Sue Johanson

Trained as a nurse, 70-something Johanson co-founded the first birth-control clinic in a North American high school in 1970. Her Sunday Night Sex Show on radio and TV was legendary in Canada before Talk Sex with Sue Johanson became a phenomenon on Oxygen TV in the U.S. Actress Ashley Judd recently proclaimed, “My favourite show is by that Canadian woman who does the sex show.”

enRoute What is your philosophy on sex education?

Sue Johanson If you’re going to do a show on sex, you’ve got to make it real. Anything is fair game.

ER How different is sex education now from when you started out?

SJ In my day, there wasn’t any sex education. I was taught in an ethics class that condoms had to have holes punched in them to give sperm a fighting chance. I realized that kids were having sex, but they weren’t getting good sex ed. They were learning what I call the plumbing of sex: anatomy and physiology.

ER Are kids hungrier for sex education these days?

SJ Yes because they’re exposed to shows like Sex and the City that are very sexual, [but those shows] never talk about safer sex, they never talk about condoms, they never show a conversation with a potential partner.

ER How did you become a sex educator?

SJ I’m interested in sex and curious about it. I can barely even remember my own name half the time, but I read a medical fact and it sticks.

ER Why do you think kids listen to you?

SJ I am a ham. I looove being up on stage. And I respond to the audience. So if they’re laughing and enjoying it, then I am all over that stage like a yo-yo.

ER Why are you successful?

SJ I’m successful because I use everyday language.

ER What makes you want to educate people?

SJ I’ve watched a generation that espoused free love turn into a generation that can’t talk to their kids about sex. Why do they clam up? Sex in general is so scary. If you don’t know what’s happening, then you tend to get depressed and freak out.

ER Do people ever complain about what you teach?

SJ Never. Kids are mature now. And their parents are so damn glad that somebody is teaching sex because they couldn’t do it.

ER You received the Order of Canada in May 2001. Were you surprised that a sex educator was presented with this award?

SJ I was shocked out of my tree. I got this letter from the government, and I thought, “I’ve fouled up my income taxes again.” I opened it up and it said, “Congratulations.” I couldn’t believe it!

ER All because of sex?

SJ Because of talking about sex.