[NSFW] This Animation Perfectly Explains Where the Sexual Revolution Failed

There’s a lot of talk about how we live in a sexually free society, especially when compared to repressed Victorian era. It’s probably safer to be open about sex now than then, but The School of Life tears down the assumption that we live in a “sexually liberated society” in a beautifully-animated video by UK artist Jesse Collett.

The message of the Alain de Botton-narrated short, Sexual Non-Liberation, could be summarized by a key Salt N Peppa lyric—”Let’s talk about sex, baby / Let’s talk about you and me.” The authoritative-sounding Englishman’s argument is that liberation isn’t just about the freedom to wear bikinis and talk openly about porn. “At the heart of the dilemma is how to simultaneously seem normal and yet achieve honesty about our sexual appetites,” he says. While we’re bombarded with sexual imagery in advertising, media, and the art world, we still feel too insecure about our real desires to be considered “liberated.”

While de Botton talks, Collett morphs and contorts various couples to visualize these concepts. It’s fun to watch confused Victorians eying a symbolic button and joystick with confusion, or see sexual liberation as a mass of floating boobs and boners, and it also drives the message home. Get schooled below: 

See more of Jesse Collett’s work on his website. Learn more from School of Life here.

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