Get ready to break up with your favourite films
Picture this: a heterosexual couple is in bed, and things are getting steamy. This sex session is packed with action; seams rip and buttons fly, deities are called upon and expletives flung around. All playing out to a jackhammer rhythm only the thrusting partners, rigid in determined missionary, can hear. After approximately 40 seconds, the pair climax at the exact same time, the woman (slim, white, virginal) with a dainty moan and the man (tall, white, muscular) with a throaty grunt.
Wondering which sex scene that was describing? It could be any number, given the prolific popularity of unrealistic, fixedly gendered sex spread across modern cinema and television. That’s why it’s about time we began evaluating sex scenes through a female gaze. Thank God, then, for Frances Rayner, 34, the creator of The Clit Test. Rayner told One Track Mind that she started the test to try to improve the representation of on-screen pleasure, particularly that of women.
“The Clit Test celebrates sex scenes that reflect that the clitoris, not the vagina, is the source of orgasm for the overwhelming majority of cisgender women and people with vulvas,” she said. “I wanted something quite pointed, that would bring attention to the very simple fact that penetration only really does not cut it if you have a vulva.” She recognises the test’s limits and has widened the criteria to attempt to be inclusive in her analysis of progressive cinema. “There’s so much more to good sex on screen than just involving the clit,” she said. “Sex scenes involving trans characters are firstly pretty rare, and when we do see them, they’re often pretty problematic.”
We do look for good sex scenes involving trans and non-binary characters, and would celebrate these and thank the creators regardless of what’s happening clit-wise,” Rayner said.
But its original purpose is redirecting our attention, back towards the clitoris. “All too often, when we see cisgender, heterosexual sex on screen it’s all thrusting penetration (penis in vagina) sex culminating in a dramatic female orgasm.” In reality, that simply isn’t the case.
The idea that sex equals a penis going into a vagina is just some very outdated nonsense
So is all lost? Are we to be condemned to unrealistic, penis-plus-vagina-equals-orgasm sex forever? Rayner thinks not. “I started the Clit Test to celebrate the people who are getting it right, in the hope we will inspire others,” she said. “The idea that sex equals a penis going into a vagina is just some very outdated nonsense that I think we can easily fix by giving people a platform to talk about it.”
As Netflix announces its latest foray into the pseudo-erotic with Sex/Life, announced by Entertainment Weekly to explore desire “from a woman’s perspective,” it certainly seems that things may be looking up. But, just for the fun of it, we’ve decided to run The Clit Test (the One Track Mind version) on supposedly sexy films and television shows.
Here at One Track Mind, we’re all about finding harmony between sex and positive mental health, so we’re adding important new categories into the mix. We’ll be checking in on our favourite media, assessing the level of aftercare and continuous consent found in sexual scenes. Another important measure for success will be the presence and importance given to LGBTQIA+ sex and relationships story lines; something woefully lacking in prevalent pop culture. Stay tuned for our take on cinematic “cliteracy”; just prepare to break up with your favourite films. There’s one question on our mind: how’s your head?
Our first installment: Sex Education.