No blushing allowed

Never mind that she’s more grandmother than grande dame: Sue Johanson can talk dirty with the best of them. During her weekly television show --”Talk Sex with Sue Johanson,” now completing its second season on the Oxygen network -- the registered nurse and “70-ish” mother of three doles out bedroom tips with such poker-faced candor she might as well be serving up cooking counsel.

Attribute her clinical frankness to three decades as a sex guru: In 1970 Johanson founded a birth control clinic at a high school in her native Toronto, and in 1984 she launched a popular Canadian radio show that was soon picked up for cable TV. Nowadays Johanson, recently appointed to the prestigious Order of Canada, talks sex on television, in bookstores and at colleges across the country. Her third book -- aptly titled “Sex, Sex, and More Sex” -- was published by HarperCollins this month.

Your show has become increasingly popular. Why do you think people are so comfortable talking sex with you?

Because I can’t see them, so if they’re embarrassed I don’t know about it. Because I’m older, and therefore I’m seen as safe -- as compared to somebody who is younger and gorgeous, with long blond hair and big boobs. And because I’m a grandmother, with wrinkles and turkey neck. Because I talk medical terminology combined with “slanguage” -- street language.

When it comes to sex, where do you think most people get their information?

Misinformation from their friends, starting when they were teenagers and heard that, say, you couldn’t get pregnant if you had sex standing up.

Are there any recurring questions you confront on your show?

For males, “How do I make my penis larger?” And for females, “How do I get an orgasm with my partner?”

Do you find that men or women are more anxious about sex?

I would say men are more anxious -- isn’t that interesting? Because women talk amongst themselves, and they share information. Women are more likely to go to a doctor and ask. Women are more likely to go on the Internet and look things up. Men go on the Internet and hit the porn button.

You regularly field explicit questions that range from the colorful to the bizarre -- and yet you never flinch. Have you ever wanted to?

I do have to sit on my lip when I get a call from either males or females who are having an extramarital affair. I get indignant and I have to cool that.

When was the last time you blushed?

Oh, it’s been a long time! I think it was probably 25 years ago. I’ve been in the business now for 30 years, answering questions from kids in schools. And I think the first time I blushed was the first time I got a question about anal sex -- from a sixth-grader.

What did your own sex education consist of?

Diddly squat! I was a nurse, and going through training we were told that condoms had to have holes punched in them, to give sperm a fighting chance! It was a Catholic hospital, so we were taught nothing. I learned the rhythm method of birth control -- and that was it.

What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

I wish I had more of that wonderful stuff called chutzpah -- I’m sure you have that word in Los Angeles. Nowadays, because women have chutzpah, because they have given themselves permission to masturbate, they have learned what works for them and they are now more comfortable sharing that information with their sex partner. Whereas before, we were nice girls and we weren’t supposed to know.

You have a new book out -- it’s your third?

It’s actually a revision of one that I had published before, but it needed updating: about Viagra, about low sex drive in men and in women, about the return of syphilis -- that kind of thing.

What distinguishes your book from the barrage of sex tips served up by women’s magazines or self-help publications?

I’m not telling you how to be glamorous. I’m not telling you how to be sexy. I’m not telling you how to seduce your lover, or be the last of the red-hot lovers. It’s primarily information, although there is a segment on how to spice up your love life.

You’re often recognized in public. Have there been any embarrassing fan encounters?

It was never embarrassing, but it was fun: I was in the lineup at a grocery store, and a mature woman came up to me and said that she had wanted to buy a vibrator but she was too embarrassed; she was afraid that if she died, the kids would go through her drawers and find the vibrator. So she told the kids this, and they all went out together to buy vibrators! I can just see this whole bunch of women herding into a sex store to buy vibrators!

If you could offer just one bit of sex advice, what would it be?

Know what you’re doing. Think ahead. Plan ahead. Never let sex just happen. Always practice safer sex. And enjoy!