Dame Emma Thompson wants us to all be more sex positive and believes it should be ‘on the NHS’ as part of a health plan.
The 66-year-old icon was speaking at a live Q&A before a screening of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande at The Kiln Theatre in North West London.
The 2022 comedy follows Dame Emma as retired teacher Nancy who hires a male sex worker Leo Grande, played by Daryl McCormack, after the death of her husband.
The Love Actually legend discussed how the role impacted her thoughts on sex as well as encouraging her friends to take control of their own pleasure.
‘We need to learn about our own response to: what if when you’re unwell, you can’t make connections, but you need sex?’ Emma said, according to the Daily Mail.
‘You need sex because it’s part of our health plan, if you like. It should really be on the NHS. It should. It’s so good for you.’
The Oscar winning actress shared: ‘It’s very good to be able to give yourself an orgasm when you need one. And for women, it is notoriously difficult. In fact, the stats are quite alarming. It really is much harder than you think.
‘One of the things that really surprised me when the film came out was the number of young women who told me they’d never had an orgasm.’
Rallying against the pressure to ‘perform’ and ‘achieve’, Dame Emma vented about society ‘endlessly getting at us about this goddamn thing that we’re supposed to achieve.’
‘Why do we do that?,’ she asked. ‘That’s such a stupid verb. An orgasm is not an achievement. It’s a beautiful, healthy expansion of your body in a moment of time.’
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande was praised for the care with which it tackled the usually taboo subjects of sex, escorts and older women’s sexuality.
Often, we don’t discuss sex as we age, with shows and films rarely featuring intimacy for anyone above the age of 35.
Dame Emma appearing completely nude on screen was considered a radical moment in the movie by many.
‘Since the film came out, quite a number of older friends of mine have done that – they’ve hired escorts,’ the star revealed.
‘Daryl spoke to a lot of sex workers,’ she continued. ‘And the thing he learned most was they were just like accountants. Sex workers are doing a job.’
Dame Emma appealed for the legitimising of sex work as a profession in the UK and worldwide, in hopes of de-stigmatising and making it safer for those involved.
However, the Sense and Sensibility star admitted her own view of sex work is ‘complicated’ as she has worked with the UN on issues of human trafficking.
She compared her experience to that of Katy Brand, the film’s writer, who had ‘come from a country in which it is legal’.
‘I understand that there are lots of different angles that you can come at it,’ continued Dame Emma. ‘For instance, in Sweden now, men who buy sex are criminalised. Sex workers aren’t criminalised, the buyer is.
‘People have views about that. We used to have a trafficking unit in this country – we don’t have it anymore, it was absorbed into the vice squad [police units dealing with sex work, trafficking and drugs].’
She emphasised that sex work and trafficking are ‘two very different things’ but are ‘often conflated’, which is often detrimental.
The Nanny McPhee star added: ‘It’s not understood partly because it’s not documented. So no one knows about men who buy sex because it’s hidden.’
Prostitution is legal in the UK between consenting adults, however, other related aspects such as soliciting in public or running a brothel are illegal.
‘Sex workers are a little more vocal now and very strong on what they think needs to happen and they’re the people we need to listen to,’ Dame Emma added.
She hoped Good Luck To You, Leo Grande could be a springboard from which wider conversations around sex positivity could grow.
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