Free Love

Tuesday night I skipped samba to nurse my cold and had an orgy of telly watching. Two out of the four programmes I watched, happened to be about sex, but I hadn't intended that pun!

The most interesting was presented by Dawn Porter, rather gorgeous with her big brown 'come to bed' eyes. Apparently, she is quite famous. She is doing a series, travelling the world, investigating how 'free love' works. The first place she went, inevitably, was California. Where else? She met a group of 'swingers' and attended a 'love-in' session, where basically two men appeared to be stroking her to get her relaxed. One of them kept determinedly to her face and hair, telling her he loved her, which caused her to giggle and say 'But you've never met me', which I thought was a good point. The other man, more intense, seemed to be pinching her arm, somewhat brutally. I felt he was as embarrassed as she was.

She ended up in a hot tub (knickers on) with a woman and her three lovers, all of whom looked as if they had been cloned from some test tube with 'chiselled, thin, long haired, hippy' on it. They discussed the joys, as well as the complications, of free love. Dawn was obviously trying to understand where that old sin 'jealousy' fitted in . I felt the answers to her questions skirted round the point, rather than tackling it in any way effectively.

Then onto Germany, where she joined a commune for a week. There was possibly a teeny weeny bit more humour with the Germans, but what struck me about both these groups were that there was very little laughter going on. I mean, sex is supposed to be fun, isn't it? Not some intense religious ceremony.

There was a 'talking' session, which are apparently very healthy, where you can let it all out in a controlled environment. That's as maybe, but it did not seem to help the poor woman who had been 'dumped' by her lover, who had now got himself a couple of others. He tried to reassure her that he still loved her too, but she did not look convinced.

The culmination of all this was a session in an 'oiling' room, where there were lots of candles and atmosphere, and you basically lay on the floor naked, had warm oil poured all over you, and then writhed around touching people while they touched you. OOOh dear. I couldn't help thinking about the snakes in that pit in one of the Indiana Jones films. Dawn, who was initially extremely nervous, actually relaxed, saying she had quite enjoyed it. Good for her. Even I could start to imagine that it might be quite nice, though I don't think I would be brave enough to find out. Am I just a frigid old woman? Or do I believe that monogamy is both possible and desirable? I'm not really sure.