"....
It seems to me that heterosexuals have come a long way since
1979. The media’s ubiquitous coverage of sex and sex research—as well as the
genesis and population explosion of TV, radio, and newspaper sex advisors—have
chipped away at the taboos that kept couples from talking openly with each
other about the sex they were having. Bit by bit, sex research has unraveled
the hows, whys, why-nots, and how-betters of arousal and orgasm. The more the
researchers and the sexperts and the reporters talked about sex, the easier it
became for everyone else to. As communication eases and knowledge grows,
inhibitions dissolve and confidence takes root.
Sadly, the main thing people recall about Homosexuality in
Perspective, if they recall anything at all, is that Masters and Johnson spent
the second half of the book touting a therapy for helping homosexuals convert
to heterosexuality. The team went out of their way to assure readers that they
screened clients carefully, accepting only those who had turned to
homosexuality after a traumatic experience with heterosexuality (rape or abuse,
for instance). They insisted that no gay man or woman who came to them for
therapy was ever pressured or encouraged to pursue heterosexuality. However, as
one critic pointed out, many should probably have been encouraged not to pursue
it.
But let’s give Masters and Johnson their due. And while
we’re at it, Alfred Kinsey and Robert Latou Dickinson and Old Dad and everyone
else in these pages. The laboratory study of sex has never been an easy, safe,
or well-paid undertaking. Study by study, the gains may seem small and
occasionally silly, but the aggregation of all that has been learned, the
lurching tango of academe and popular culture, has led us to a happier place.
Hats and pants off to you all...."
(Mary Roach, 'Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex')
Illustration from Pixar's 'The Ancient Book of Sex and Science.'
