The Birds, Bees & VDs: Sex Ed Is Terrifying, Vague

A new collection of 16 vintage sex-ed films is vague, creepy, misleading, and three-car pile-up fascinating!

“The Joy of Sex Education,” the new series available from the British Film Institute, takes the viewer from the earliest sex-ed film (1917’s silent Whatever A Man Soweth, about the dangers of VD for soldiers) to the “liberated” 1970s, in which the blame for Don’t Be Like Brenda!‘s unplanned pregnancy is laid firmly at the door of irresponsible girls. In 1932’s The Mystery Of Marriage (below) we get a vague birds-and-bees explication that would have left any kid totally baffled about reproduction, but still obscurely embarrassed.

How we learned about the birds and the bees: The sex education films dating back to 1917 [Daily Mail]
Here’s the first lesson on joyless side of sex [Independent]
The Mystery of Marriage (1932) – extract [YouTube]