(CNN) — While women’s desire is nothing new and certainly not a trend, 2024 has seen the female sex drive take the wheel in popular culture.
It feels apt that the year will close — culturally speaking, at least — with the release of “Babygirl.” The movie, out on Christmas Day in the UK (January 10 in the US), stars Nicole Kidman as a high-powered businesswoman who becomes sexually submissive to one of her interns.
“It’s told by a woman, through her gaze,” said Kidman at a press conference during the Venice Film Festival screening in August. “That’s, to me, what made it so unique … and freeing.”
“Babygirl” is directed by the Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn, who at the same press conference said that she hoped the movie would address “the huge orgasm gap” that exists between men and women.
While there have been plenty of expressions of female sexuality throughout history — from the banned books of late Irish novelist Edna O’Brien to Jane …