By Nicole Thompson in Toronto
With her wire-rim glasses and grandmotherly style, Sue Johanson seemed an unlikely candidate to be Canada's foremost sexpert.
But her straight talk about anal, oral and solo sex earned her call-in advice shows a loyal following, first on the radio and later on both Canadian and American TV.
Johanson diedin Toronto on Wednesday at age 93 after a long decline,said director Lisa Rideout, who made a documentary last year about the sex guru.
People delighted in calling in to "The Sunday Night Sex Show" and its American counterpart "Talk Sex with Sue Johanson" with questions about obscure acts and fetishes in hopes of shocking the matronly nurse, her daughter Jane Johanson said in an interview before the launch of the documentary "Sex with Sue."
"She was brilliant. She never reacted in a way that was judgmental or disgusted," Jane Johanson said. "Sometimes she would laugh, or her eyes might lift up in wide-open surprise, but it was lovely that she treated everybody with respect. Their questions were valid, regardless, across the board, doesn't matter what your fetish or interests might be."
But all that titillation was in service of a grander mission: destigmatizing sex.
Sue Johanson was of the opinion that informed sex was safe sex.
She spread that message broadly, writing three books on sexuality and touring around Canada to give talks at schools.
Johanson made her name in Canada and the United States talking about sex on the radio and TV, but she got her start by setting up a birth control clinic in a Toronto high school in 1970.
In 1974, she started travelling to schools across Ontario to offer sex education and the radio show hit Toronto airwaves a decade later.
After the American version of her show started airing, she became a favourite on the American late-night talk show circuit.
During an appearance on David Letterman's "The Late Show," Johanson charmed the host while discussing the anatomy of female pleasure.
''What people don't realize is that penis size does not matter, because the top two-thirds of the vagina has no nerve endings, there's nobody home up there,'' she said to a roar of audience approval.
In response, Letterman told "Late Show" band leader Paul Shaffer, also a Canadian, not to be embarrassed.
Now, a new generation of sex educators have taken up residence online instead of on TV, said Rideout, who directed the 2022 documentary.
Many of them, she said, were directly inspired by Johanson.
"Sue paved the way for the way that we talk about sex right now. She had a huge influence on the sex educators that are now out in public, that are operating on social media," Rideout said.
"She talked about sex as pleasurable, which right now maybe doesn't sound radical, but it was at the time."
It was a pre-internet era when parents had far more control over what their children understood about sex.
"What we were taught was that sex was either for reproduction, or don't do it. Those were the two messages."
Alex McKay, executive director of the Sex Information & Education Council of Canada, said Johanson started a public conversation that continues today.
"She was really the first person in Canada who gave people a sense of permission to talk about sex, and ask all those questions that they really wanted and needed to ask," he said.
Now, he said, people are far more comfortable talking about sexuality and sexual experience.
"The momentum that she initiated is certainly very much with us today."
Banner image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Corus Entertainment
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2023.
