Why Everything You Were Told About Female Sexuality Is Wrong | Natasha Senjanovic
The Intimacy InquiryShow Notes
Natasha Senjanovic is an award-winning journalist, gender violence reporter, and the host and creator of Women Like Sex, a myth-busting, research-driven podcast dedicated to dismantling the misinformation, biases, and taboos that have long distorted understanding of female sexuality. A co-creator of the media training course I Wish I'd Known, she holds a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for feature reporting and spent years reporting from Rome before specialising in domestic and sexual violence journalism at Nashville Public Radio. In this conversation with Andrew, Natasha traces the thread from her European upbringing, free of puritanical religious shame, through years of reporting in Italy, to the pivotal moment in a Nashville newsroom when a rape retrial changed the direction of her career. She reflects on the chronic failures of media coverage of gender-based violence: the staggering gap between the statistics (Nashville alone sees 25-30,000 domestic violence investigations per year, against roughly 10 domestic homicides) and what actually makes the news; the loaded language that alibis perpetrators and re-traumatises survivors; and why terms like "she snapped," "monster," and "violence against women" are not neutral, but actively harmful. The conversation moves through the Epstein case and what it reveals about power protecting power; the criminalisation of marital rape (UK: 1991, Tennessee: 2012); how Saint Augustine helped reshape the church's definition of sex as procreative only; and why the anatomy of the clitoris was not fully mapped until 2005. Natasha and Andrew also explore how hypersexual myths about men damage male sexuality; why "foreplay" is a term worth questioning; the gendered double standards baked into everyday language; and the inextricable link between sexual inequity and intimate partner violence. Natasha shares the personal toll of gender violence reporting, how the Women Like Sex project helped her step back without stepping away, and her plans to train as a certified sex health educator, because she wants to do more than funnel expert voices. She wants to become one. Topics include: sexual shame and cultural conditioning; domestic violence statistics and the media blind spots that hide them; coercion as the most prevalent form of sexual assault; the Madonna-whore complex and its religious roots; consent education; unconscious bias in journalism; privilege, race, and newsroom culture; and what it will take to flip the script. Women Like Sex podcast: https://womenlikesex.com/ I Wish I'd Known: https://www.pmja.org/contacts/natasha-senjanovic
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