The Principles Of Pleasure BETTER
The Principles of Pleasure is a 2022 Netflix docuseries that examines the world of female, transgender, and non-binary sexual pleasure, and its surrounding lack of understanding in modern science.[1][2] The series consists of three episodes and premiered on Netflix on March 22, 2022. The series is directed by Niharika Desai and is narrated by actress Michelle Buteau.[3]
The Principles of Pleasure
The series seeks to empower and educate viewers about the female body and female pleasure. Topics discussed in the series range from the history of sex education, the orgasm gap, gender roles in the media and society, the lack of research about women's sexuality dating back centuries, and consent.
Parents need to know that The Principles of Pleasure is a docuseries focused on uncovering facts and myths about women's sexuality. As such, there are open and graphic discussions about sex and relationships, as well as illustrative animations, photos, and video footage depicting things like a woman's vulva, a plethora of colorful sex toys, and people being intimate with each other (though not graphically so). Slang and medical terms for body parts are used, people say "f--k." Although the focus is on women's pleasure, the subjects interviewed in this series are a diverse crew encompassing cis, trans, and nonbinary folks. The show's tone is playful but educational, with positive messages about self-acceptance, communication, and consent running throughout.
Actress-comedian Michelle Buteau (The Circle, Always Be My Maybe) narrates THE PRINCIPLES OF PLEASURE, a three-episode docuseries examining women's sexual pleasure through interviews with women and nonbinary folks of various ages from diverse backgrounds -- cis, trans, and queer included. Neuroscientists, psychologists, and sex educators give some historical perspective and help demystify topics like sex toys, human anatomy, and hormones. The show's format includes plenty of helpful illustrations and animations in between the talking-head segments.
Despite a continued push for sex education and sex positivity in recent years, myriad myths and disparities have left women's pleasure as a whole shrouded in unnecessary mystery. This has not only given way to an orgasm gap that's grown larger than the gender wage gap as the trailer mentions, but it's also left many women with shame, negativity, or even fear surrounding sex with a partner, masturbation, and their bodies. Through interviews with sex therapists, scientists, and real people, "The Principles of Pleasure" aims to dispel these falsehoods, centering sex-positive ideologies and equipping viewers with the assurance and knowledge to confidently prioritize their own pleasure on their own terms in their sex lives.
I just watched the first episode and was floored by what I learned. I was also greatly encouraged by the science of what I learned having come from a generation(s) that belittled women and the seeking of pleasure. GREAT series!!
The three episode docu-series, directed by Niharika Desai and narrated by Michelle Buteau, explores the myths and truths of enjoying sex, the role the mind plays in attraction and pleasure, and how people can explore sex within their relationships. Each episode explores the topics of myths, pleasure, and sex by interviewing a panel of mostly women-identifying individuals, a couple of gender non-conforming people, and sex educators including Ericka Hart, Dirty Lola, and Emily Nagoski (all of which you should follow on Instagram @ihartericka, @dirtylola, and @enagoski immediately) who talk about their own experiences with pleasure.
What does this mean in terms of what we understand pleasures people with vulvas? What does this mean in terms of understanding my own pleasure? And how much more do we still have to learn about pleasure?
It can be exhausting to live in a perpetual state of fear of being slut-shamed for wanting to be sexually expressive and feeling limited when it comes to attaining pleasure. It has become imperative for women to take complete ownership of their body and not let society dictate how they feel. The show puts an admirable amount of effort to naturalize the idea of women being vocal about their sexual needs without being shunned for the same, and that, to me, is as fascinating as it is important.
Taking a conversational tone, the design of the series allows guests to open up about their experiences, with input from experts peppered throughout. The three episodes comprise of Our Bodies, Our Minds and Our Relationships, the first discussing sex education, taboos surrounding sex and the history of intimacy. Our Minds looks at how our headspace plays into our sexuality and responses, and the third episode looks at how we bring out partners into our world of pleasure.
One particular highlight of the show is its slant towards focussing on female pleasure. While female intimacy is often left insufficiently explored in such shows, The Principles of Pleasure includes a discussion on issues regarding female orgasms, sex toys and the anatomy of the female genitalia. It also highlights misogyny and shame surrounding the topic, needed to break unnecessary stereotypes.
