Every afternoon on RMC INFO, a French commercial radio network where phone-ins are the order of the day, the concerned but knowing voice of the sex counsellor Brigitte Lahaie can be heard fielding calls from listeners/participants. Her motto last week was 'sexuality at the heart of a harmonious life'. One caller wanted to know if it was OK, as a woman, to be watching X-rated movies - isn't that a man's thing? - oh, and by the way, how do you go about removing the hair around your anus? It was all right, Brigitte thought, for girls to enjoy a bit of pornography (she's an ex-porn star herself). And on the revealing supplementary, she felt that a bog-standard depilatory would probably be fine; maybe the caller's partner would like to help her with the application.

LRB 9 May 2002 | PDF Download