I had an unusual mother-daughter bonding moment last week. While visiting in Colorado, my mother and I watched Oprah on Friday and saw the sex edition of her Live Your Best Life series.
I took it as a sign of my maturity that I didn’t squirm, blush, or yell out, “Ewww, Mom, gross!!!! Change the channel!”
Truthfully, both of us were pretty engrossed as Oprah and her favorite sex therapist Dr. Laura Berman talked with several couples about their sex lives. The focus was on how to help the women with their disinterest or dissatisfaction. (Sorry, men, you’ll have to look to Dr. Phil for help with how to live YOUR best sex life. But I give huge kudos to the men who appeared on the show with their wives; their willingness to be honest and vulnerable made them incredibly attractive and sexy to millions of female viewers.)
I was most intrigued by two communication exercises used by Dr. Berman to get the couples talking about their sex lives. The first was an outline of questions to jump-start communication, which usually leads to a jump-start in libido. The second was a diagram of the human body which each partner used to indicate their preferred erogenous zones and then compared notes and exchanged ideas with each other in a non-threatening way.
Now, talking about sex with a partner is not the easiest thing to do, I don’t care how long you’ve been together. What I loved about this show was the sharing of practical tools that I could see myself using (however, I still resist picturing my mother using them with her husband … does that mean I’m still immature?!?!?)
Oprah and Dr. Berman are also hosting a webcast on Friday, January 16 at 9 p.m. (EST) to tackle any and all questions they couldn’t address on day-time TV.
Did anybody else catch this or any of Oprah’s other Live Your Best Life shows last week?
1-13-2009 08:40:15
What a great post, Elaine! I didn’t catch the show, but it sounded very informative!
I love your summary that jump-starting communication with your partner helps jump-start the libido!
1-13-2009 10:15:11
I missed the shows, but I did listen to it a bit on XM radio throughout the week. Suzy Orman got me going again about my finances on Thursday – and getting a good hold of them, and I was able to listen to Dr. Berman a bit in route to Costco and home on Friday.
One conversation I found interesting between Dr. Berman and Gayle King was the conversation of sex before marriage. Gayle was saying that she thought it was important to explore your sexuality with others before getting married. She has a 22 year old daughter, and told her that in high school she thought she was too emotionally unprepared for sex, but in college she felt it was appropriate to engage in sex throughout her different relationships. Part of this stems from her belief that through others you learn what works – and when you just have one sex partner, it might take you a lot longer to get there.
It was pretty interesting stuff. I’d be interested to know if anyone joins the webcast. I’ll be at a place with no internet service.
I must say, Oprah, and her vast kingdom, never cease to amaze me!
1-13-2009 15:42:30
I wasn’t home Friday afternoon, darn it. This is the only show I missed last week. The others with Oprah’s personal story, Dr. Oz, spirituality, and Suze Orman were good reviews of information to start the new year. Her shows tend to offer common-sense how-to’s that people can actually do.