Siddig: Answering Awkward Questions About Sex
3 min readIn a newsletter updating his fans on his activities and life, Alexander Siddig shared what happened when he had to explain a sexual toy to his son.
As every parent learns, kids can ask the darndest things and Siddig found that out after a trip to Soho in London. The actor found out just how observant his thirteen-year-old son Django was on the way back home from the area of town known for sex shops. “For years I’ve blithely taken my boy wherever I go when he comes to England from the coolest residence to the seediest part of town and he’s always been happily gliding in my wake,” said Siddig. “But this year he’s thirteen and I have completely forgotten how much more observant a thirteen-year-old is.”
“We went to Soho in London, one of my regular places; it’s full of editing suites and dubbing suites and all things film. I’ve been going there for years and so has Django. But this time, for the first time, he noticed the transvestites and the overtly gay scene. And I noticed that he noticed. For those of you who don’t know, Soho isn’t just a square mile in the middle of London where guys simply like to hang out and be all cuddly and stuff, that happens all over the world and Django wouldn’t be remotely interested or surprised. It’s jam packed full of sex shops and lap dancers hanging in doorways trying to tempt the unwary pedestrian (or perhaps the very wary and extremely willing pedestrian) upstairs for a little casual dancing and polite conversation over a cup of tea!”
The trouble began on the ride home. “The one and a quarter hour ride home at about 10:30 started off just like any other: fiddling around for some suitable music, Vampire Weekend or Elbow? and then the ‘settle down’ as the monotony of the freeway kicks in and all the passing lights become a blur,” explained Siddig. “I began to think about some dumb script I’ve just read and whether or not I’m grown up enough just to tell my agent that I’m simply not interested – or would I do my usual thing and come up with a million excuses why it would be hard for me to play this particular part at this time. … When Django said, ‘Daddy? Why would anyone need a dildo?'”
A bit at a loss as to how to answer, it got worse for Siddig. “Why would anyone need a dildo,” asked his son. “Surely it’s just a sad replacement for the real thing? Isn’t it just perverted?”
By now, Siddig must have begun to sweat as he tried to answer honestly. “Now I’m in real trouble because I don’t really think it is perverted and yet, I have no idea how to go about explaining this,” said Siddig. “Sure, he’s a young man of the world, he’s heard every swear word under the sun and if my common senses are in working order, he’s probably even had a peek at a naked woman and stuff on the internet at some point but dildos are a tricky philosophical concept for the most cosmopolitan of adults, let alone a kid!”
To find out what he said and how his son reacted, head to the link located here.
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