“At 90, still talking about sex from morning ’til night,” says Dr. Ruth Westheimer in a new trailer for “Ask Dr. Ruth.” The trailblazer launched her media career in the early ’80s, when she says “people did not talk about sexuality.” Faced with a list of words she couldn’t say on the radio and television, the sex therapist and educator said them anyway, and sparked a cultural explosion.
Set to make its world premiere at Sundance this month, “Ask Dr. Ruth” sees the famed doctor and others reflecting on the mark she’s made on the world. “Before I started to do television, the most important thing for me was education,” Dr. Ruth recalls. “While I was studying, I was a single mother. I got a position at Planned Parenthood and loved it. I never compromised — even when it was not popular,” she says, referring to vocal critics who tried to censor her.
The Hulu documentary also explores Dr. Ruth’s personal history: she was a young child living in Frankfurt when the Nazis came to power. As a German Jewish refugee in the U.S., Ruth had “a sensitivity for the people regarded as subhuman,” she explains. The trailer briefly mentions her involvement raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.
“Ask Dr. Ruth” opens in theaters later this year.
