THORNHILL, Ontario — Pioneering Canadian sex educator and broadcaster Sue Johanson has passed away at the age of 93. According to a CBC report, Johanson died in an assisted living facility in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill. The Toronto native was the host of the “Sunday Night Sex Show” on Canadian radio and television, and later the U.S. spinoff “Talk Sex With Sue Johanson.”
The former nurse began her career as a sex educator when she opened a birth control clinic in her daughter Jane’s high school in the 1970s. In a 2007 ABC News profile of Johanson’s U.S. success, psychotherapist and fellow call-in advice show host Jen Berman described what she called the “titillating” novelty of the elderly Johanson talking about topics like anal sex.
“Sue is approachable,” Berman reflected. “She’s like your mom or your grandmother that you can go have tea or coffee with.” A frequent guest on U.S. talk shows hosted by David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, Johanson was famous for her blunt yet humorous sex advice. “What people don’t realize is that penis size does not matter, because the top two-thirds of the vagina has no nerve endings. There’s nobody home up there,” she told Letterman during a “Late Show” appearance.
Johanson’s daughter, Jane Johanson, said, “She really cared, earnestly and honestly. It wasn’t pretend, she wasn’t putting on an act. She really cared. If people were uncomfortable with something, she tried to put them at ease. If she felt that it was a very sensitive topic that needed to be dealt with carefully and gently, she would sometimes put a call off until the end of the show and talk to people privately.”
