‘Sex With Sue’ documentary will explore impact of sex educator Sue Johanson

For decades, there was a comfort in talking sex with Sue.

Curious people across the world could turn to the call-in series “Sunday Night Sex Show” (or “Talk Sex with Sue Johanson” in the U.S. and abroad) on late-night television for advice on everything from safe sex to oral sex techniques to talking to your partner about your secret interest in kink.

The expert was, of course, Sue Johanson, the public health nurse who made it her goal to educate about subjects many were taught to not talk about.

She was unassuming but confident, relatable but authoritative, like a grandmother who could talk to you about reproduction and demonstrate how best to use a sex toy while enthusiastically encouraging the importance of lubricant.

It wasn’t a farcical take. It was meant as a realistic approach to sex education when embarrassment and shame lingered as school boards offered anatomy and sexuality basics at best.

The lens is now shifting from sex to Johanson. Award-winning director Lisa Rideout, in hand with Banger Films and Corus Studios, have created “Sex With Sue,” an 88-minute feature film documentary launching Monday.

“When Sue was on the air, we were learning about sex through our nervous gym teacher or our friends. We didn’t have access to information,” Rideout said. “Her story is so relevant right now. She had a show a few decades ago, but there is still pushback out there about owning our bodies and sexuality. This is the right time. We need to amplify (her story) now.”

Much of Johanson’s life is known because her career brought her everywhere.

Armed with degrees in human sexuality and family planning, Johanson started a birth control clinic in 1970 at Don Mills Collegiate Institute in North York. Her frank teaching style was noticed and by 1984, she moved to the radio waves with a two-hour call-in show on Q107 FM before moving to television a year later. Her show started on community television before it became a nationally-broadcast show on the W Network. The U.S. version of her show appeared on the Oxygen network, who broadcast it in Asia, Europe and South America, and logged up to four million viewers per show.

At the height of her two TV shows (recorded back-to-back and broadcast from the SkyDome, as it was then known), she had one of the most highest-rated programs and had 65,000 attempted calls per episode. Reruns of her show continued long after the series wrapped.

Off camera Johanson wrote three books and a column in the Star, regularly had speaking engagements across the country, appeared on David Letterman’s and Conan O’Brien’s talk shows, and played the character Dr. Sally on four episodes of the Degrassi franchise.

Her effort spanned times of change, including the sexual revolution and HIV/AIDS epidemic. As Rideout pointed out, Johanson was “at her core a sex educator” at the ready to help “from a non-judgmental place.”

Even for the basics. Johanson encouraged callers and viewers to move on from shame and use normal language when talking about one’s own body.

“Down there?!” she’d hark when addressing how women talk about their bodies. “Everywhere south of Wawa is down there!”

Rideout directed, wrote and produced the documentary. Filmmakers Sam Dunn (“Super Duper Alice Cooper”) and Sunita Miya Muganza (“Devout + Out”) have producer and associate producer credits.

Comics Margaret Cho and Russell Peters, advice columnist Dan Savage and broadcaster George Stroumboulopos, among others, appear on “Sex With Sue” to talk about her impact.

Even at the height of her career, Johanson was private and shied away from attention and recognition when not in show mode. She has remained largely out of the spotlight for over a decade since her shows wrapped, and now at age 92, lives quietly in Toronto. Her personal life, family and motivations are in part explored with interviews recorded with help from daughter Jane Johanson, who connected with Rideout in 2019.

Rideout said a focus was on exploring where Johanson fits in a contemporary lens. When sex tips and sex positive culture are widely available on social media and streaming platforms from an array of voices, one would wonder if there is still a place for her.

“The way we talk has changed radically since (Sue) was on air,” Rideout said. “The lens we have now with sex educators on social media, they do things to be famous, they want to be out there. Sue at her core was sex education … She didn’t know about pop culture, fame, entertainment.”

Could she be a social media star if she wanted to?

“With her style of delivery, she’d be a TikTok star,” Rideout said.

Brian Bradley is a Hamilton-based journalist who works for the Star’s Public Editor and podcast teams. Follow him on Twitter: @brianjbradley

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