With gray hair, glasses, and a distinguished face, Sue Johanson appears like your typical grandmother, except when she opens her mouth.
“Normally they don’t give me this type of [hand held] microphone because I do obscene things with it,” said Johanson, while addressing a packed auditorium in the Hall Building.
Johanson is Canada’s leading sex therapist and educator. The columnist, author, host of The Sunday Night Sex Show and 2001 appointee to the Order of Canada, was at Concordia last Thursday night as part of the CSU Great Canadian Speaker Series.
Known for the candid way she gets her point across, Johanson says, “If you can’t talk about [sex] then you shouldn’t be doing it!”
Johanson is considered a pioneer when it comes to dealing with sex-related issues; in 1970 she established the first birth control clinic in North America. She says her passion for teaching the subject began during her days there.
“I realized all these kids were having sex, a lot of it, more than I was having. That pissed me off. I decided [since] they didn’t know what they were doing, I was going to teach it.”
A few years later she began teaching at schools, and now continues lecturing at colleges and universities across the nation. During her lecture at Concordia, Johanson was critical of mandated sexual education programs.
“We [teachers] taught you everything you didn’t need to know and missed all the important things you should know.”
She says that common questions students have are often ignored.
“Young females are always concerned about if it’s going to hurt the first time, or how can you tell if he’s still a virgin?”
“If it’s a young male, he’s always concerned about penis size. What can I do to make it bigger? Actually, guys are still concerned about that; they haven’t moved a long way since then!”
Describing not only the parts of men and women that make them anatomically different, Johanson divulged how the sexes can better stimulate one another during the act.
Looking at stimulators, Johanson showed a range of vibrators and sex toys, offering advice on which are the best, and which should be avoided. She also took questions from the crowd. Throughout her talk, audience members were able to write down whatever they wanted to ask and placed their papers in a box to ensure anonymity.
Johanson read all questions aloud. “Can I lose my virginity if I masturbate too much? No, no, no,” responded Johanson emphatically.
From loosing sexual interest in a long-time partner, to coming out of the closet, the questions were varied. But it was her answer to the last one that elicited the biggest round of applause from the audience. “How to give good head,” Johanson read, “Okay well… [censored]”
Since The Concordian isn’t rated, we can’t print the specifics. But if you want the answer, or more information, check out her website, Talk Sex with Sue at http://www.talksexwithsue.com/index2.html.
