Sex show Scandalises Georgia

TBILISI (Georgia) - WEARING a tight red dress and leaning suggestively over a chair, Shorena Begashvili gazed into the camera and said in a husky voice: 'Today we're going to talk about the sounds people make when having sex.'

As her image was replaced with film footage of couples moaning and screaming, it quickly became clear why Night with Shorena, Georgia's first talk show about sex, has provoked controversy in this conservative country.

It is being broadcast on private channel Imedi, the same station that provoked an international uproar this month by broadcasting a fake news report that said Russia had invaded and Georgia's president had been killed. Hosted by 27-year-old Playboy model Begashvili, the weekly programme began airing in January and features interviews with celebrity guests, street polls about people's sex lives and clips of erotic scenes from Hollywood movies.

The goal, Begashvili said, is not simply to be smutty, but to educate and change perceptions about sex in Georgia. 'We are trying to educate Georgians about sex,' she told AFP in an interview at a trendy tea house in the capital Tbilisi. 'Many people in Georgia say they don't need more information about sex, but trust me, they do.' Begashvili's critics disagree and her programme has sparked protests from religious groups, an official complaint to the channel and threats of legal action.

The controversy is part of a larger debate in Georgia over the country's social values as it continues a transformation that began with its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In recent years, and particularly since the 2003 pro-Western Rose Revolution, Georgia has increasingly looked to the United States and Europe as political and cultural role models. But comparatively liberal Western attitudes towards sex are clashing with traditional values, especially as the socially conservative Georgian Orthodox Church is also seeing its influence rise.

Public opinion polls show that Georgians are far more conservative about sex than Americans or Europeans. A nationwide survey by the Caucasus Research Resources Centre last October found that 77 per cent of Georgians disapproved of sex before marriage and that 90 per cent opposed homosexuality. In contrast, a Gallup poll in the US last year found that only 40 per cent of Americans opposed pre-marital sex and a 2001 Eurobarometer poll of young people across Europe found that nearly nine out of 10 approved of sex outside of marriage. -- AFP

Source: www.foreignpress.ge
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