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Private Notes
Channel 4 Science collaborates with the world renowned Kinsey Institute
to conduct a groundbreaking investigation into female sexuality.
Eight inquisitive young women from all over Britain come together to embark
on a journey of sexual self-discovery as their sex lives go under the microscope.
Over the course of a week, the women live together and take part in a number
of ground breaking experiments under the guidance of Dr John Bancroft, former
head of the Kinsey Institute, and several other leading authorities in the field of
female sexuality.
In this first episode, the emphasis is on genital physiology and arousal, and the
women make the astonishing discovery that the clitoris is a massive 9cm long.
Two of the girls get to take part in a pioneering experiment to capture the first
ever internal 3D images of the clitoris during sexual arousal.
In another experiment, the women learn that they can be unaware of their
own physical sexual arousal, highlighting the fact that genital response is not
always central to a woman's sexual experience.
As well as taking part in the experiments, the women take time with the
scientists to discuss the research and get answers to questions about their
own interesting sex lives.
Tonight the group finds out about the powerful evolutionary forces shaping
sexual attraction. The women make some uncomfortable discoveries tonight,
when they realise how universal their sexual tastes are: it seems they can be
turned on by virtually any image portraying sexual activity.
Under the guidance of Dr Erick Janssen of the Kinsey Institute, the women
learn that their arousal to such diverse stimuli may serve the important
evolutionary purpose of preparing the body for the prospect of any sort of
harmful penetration.
Later, 10 strapping men arrive at the lab and the group takes part in some
entertaining experiments designed for the series by evolutionary psychologist
Dr John Manning, to find out why they are attracted to certain men and not others.
With one of the girls' boyfriends secretly infiltrating the line-up, there's a lot at stake:
can she pick her own boyfriend out of a line-up of anonymous attractive men?
As usual the girls share their experiences, discuss the results of the experiments
and quiz the scientists on their work and what it means for women.
Tonight the women find out about the precise nature of the female sex
drive and the many factors that influence it. Dr Erick Janssen from the
Kinsey Institute in America devises a classic placebo experiment to
explore the role of the mind in influencing sex drive.
Giving all the women a necklace, Dr Janssen tells half the group that their
necklace contains pheromones, which will increase their sex drive, and the
other half that their necklace contains a substance that will decrease their
sex drive.
In reality, the necklaces are all the same and contain no active substance.
The experiment is designed to see whether the power of suggestion affects
women's sexual responses and the results are astonishing.
The programme also tests the affects of alcohol and mood on women's
sex drive and again, the results prove interesting to both the women and
scientists conducting the experiments.
In this final programme in the series, the eight women are coming to the
end of their intensive week of sexual self-discovery and putting their sex lives
under the microscope.
Tonight Dr John Bancroft, former head of the Kinsey Institute, helps them try
and understand the nature and purpose of the female orgasm.
One of the women takes part in a pioneering study being conducted by leading
neuroscientist Dr Gert Holstege, becoming the first British woman to have a
brain scan to find out what happens to the brain during sexual arousal and orgasm.
Another of the girls volunteers to have blood taken whilst aroused to find out what
hormones are active during orgasm.
Dr Pierre Bouloux, who conducts the experiment, is genuinely amazed to find that
the stress hormone adrenalin rose to levels more usually associated with a heart
attack!
At the end of the week of scientific endeavour, the women and scientists reflect on
the unique experiment in which that they have taken part and discuss how much
both parties have learnt from the experience.
