you are going to have your feet in front of “Sexify”, the series which is a hit on Netflix

“Sexify” has a nice little place in the top Netflix. If this Polish series is already compared to “Sex Education”, “Sexify” has the merit of focusing only on female sexuality. And she does that well.

Video by Clemence Chevallet

On Thursday, April 29, 2021, Netflix released a new series straight out of Poland. And not just any! This time around, the streaming giant is collaborating with directors Agata K. Koschmieder and Małgorzata Biedrońska to talk exclusively about female pleasure. Sexify follows Natalia, a student who is embarking on the development of a female orgasm app. The problem is that Natalia is inexperienced on the subject and her primary ambition is to win the competition of her university. If the young woman approaches the subject with purely technical knowledge, her friends Paulina and Monika will, through their personal experiences, help her to develop this application, without counting the help of the students of their residence, ready to also deliver to them. their experience. Here is why the result is enjoyable.

“Sexify” proves that female pleasure is above all an exploration of oneself

We do not hide from you that at the beginning, the anguish of seeing yet another pseudo-feminist series that sexualizes women was there. It must be said that the first seconds of Sexify are not very reassuring on this subject … On an electro sound background, we discover a young woman in the shower: her face is not even visible yet as the slow-motion and close-ups on her buttocks and the small of her back go good train. The uninhibited male gaze (masculine gaze) of this introduction makes you roll your eyes.

And yet, it is with great finesse that the desire to ridicule certain similar scenes, already seen on the small screen, is set up. When Natalia finally reveals herself, the shower in her residence makes her own. She seems downright dirty and her plastic taps on her feet send the male gauze waltz … Natalia is that miss everyone far from being sexy in a shower, like all of us! An introductory scene that is ultimately satirical and delicious.

Read also : What is the Clit Test, which quantifies female pleasure in films and series?

On the other hand, if the series makes the bet to put forward the female pleasure, it does not miss scenes with a lot of heterocentric penetrations and frankly connoted “all for the male pleasure”. But, unlike what we are used to seeing in the cinema or in series, female characters have no pleasure in being penetrated. The character of Paulina, for example, in a relationship for a long time with her lover, does not enjoy facing these repetitive missionaries. The pompom is that he is not even listening to her during these ten seconds of coitus! As for Monika, she fully assumes to simulate during her sexual intercourse. Sexify balance on guys and standardized sexuality, and we love that.

Read also : Sex: here is the Clitothèque, a “Netflix of the clit” devoted to the pleasure of the vulva

This is where all of their research for their famous sex app comes in. As the series goes on, they learn more about the subject, go to a sex exhibition, go to a sex shop and, “for science”, even have fun testing the sex toys they have bought. At that point, the series passes the clit test with flying colors. Message from Sexify is clear: who said that women need men and penetration to discover and enjoy their sexuality? Paulina is proof of this: she discovers what really makes her sexually pleasurable without her boyfriend. The magic of sextoys!

The political dimension of “Sexify”, a snub to the Polish government

Sex presented as a simple tool of pleasure, and not as a means to reproduce, this is the political dimension of this Polish series. Because if we replace the series Sexify in the context in which it was released on Netflix, it is much more of a story of application to finally reach orgasm … As a reminder, in Poland, an ultra-conservative country, abortion is only possible ” in case of rape, incest or danger to the mother. In autumn 2020, this bill brought together tens of thousands of Poles who took to the streets. In a country governed by the ultra-Catholic nationalist party and which is facing the decline in women’s fundamental rights, Sexify brilliantly recalls that they should have the right to have control over their bodies by freeing themselves from all male domination.

The scene where the female trio presents its application project to the competition (beware, spoilers!) In front of the ministry perfectly illustrates the political dimension of this Polish show. Faced with an elderly and predominantly male jury, they reclaim their bodies. “Even if people like you see it as a joke, it is a real need for us. A real problem. (…) Sex is far from being limited to what society and you, gentlemen of the jury, do believe in women “, says Paulina, yet the most conservative of the three. This character goes through a real initiatory journey, she who was brought up according to a practicing and traditional Catholic family model, a mirror of the mores of current Polish society. Moreover, we will keep in mind this discussion she has with her mother who, after having had children, does not see the usefulness of still leaving room for sexuality within her marriage.

Read also : Gender: what is “vulva mapping” and why should we start?

And all that is without counting the place that gives Sexify to the LGBTQI + community. If, at the beginning, we feared a very heteronomous approach to sex, some characters widen the spectrum of sexualities. Student parties, voguing and sexual desires appear on the screen like a real snub to the LGBTQIphobic policy of the Polish government, marriage between two people of the same sex being, among other things, still prohibited in this country.

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As Monika points out very well, in Sexify, “the app is created by women and for women.” This is exactly the case with the series itself, created by two women, Agata K. Koschmieder and Małgorzata Biedrońska. What could be better than the main stakeholders to deal with a topic without crashing?

Melanie Bonvard

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