{"id":747368,"date":"2026-06-19T20:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747368\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T20:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:06:14","slug":"what-off-campus-can-teach-us-about-centring-womens-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747368\/","title":{"rendered":"What Off Campus can teach us about centring women\u2019s pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been left wanting more after finishing the final episode of Off Campus, you’re probably in good company.<\/p>\n

The hit romantic drama series reached 36 million viewers globally within its first 12 days, with season two already in the works.<\/p>\n

The show’s creators have been praised for rewriting the narrative on love, centring women’s pleasure and showing us on screen what healthy masculinity and the “bare minimum” effort in relationships can look like.<\/p>\n

But Off Campus also navigates some heavier themes, including sexual assault and trauma.<\/p>\n

Before we dive into it, this is your official spoiler alert.<\/p>\n

An old trope with a fresh spin<\/p>\n

The Off Campus series, based on the popular novel The Deal, by Elle Kennedy, focuses on a blossoming love affair between college students Hannah Wells and ice hockey captain Garrett Graham.<\/p>\n

While the fake relationship storyline between the two characters is nothing new, the show’s writers have carefully featured “sex positive and inclusive” themes, which are “empowering for everyone,” according to sexologist and clinical psychologist Lauren French.<\/p>\n

\"Ella<\/p>\n

Off Campus has become an epic hit. (Supplied: Prime Video)<\/p>\n

“In this show they keep the messiness \u2026 they keep in the fact that there are vulnerabilities, that there are issues that people are dealing with,” she says.<\/p>\n

“Sex isn’t just passion against a wall or boring missionary behind the sheets, it actually goes, ‘No, this is exciting, erotic, really desirable, pleasurable sex.’<\/p>\n

“There are conflicts that [they] want to resolve and I think the show is holding all of those things in a really measured way.”<\/p>\n

Safe, not performative<\/p>\n

Even though the plot is centred around characters who are barely out of high school, the show has struck a chord with a much wider audience.<\/p>\n

Soon after Off Campus’s release, social media was awash with reels of middle-aged women gushing over the main character, Garrett, reminding themselves that they are indeed married with children and reflecting on whether they should be fantasising about a college student.<\/p>\n

But what is it about this show that has so many of us hot under the collar?<\/p>\n

Sexologist and Griffith University associate professor Armin Ariana says it’s all about Garrett’s constant focus on providing emotional safety for Hannah.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The series has been praised as a non-toxic exploration of romance. (Liane Hentscher\/Prime)<\/p>\n

“Being a male character who is present and who’s being guided by the female, that is wonderful,” Dr Ariana says.<\/p>\n

“This is what I constantly teach to men, because male sexual concern mostly comes from that idea of performance. They think, ‘I have to rock in this bed, and I have to do this and I have to do that.’<\/p>\n

“Hopefully it’s given people an understanding of the importance of presence over performance.”<\/p>\n

In one scene, Garrett asks a male friend and fellow hockey player for advice about female orgasms, to which the friend replies: “Trust \u2014 she’s got to feel completely safe and relaxed \u2026 nothing is more vulnerable than sex, and don’t skimp on the foreplay”.<\/p>\n

Ms French says it’s this narrative and vulnerability that many of us find “really attractive”.<\/p>\n

“It didn’t set up the kind of usual trope, which is, ‘Here’s a technique,'” she says.<\/p>\n

“It went, ‘Actually it’s trust, vulnerability, [and] how do we set that up safely?’<\/p>\n

“I think it also highlighted a moment of vulnerability between very macho, stereotypical, sporty, masculine men that we also don’t see.”<\/p>\n

Centring on women’s pleasure<\/p>\n

Viewers were not disappointed after the pep talk \u2014 Garrett understood the assignment.<\/p>\n

It leads to very steamy scenes centring Hannah’s comfort, pleasure and wellbeing.<\/p>\n

Ms French, who is also an educator in consent and respectful relationships, describes Garrett’s focus on Hannah’s comfort as “refreshing”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lauren French says the male vulnerability in the show is part of what makes it “really attractive”. (Supplied: Lauren French)<\/p>\n

“Who’s the actual person that makes us feel like we’re exhaling? That person we can melt into and that it’s not all tension and high-excitement energy,” she says.<\/p>\n

“[Watching it] is actually like a big warm hug \u2014 with some hot sex.”<\/p>\n

There is a good reason that emotional and physical safety between the two characters features so heavily, as both grapple with individual experiences of abuse and trauma. In Hannah’s case, that was being sexually assaulted in high school.<\/p>\n

Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:1800 Respect National Helpline<\/a>: 1800 737 732Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Bravehearts<\/a>: counselling and support for survivors of child sexual abuse: 1800\u00a0272\u00a0831Child Wise<\/a>: counselling provider: 1800\u00a0991\u00a0099<\/p>\n

According to Ellie Freedman, a sexual health physician based in Sydney\/Gadigal, storylines about safety and vulnerability are “incredibly helpful” for victim-survivors of abuse or those who may have experienced any form of unsafe sex.<\/p>\n

She describes unsafe sex as “sex that just doesn’t feel good or right or that they don’t feel in control of, because lots of people aren’t going to name that as an assault”.<\/p>\n

Seeing it dealt with so sensitively on screen may also help those of us in a relationship or friendship with someone who’s experienced assault “because people often don’t know how to approach it”, Dr Freedman says.<\/p>\n

Hannah’s healing journey is far from linear, even with a supportive family and an understanding partner in Garrett.<\/p>\n

Dr Ariana says it can be a long road to recovery and quite common to experience ups and downs after sexual assault or abuse.<\/p>\n

“The recovery is a path and it’s you who is in charge of navigating through it,” she says.<\/p>\n

Ms French says the series is a great example of how television can navigate the complexity of fantasy, pleasure and sex.<\/p>\n

“I think it does a really great job of showing women as sexual beings without falling into the shame trope that a lot of spaces can do,” she says.<\/p>\n

“It’s [showing] these are young sexual people and that’s a really important part of who they are.”<\/p>\n

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