All you ever wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask
LESLIE KENNY USED TO SELL the wonderful world of Disney. Now she sells sex. The Harvard graduate wants everyone to talk openly about sex, and she is making fast progress.
Thirty-something Kenny has created an Internet site, Dotlove.com, which is a virtual encyclopedia of sex. The site attracts 3.2 million page hits per month, making Kenny not just a business whizz but also a media darling - you may have heard her discussing what goes on be-hind bedroom doors on both the BBC and RTHK. Last month, Kenny's holding company, DotMedia Studios, was able to secure US$1.7 million (HK$13.2 million) from the Singapore-based, Venture TDF. That comes on top of funds from two undisclosed financial backers and from advertising revenue.
Launched last May, the site is aimed at, in the main, Chinese people aged 18 to 26; taking a bilingual, no-nonsense approach to love, sex and relationships. 'People are so afraid to talk about sex here,' says Kenny. 'Sex education is not that extensive at school. I thought how sad that the only way people can learn about sex is from pornographic films.' Kenny worked for Disney as a television business development executive, pitching the 24-hour channel to satellite and cable operators around Asia. 'I love the Disney content,' she says. 'It has wonderful family values. You have Bambi about enduring friendship and Snow White about true love. But they [the viewers] wanted pornography. Despite the fact that people profess to love Disney, what they watch at home is something else.' Kenny waved goodbye to Bambi and said hello to Dr Sex, the outspoken Professor Ng Man-lun, sexologist at the University of Hong Kong. The qualified psychiatrist is a supporter of polygamy and in favour of scrapping underage sex laws. Kenny shares Professor Ng's view that you're never too young to learn and talk about sex.
'I think it is hard for local or ethnically Chinese to discuss the topic but I am more than happy to do it,' she says. 'It is important to discuss these issues because they will have an influence on what Chinese society will be like in 20 or 30 years. Young people growing up today are being taught how to think of themselves and their bodies largely by what they see in the media and by what their parents and elders teach them. Issues like HIV are just too important to be brushed aside.' Kenny is standing proud on the middle ground between the pornographic and biology-textbook approach to sex. Check out Dotlove.com's most popular page, 'Sex N Love' (used by men more than women) and you will find all the burning questions that have been bothering our young Asian minds.
'Why can't I get an erection when I am with my girlfriend? Will the first time hurt? Will my girlfriend get pregnant if the condom slips off?' 'They just want to be normal,' Kenny says. 'Fitting in, during your sexual development, is part of everyone's identity. We also get questions on relationships, like: Am I communicating with my girlfriend in the right way? Am I supposed to buy her flowers? How do I ask a girl out on a date? These questions are going to be the same in 20 years time.' Hong Kong and mainland Chinese account for 38 and 37 per cent of Dotlove.com's total hits respectively. Others come from Taiwan, Singapore and North America. Kenny says mainland Chinese are the most open about discussing sex and this summer, she is re-launching Dotlove.com with a match-making service and a sister site in the mainland.
During her visits to China (her Chinese grandfather, a doctor, used to head the 104th Army Hospital in Anhui Province), Kenny has found stores, very much like pharmacies, selling sex products as health aids and there was nothing sleazy about it. Kenny even suspects some of these shops are Government-run.