In this step-by-step instructional videotape, McLeod combines the aesthetics of “how to” television and the rhetoric of pop psychology self-help books in order to take a look at the performance of pleasure and female sexuality. In nine minutes, this single shot short provides its viewers with cheat sheets on how to fake intimacy with your partner and how to become an expert in pre (fake) orgasm facial expressions.

In 2000, How to Fake an Orgasm (whether you need to or not) won Best Comedy and Audience Choice Award at the PlanetOut Queer Short Movie Awards (San Francisco).