The 1960s of the last century were a revulsive era, there is no doubt about it. Rebellious as rarely before, the masses (particularly the young) opposed almost everything that took the form of an obligation imposed by the State or its corporate partners. One of their «trademarks» was the work of the sexologist couple Masters and Johnson, clear guides to the human sexual response.
Hippieism, the rock music of those times (now far removed from its early manifestations, such as Elvis Presley or Bill Haley, and launched into the fiercest experimentation), hallucinogenic drugs, the rejection of the Vietnam War, the danger of the «Cold War,» the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and other revulsive events, formed a «before and after» panorama.
By the way, sexual behaviors were not left out, and they had their own revolution. In addition to the enormous relaxation of love habits that promoted youth movements, the popularization of the contraceptive pill was added. Created in 1956 and 10 years later it had several million consumers throughout America.
Every revolution has its guides
The couple William Masters and virginia johnson have undoubtedly been the most popular sexologists of the last century, due to their research on the human sexual response. His books were Bestsellers and had a visibility comparable to that of Rock stars. And a similar ability to shock the establishment.
One of her main findings from this study was the discovery of the fundamental role of the clitoris in the female orgasm. Until then, the Freudian idea of the "vaginal orgasm" predominated as the ideal of orgasm. Research by Masters and Johnson, the gurus of a revolution at its height, showed that vaginal stimulation was not very relevant to the female orgasm.
That is how they «brought value to» an organ that had been discovered by the anatomist and surgeon Mateo Renaldo Colombo in 16th-century Italy. That earned him inquisitorial persecution, because he said that this appendage had no other use than to provoke pleasure.
Actually, their «discovery,» for lack of a better word, is also attributed to two other anatomists of the era. And a historian contemporary to these scientists states that the clitoris has actually been known since the 2nd century.
Anyway, they were William Masters and virginia johnson who gave it popularity, using the already very massive media of the time. Another of his contributions was being the parents of the sexual therapies and sexological counseling as we know them today. That is why they are considered «the gurus of the sexual revolution»
«The Human Sexual Response»
Such was the title of the book that changed the vision of sex in the West. And since they never sat still, already at an advanced age (in 1994) they published another volume that 28 years after the first one gave it another approach. «Heterosexuality», giving his work a perspective from a more «affective» plane and contemplating emotions. Something very different from the heavily physiological approach of his most famous work.
In the main, the Masters and Johnson model of sexual therapy divided the human sexual response into 4 major phases: arousal phase, plateau phase, orgasmic phase, and resolution phase. They differed with the method of Alfred Kinsey, the father of sex research. This scientist, in the 40s and 50s of the last century, published reports on human sexual behavior, based only on interviews he did with dozens of people.
Masters and Johnson did something else entirely. To the scandal of many, this couple of gurus of the sexual revolution (she a psychologist, the gynecologist) went much further: they took notes on the reactions of the volunteers who agreed to be analyzed in the middle of the sexual act. They recorded the times. Electrodes were attached to pairs of lovers to better monitor them while they had intercourse in a laboratory. They used electrocardiographs, vibrators, cameras, etc.
Through these methods (which earned them the nickname of perverts, voyeurs and worse) and the conclusions they drew, Masters and Johnson were a pivotal point in research on sex and its perception in the Western world.
THE LEGACY
In addition to their best-known work, «Human Sexual Response» (1966), these gurus of the sexual revolution published «Human Sexual Inadequacy» (1970), «The Pleasure Bond» (1975), and the aforementioned «Heterosexuality» (1994). All were foundational works of sexology and major bestsellers.
«I simply want to answer a question: What happens in the body during sex?»said Virginia Johnson. They answered that and also they demolished myths, educated and improved the sexual life of people, against all the prejudices of the era. Not just because of a moral taboo: the scientific community did not consider sex a very valid or interesting object of study, until they arrived. As it was well said, «they took sex out of the bedroom and put it into the laboratory.».
Today, when almost all prejudices have fallen and both independent escorts Since women of all walks of life give and receive sexual pleasure without major problems, it's good to remember those who did a lot to make it possible.
William Masters passed away in 2001, at the age of 85, and virginia johnson in 2013, with 88.