an incisive, experienced and empathetic reporter, who has worked all over the world, her genuine passion for this project and Zero Point Zero’s proven ability to execute just this type of global content, Sex and Love Around the World represents some of the best of what CNN Original Series can do.”
“We jumped at the chance to work with Christiane Amanpour,” said ZPZ Co-Founder, Lydia Tenaglia. “She has been a powerful female voice in media for decades and the idea of exploring this important global topic though her unique lens felt like the perfect fit. All six episodes of this groundbreaking series were helmed by women, reflecting an accomplished and international mix of British, Danish, Israeli, Scottish, and Korean-American directors.”
Reader Comments:
Steph
The CNN Series; Christiane Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World has displayed to me what and how, a news show, can and should premiere and evolve into a unbiased and indispensable source of honest and mature, “worldly cultural” news reporting….kudos to Anthony Bourdain & ZPZ. As of this time that I am presenting this reply or my opinion, on the series, I am not sure as to whether or not the series is still airing. However, I will add this in closing; in that it is with the most utmost and sincere desire that the series, Sex and Love is still airing. However, I will add this in closing; in that it is with the most utmost and sincere desire that the series, Sex and Love Around the World, be continued and become a regularly indespensible, and “permanent” weekly series. It’s devotion to displaying one of ” human kind” most intimate and natural characteristics, is emotionally raw, visually stimulating and “necessary to show”; and tell it like it is.
PLEASE find a way to keep the series going, forever; like Parts Unknown.
THANK YOU CNN
May 25, 2018 11
worthymagic
What an absolute piece of Garbage Idea and a waste of time. CNN should work on putting out the truth and stop with the Left sided news reporting. We’ll see if it is successful. I won’t be watching.
Feb 16, 2018 (Comment posted before series even began)
From Vogue
“Discussing Sex and Love Around the World With Christiane Amanpour”
BY NOOR BRARA (March 17, 2018)
March 17, 2018
https://www.vogue.com/article/christiane-amanpour-sex-and-love-around-the-world
“In a kind of world tour between interviews with sex workers, erotic comic book narrators, BDSM enthusiasts, polygamists, and an all-girl biker gang fighting sexual harassment—just a few of the subjects included in this riveting series—Amanpour leads the charge in telling important female-focused stories. Her honest reporting confronts the cultural taboos that surround sexually empowered women across the globe. And while Sex and Love Around the World is in many ways her effort to showcase women as agents of their own lives and change, the episodes also discuss, in intimate detail, the obstacles they continue to face, as their sexuality is constantly scrutinized. In response to their brave accounts, and before the camera, Amanpour unfurls a new, vulnerable side of herself, which in turn elicits special, immensely personal, and often harrowing stories from each of her interviewees. It is these honest exchanges and the way Amanpour shares her own reflections which provide the most noteworthy moments of the show.
From The Cinemaholic
“Christiane Amanpour Sex &Love Around the World 2 Premier Date, Cast, Trailers Spoilers & News” by Ayesha Gani (Dec. 8, 2018)
https://www.thecinemaholic.com/christiane-amanpour-sex-love-around-the-world-documentary/
Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World Season 2 Plot: What is it about?
The show attempts to explore how sex and sexuality, as conventionally taboo topics in many cultures, are seen in various cities of the world. Starting with Tokyo in the pilot episode, the miniseries takes up one major city each episode and investigates how sex and love has been viewed there through the ages. With Shanghai, Accra, Berlin, Beirut, Delhi, and Tokyo, the miniseries covers all the major cultures of the world, and a season 2 is not likely to come. However, if it does happen, we can expect to see more cities in the same format – Zurich, New York, and Paris, to cite examples.
From The Wall Street Journal
“‘Sex & Love Around the World’ Review: Christiane Amanpour Channels Oprah.
CNN’s chief international correspondent takes a break from foreign policy to peer into bedrooms from Berlin to Beirut.”
By John Anderson (March 15, 2018)
As a foreign correspondent, Christiane Amanpour has reported on every kind of conflict, but few as perilous as the one at the center of her CNN series “Sex & Love Around the World.” Peering into bedrooms from Berlin to Beirut, she proves once again that she can ask the difficult questions—except perhaps the one viewers will be asking right away: Why the career makeover? Why is she channeling her inner Oprah?
It’s not a good fit, cosmically speaking, though she’s on to a very good story. In a piece written for CNN last month, Ms. Amanpour, the chief international correspondent for the news network, explained that she was inspired by the plight of Syrian refugees in tent cities. How did they conduct their sex lives in a place where privacy was all but nonexistent? This led to that, which led to a six-part series that, shall we say, uncovers how people comport themselves in Shanghai, New Delhi and Tokyo.
