Sex: An Unnatural History (ATOM Study Guide)

Sex: An Unnatural History is a six-part factual series exploring the last fifty years of Australia's sexual landscape. It comprises six half-hour episodes investigating how sexual behaviour and attitudes have changed over the last fifty years in Australia.

Presenter Julia Zemiro, best known as the presenter of SBS' long-running music program RocKwiz, brings her wit, intellect and humour to each episode, starting with an exploration of why we started having sex and how we became hardwired to monogamy.

Humans started copulating to procreate but if we can make a baby in a test tube and even get someone else to carry it for us, where does that leave sex? Is it now just purely about pleasure?

The introduction of the contraceptive pill sparked a revolution that is still happening, but where are we headed? Julia explores what taboos are still left to us and why societies require sexual boundaries. We're moving towards more liberated attitudes about marriage, homosexuality and personal fetishes but is everything up for grabs?

When it comes to fashion, many of us use what we wear to signal what we are looking for, but what does fashion also tell us about the sexual attitudes of the day? And how are our sexual lives affected by our churches? Julia delves into the complex world of how and why the Catholic Church became so fixated with what we do between the sheets and how one little pill may have led to the demise of confession.

Julia takes a look at how and why humans fall in love and what role chemicals play when Cupid's arrow strikes. But isn't there more to it than neurotransmitters and serotonin? Isn't it all about the romance? How can we explain the metaphysical aspect of love and how it transforms not only our sex lives but also every other part of our lives?

The series ends with a look at sex and the future. All sorts of people have opinions on what sex will be like in 2060. Sure, we can imagine robot lovers, virtual partners and sex without gravity but will we ever invent something better than a condom?

Curriculum Guidelines

• Health and Personal Development
• Sex Education
• Values Education
• SOSE/HSIE
• Civics and Citizenship
• Contemporary History
• Media and Film Studies