'For me, what is extraordinary about food is that you can pass from the state of the ingredients to the state of pleasure, through the role of the chef,' Savoy explains, sitting beside me and occasionally nodding and smiling paternally at his guests. 'The person who taught me this was my mother. She taught me the emotional power of food: how to transform ingredients into pleasure.'
'It is not necessary to create a wonderful environment using pressure, because the guests can sense this,' Savoy says. 'In the evenings, you walk in and you can immediately see people here are happy, relaxed, having pleasure and shared experiences, chatting with each other. The energy in this place is amazing - it is the energy of sheer pleasure, of joy.'
'This dish is extraordinary because it focuses on two ingredients; each is used to amplify the flavour of the other,' says Savoy of the zucchini combined with caviar and covered with smoked sabayon. 'I am really respectful of these ingredients. The objective is to create incredible sensual pleasure in an authentic way while being creative. It is magic. I look at food the same way I did when I was a child, with a certain sense of wonder.'
It is clear that Savoy is deeply in love with his country. 'France is the country of products,' he says. 'We have the best vegetables, the best meat, the best fish, the best cheese, the best charcuterie. Is there another country that makes wine like us, in terms of variety and quality? I love to work with the farmers to find my ingredients in the ground, to work with the earth; after that, I love the work we do in the kitchen, the transformation of these ingredients into pleasure. I've been working for 45 years, and I work very hard - the equivalent of two days in one, so, really, I've worked for 90 years. Today, there are plenty of things that are automatic and instinctive. My inspiration is always life. I love life.'
The ushering in of a bottle of Pommard premier cru, Les Grands-Épenots, from Domaine François Gaunoux, signals the arrival of the meat course: the roasted quail with liver and black pepper. The heady flavours of this wash over you, sending waves of pleasure through your entire body and reconfiguring your entire perspective on cuisine. If this were a film, this would be the moment you would flash cut to a typical triple-Michelin-starred dining experience. It begins with you entering the establishment and being appraised coldly by the maître d'hôtel, who begins to plug the various obvious signifiers of your net worth into an algorithm that spits out the maximum amount you can be charged for your dinner, pre-dinner Champagne, bottle of vintage Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne, premier-cru Bordeaux, sauternes and so on.
Throughout this experience, you will be treated with that perfect mixture of deference and condescension, complete with occasional eye-rolling that is not so much taught as genetically engineered into the wait staff, right down to the not-so-subtle palming of the cash tip before whisking you out the door. Your waiter will tut like an exploding pressure cooker, remonstrating with a wagging finger, if you should even begin to take off your suit jacket, despite the fact that the interior's climate control is set at a sweltering 30oC. By the end, you will have ingested food - and, honestly, very good food - but you will also have been left exhausted and emotionally depleted by the experience. You will not have experienced pleasure in its purest form.
Guy Savoy's restaurant is precisely the antithesis to this. It is the greatest repository of pleasure on earth. It is a place where memories are created, relived and never forgotten. 'I like to think that my profession as an innately moral one, because I live to use the ingredients of our planet to give happiness to others,' Savoy says. 'In the Buddhist monastery, it is the monk who is the most wise who is the cook.' If this is the case, then French cuisine's greatest sage is also the primary proponent of its capacity to induce eternal, unforgettable and halcyon pleasure.
Narrated by comedian Michelle Buteau, the series brings sex, joy, and modern science together to celebrate the complex world of pleasure. Through talking head interviews and mixed media animation, each episode covers a different aspect of pleasure: debunking the myths of sex education, how pleasure occurs in the mind, and how others can affect our pleasure. The project was produced by Netflix, Mighty Oak, and The Front, a female-first creative think tank and documentary production studio, founded by former VICE executive, Thalia Mavros, that develops and produces powerful stories with purpose.
The Principles of PleasureGenreDocuseriesBroadcast InformationCountry of originUnited StatesSeasons1Episode Count3Original ReleaseMarch 22, 2022Series on NetflixThe Principles of Pleasure is an American biology documentary series that was released on Netflix on March 22, 2022. This series explores the science of women's pleasure. 041b061a72