“It remains a rewarding watch, despite – or maybe because – it doesn’t reach the climax you expect”
Secrets of the Female Orgasm, Channel 4
“Thanks to presenter Yewande Biala, it all has a wholly unexpected freshness. Her practical realism and disinclination to play into the usual optimistic tropes or show the usual enthusiasm on which such documentaries of self-discovery generally run is a beautiful thing. At the same time, serious points are made – although they are not as fully developed as you might hope. Still, it remains a rewarding watch, despite – or maybe because – it doesn’t reach the … God, sorry … climax you expect.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
“All credit to Biala for not faking it to give the show a happy ending. There was expert talk about anorgasmia — delayed, infrequent or absent orgasms — but the problem for Biala seemed to stem from her religious upbringing in Ireland, where she was told that masturbation was a huge sin. That psychological barrier was hard to shift.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“The frankness of the scene with her mother and the important awkwardness of others compensated for some of the film’s cheesy imagery of volcanoes exploding, oranges being squeezed and matches being struck. Biala came across as a brave, thoughtful woman. A straight-A student who admitted that she’d worked so hard to please others she had no capacity left to please herself.”
Helen Brown, The Telegraph
“Considering one statistic revealed in the film – in the UK, 52% of boys aged 16 to 17 have a positive view of Tate – this nightmarish vision of the future isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. But it’s also one that Matt Shea’s excellent exposé has made just a little less likely.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian
“The documentary-maker Matt Shea did a good, unruffled job of handling a sneering, preening misogynist whose organisation Shea said trained men across the globe how to groom, degrade and coerce women into online sex work.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“The documentary exposed what was already widely known, that Tate is the public face of an organised network selling online courses on coercive control and bullying. But for those who know him only as an unsuccessful contestant on Big Brother in 2016, it provided little background or insight. Investigative reporter Matt Shea was more concerned with striking poses, thrusting microphones into the faces of men who refused to answer his questions.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
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