Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Boston Herald: Masters and Johnson sexual revolution

A blast from the past! For some reason, the Boston Herald thought today was the day to bring back the famous work William Masters and Virginia Johnson

From the Wikipedia article:
"... In the initial phase of Masters and Johnson's studies, from 1957 until 1965, they recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response based on direct observation of 382 women and 312 men in what they conservatively estimated to be "10,000 complete cycles of sexual response". Their findings, particularly on the nature of female sexual arousal (for example, describing the mechanisms of vaginal lubrication and debunking the earlier widely held notion that vaginal lubrication originated from the cervix) and orgasm (showing that the physiology of orgasmic response was identical whether stimulation was clitoral or vaginal, and, separately, proving that some women were capable of being multiorgasmic), dispelled many long-standing misconceptions.
They jointly wrote two classic texts in the field, Human Sexual Response and Human Sexual Inadequacy, published in 1966 and 1970, respectively. Both of these books were best-sellers and were translated into more than thirty languages. ..."

"The first reference to the pioneering Masters and Johnson book “Human Sexual Response” first appeared in the pages of the Herald in 1966.
It was a best-seller and the paper, as far as I can tell, didn’t dare touch the subject — in depth at least — until 1973.  ...
It was “Human Sexual Response” by William Masters and Virginia Johnson. It explained the mysteries of life we’re all too embarrassed to ask adults about. As a 7th and 8th grader, I was curious but conflicted. This book did more good than any Sex Education class we were all forced to take. ..."

From the Archives: Masters and Johnson sexual revolution



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