Painful Sex vs. ‘Normal’ Sex: The Differences Explained With Food
Our short film highlighted a burning issue and offered a red-hot response to a viral video phenomenon which had more than 10 million views.
Women4Real was a creative initiative launched in 2013 by myself and clinical health psychologist Sabine Tyrvainen. We wanted to get real about vulval pain and other sexual health conditions which are often misdiagnosed and undertreated, and to raise awareness using popular culture to reach as many people as possible. We made this short film on a tight budget and it went viral on YouTube.
Our film was inspired by Kornhaber Brown’s Porn Sex vs. Real Sex: The Differences Explained With Food. We loved its humour and creativity as an issues-raiser and were inspired to bring some hot sauce to the table – along with a frankfurter, a finger roll and a creatively spliced chilli. Our film received global media coverage, including a positive review from Dr Brook Magnanti (Belle de Jour) in The Telegraph. We were also thrilled to have the film nominated as a finalist for ‘Sexual Health Media Campaign/Storyline of the Year’ at the UK Sexual Health Awards 2014.
I continue to wave the Women4Real banner with my podcast, Women4Real: Getting real about women’s sexual health, and Sabine and I continue to collaborate on health-related projects.
