8 Iconic Moments From Sue Johanson's Documentary That Prove She's A True Canadian Legend

"The sex will be sweeter if you wrap your peter."

Editor
Sue Johanson on one of her shows. Right: Sue Johanson in the 'Sex With Sue' doc.

Sue Johanson on one of her shows. Right: Sue Johanson in the 'Sex With Sue' doc.

Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson was recently featured in a documentary called Sex With Sue and it gave some insight into her upbringing, her two TV programs — Sunday Night Sex Show and Talk Sex with Sue Johanson — and what she meant to the Canadians who tuned in for her no-nonsense approach to all things sex.

This article contains graphic content that might not be suitable for some readers.

The documentary aired on October 10 on the W Network but is available for streaming through STACKTV, which I was able to sign up for a free trial with through Prime Video.

In the hour and a half I spent watching the doc I laughed, I cried, and of course, I learned, which is what Sue is all about.

When she helped someone deal with a foot fetish

When a caller told Sue her boyfriend wanted her to try to insert her toe into his anus, which she was uncomfortable with, Sue was quick to think up solutions.

"What about taking a latex glove?" Sue suggested, adding that she could fill it with oatmeal or rice.

"Tie the top off tight, and then pretend that that's a toe."

When she had some advice for a soon-to-be mom

"I'm pregnant right now and I plan on breastfeeding my child after I have it," Marlena from Lethbridge told Sue.

"And I was wondering, my boyfriend really likes to like suck on my breasts during lovemaking, and I was just wondering, he's lactose intolerant. And I just wonder if my breast milk could hurt him."

Sue had an immediate response.

"Well, he'll certainly have to start taking Lactaid, won't he?"

When Russel Peters shared his memories of her

The Canadian comedian fondly recounted a memory that many others probably have, myself included.

"I remember her giving a hand job to a cucumber and showing you how to hold it for a blow. I was like, wow, this is wild," he said.

"Nobody talked openly about this, especially an older mature woman that, you know, looked like she may have never had sex. That's no disrespect to you, Sue."

He said that on Sunday nights, he'd listen to the funnies on his boombox and then flip over to her show.

"That's why I'm so prolific with my sexual knowledge," Peters joked.

When she opened up about her upbringing and her complicated feelings about abortion

Sue was born in Toronto in 1930 and went to nursing school in Winnipeg at an institution run by nuns, who she described as "very uncomfortable ladies who never talked about sex."

Sue's daughter, Jane, described when one of her sister's friends who was either 14 or 15 came to Sue because she was pregnant at a time when abortion was illegal in Canada.

"It was devastating," Sue said. "She'd had an abortion. And terminated the pregnancy. That bothered me terribly."

"Hey, I don't like abortion but there are times when it's necessary, like it or not, Susie," Sue explained. "I hate to be seen as somebody who was promoting abortion because I wasn't promoting abortion. I was trying to prevent it."

"She wanted kids to be educated so they never even got to that place in the first place," Jane said.

When the difference between Canadians and Americans were pointed out

After Sue did her Sunday Night Sex Show for Canada, she would immediately flip over to the Talk Sex with Sue Johanson program for Americans.

"We had no idea when we started doing Talk Sex With Sue Johanson for an American audience how ill-educated they were," said someone who worked on the show.

They then played an example.

"Is it okay to use a Ziploc bag in replace of a condom and lubricant?" one caller asked, before Sue gave an emphatic "No."

When she gave advice to "live dangerously"

"You can use zucchini, you can use cucumbers, you can use candles, you can use almost any long slender toy," Sue said of penetrative items.

"But honey, why don't you just live dangerously and buy a vibrator?"

When she had the perfect goodbye

"I wore black for tonight's show because I'm in mourning," she said on her final show. "This is Susie's swan song for Talk Sex. And there'll be a great big hole in my heart. I love doing the show."

"I'll close with the same condom quickie that we ended the first show with, 174 episodes ago," she said as she started to cry. "The sex will be sweeter if you wrap your peter."

"And as the lights go down for the last time, it's goodbye to all with thanks and love."

Reflecting back on her legacy

"Oh yes, it opened the door," 92-year-old Sue said recently while thinking about her career. "It made it okay to talk about sex, to talk about all sorts of stuff, and nobody bats an eyelash anymore."

"And I wasn't young. I wasn't beautiful," she continued. "I didn't have bodacious tatas. I was just a mother with a load of information."

"I pushed the line as far and as fast as I could. And I got away with it."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

Sarah Rohoman
Editor
Sarah Rohoman is an Editor for Narcity Media focused on Canadian celebrities and is based in Toronto, Ontario.
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