Growing Up: A New Approach to Sex Education, No. 1

Be warned - this documentary is not for the faint of heart. The film is a great realistic approach to sex education but frankly I don't think it could be made today. We are taken on a journey of the body as it develops through puberty and everything, yes everything, is shown. Be advised that there is a massive amount of underage nudity here. Granted it's all educational and non-sexual but it will certainly be off putting for some. In one scene we are shown a full frontal view of two 14 year old teens, male and female. The camera captures an extremely closeup view of the boys penis and the girls hairy vulva. I'm talking close enough you can see the the intricate detail of the labia and the surrounding individual pubic hairs. We are shown fully naked teens of all ages as well as erections and male and female masturbation. The directors really went all out here. I'm slightly shocked they were able to find teen models this young who were willing to display themselves in such explicit manner and whose parents consent. The 1970s were simply a different era I suppose. If you can stomach the explicit content there is an educational film here. Perhaps in a more relaxed society this wouldn't be so jarring but in todays environment I doubt any classes would even show this to students.

Watching a group of UK short subjects about sex education, I was surprised at the graphic content of this one. It's very nearly triple X, and very closely approximates the porn level of the circa 1970/71 theatrical porn "docu" releases.

But it's all in a good cause as narrator Martin Cole presents some severely dated notions of maturation to adulthood. Though he throws in a sop to Women's Lib by noting "old ideas of male dominance are disappearing", Cole does his best to recycle and amplify the old misogynistic shibboleths, ranting on about how men become stronger and women basically are built for child-rearing. Were this clunker to be screened today, the pickets would be complaining about its male chauvinist slant, not its porn scenes.

Full frontal nudity of both sexes is shown, from children right through to developed adolescents and adults. Suspect is a couple of scenes of explicit masturbation, and later there's several closeups of erect cocks, one almost comically in the Ron Jeremy "throbbing out of control" mode. There's no penetration in the sex scene and no ejaculation is included, but this is still pretty raunchy stuff.

Punchline of the dumb-dumb movie is predictable: don't make love without taking precautions. These films don't tread on the still hot-button issue of abortion, but unwanted pregnancies are always lurking as the bogeyman.