It’s actually serious stuff, the irony being that in each “exotic” locale she visits Ms. Amanpour finds much that’s exactly the same—dysfunctional males, unsatisfied women, cultural obstacles to intimacy, and strenuous efforts by those on the sexual margins to find ways of liberating themselves and their societies. That said, there are also site-specific issues at play: The lack of “skinship” or physical affection in Japanese culture, which seems to affect everything in that country’s romantic life; the lack of a concept of dating in India, where arranged marriages are still widely accepted, if not the norm. India actually presents the series with something of a problem, given its very specific and limited ideas about courtship: Ms. Amanpour is forced to focus on the issue of rape in New Delhi; the fringe practices of what its fans generally refer to as kink.”
From Hidden Remote
“6 Reasons to Watch Christianne Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World”
by Victoria Davis
https://hiddenremote.com/2019/03/08/christiane-amanpour-sex-and-love-around-the-world/
World-renown CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour travels around the world discovering what sex and love mean to different cultures. Here are six reasons Sex & Love Around the World is a must-watch.
This series is not about how-tos for sex or delving into the back alleyways of foreign sex industries. It’s a show about people, how their culture influences the way they love, and how they’re choosing to love is beginning to influence their cultures.
True, this is not is definitely not family-friendly and there are subjects Amanpour tackles that are hard to take. But there’s also a magnificent beauty that’s expressed in this show…
It’s culture under the microscope
While social justice may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about sex and love, that’s the first thought on the minds of everyone Amanpour interviews in her series.
In Tokyo, Christiane Amanpour discovers a majority of men and women never saw their parents hug, kiss or say I love you. In Dhelhi, she interviews transgender individuals who are treated as wish genies on the street, then ostracized in everyday society. In Beirut, women are not allowed to request a divorce, but their husbands can dictate when, where, and how often their wives can see their own children. Really, this show is more about the social norms that have suffocated these individuals’ any decent chance at a healthy love life.
But underneath the oppression, frustration and segregation are groups of people looking to lift people out of the war trenches–Tokyo hosting events for men to literally scream “I love you!” to their families, couples photo shoots in Shanghai, sex education clinics for soon-to-be-married Arabic women. These countries and cities have harsh histories, but Amanpour seeks to spotlight the brave men and women looking to bring joy and color to their communities and those who suffer in silence.
It’s challenging the meaning of love, sex and the difference between them
There are actually men and women who are embarrassed to be intimate both physically and emotionally with their partners. As one woman said in Amanpour’s segment on Tokyo, “It’s just not something we talk about.” For them, happiness is about basic necessities. It’s not about romance or passion.
But the beautiful thing about Christiane Amanpour and how she approaches these discussions is she doesn’t back down. Though always kind, she never accepts a shrug or side glance for an answer.
It’s getting to know the world intimately through your TV screen
What is most striking about this show is the moments men and women tear up, getting emotional about being given permission for the first time in their lives to talk about what they want in a relationship. A majority of Amanpour’s interviews are with everyday men and women, going through struggles with sexless marriages, and arranged marriages and one-sided divorces. While these concepts might be shocking to us, it’s completely normal to them.
If you are looking for something interesting to watch and have #Netflix check out 'Christine Amanpour : Sex and Love Around the World' . Her discussions with people from China, India, Japan & Ghana are fascinating.
— Mukuka (@FixerMs) February 23, 2019
It’s about breaking out of cultural bondage
LGBT poetry nights, all-female biker groups and protest marches against sexual assault are just a few of the many progressive groups Amanpour interviews. Despite conservative upbringings and conditioned to keep silent, men and women are charging out of the woodwork and breaking free of their cultural bondage.
Sex & Love Around the World not only talks about the different individuals of different heritages have on sex and love, but also the commonality these citizens seem to share in wanting a change. And they are not waiting for that shift to happen on its own, couples young and old are banding together to show love triumphs over familial expectations and that happiness can be had for those willing to have the tough conversations.
It’s the best cinematography since Planet Earth
While documentaries like Planet Earth nailed the jaw-dropping landscape shots, Christiane Amanpour’s team hones in on emotion with their close-ups. Not everything is shiny and perfect, like the crystal chandeliers in Tokyo’s host club, but that’s what makes this show truly stunning. You get the good, the bad and the ugly, which amounts to a fabulously human story.
https://twitter.com/KirigoNgarua/status/1070741311618277376
It’s the essence of good journalism and emotional storytelling
The cherry on the top of this apologetically flavorful show is Christiane Amanpour’s both personable and unbias involvement with each subject tackled in this series. There’s sincerity in all her questions, an honest and strong desire to understand and a clear sympathy for each person Amanpour meets. However, not once does she insert her own opinions or close her mind to what other people have to say.
Reader Comment:
Ok, peeps. I am watching "Sex and Love Around the World" with @camanpour on @Netflix_CA and it is EXCELLENT. I'm on episode 2 right now and I am really interested to see where the series goes.
Christiane Amanpour's bewildered delight learning about BDSM is everything.
Remember for those of you who missed this miniseries, you can find it streaming on Netflix.
