INTERESTING: Surprising Sex Facts
Meet the pioneers of human sexuality research: Dr. Katherine Davis, Dr. Clelia Duel Mosher and Dr. Robert Latou Dickinson.
A lot of research on human sexuality predates A. Kinsey (PhotoXpress)
Dr. Katherine Davis
In the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Katherine Davis was working as a criminologist at one of the correctional facilities in New York and also a social reformer. Research of sexuality was not the main focus of her career, but in 1929 she nevertheless published results of her research, which included 2,200 educated women. A surprising discovery made in this research was that a surprising 71.8 per cent of these women claimed that abortion should be legalized. While Davis did only have women’s opinions to work with, compared to today’s research results, there now are less women who support abortion. Also, men are bigger pro-choice supporters than women. The changes in results are of course a reflection of social changes. Davis’ questionnaire also included questions on masturbation, frequency of sexual desires, homosexual experiences, contraception, frequency of sexual intercourse and extramarital sex.
Dr. Clelia Duel Mosher has proven that too tight corsets lead to breathing difficulties and cause menstrual pain (PhotoXpress)
A fascinating doctor who introduced fresh ideas
Dr. Clelia Duel Mosher was most likely the first to conduct research on female sexuality in as early as 1892. The research continued till 1920, but all findings were to be more her personal insights than anything else. In 1973, decades after her death, her work was discovered by Carl Degler. Her discoveries offered a very intriguing insight into the female sexuality in the Victorian era, since they were contradictory to the norms of the day. Most women were recorded to immensely enjoy sexuality and have a strong libido. Mosher was also much respected in the field of menstruation research. She proved that tight corsets, bad nutrition and social norms dictating that the woman has to be weak and fragile cause breathing difficulties and menstrual pains. She invented breathing exercises, which still carry her name, and advised women to also be physically active during their period.
Robert L. Dickinson's research was one of the bases for A. Kinsey's work.
The doctor that inspired Kinsey
Dr. Robert Latou Dickinson was a gynecologist and researcher, who was active in the early 20th century. He did research on sexuality of married couples and on private sexual stories of his female patients. He was the first to suggest vibrators to women. In 1933 he published a book titled Human Sex Anatomy, which had illustrations of sexual positions. He was one of the first American doctors to perform artificial insemination. To help with discovering the reasons for infertility, he observed female responses to masturbation. In his research that included a thousand married women he discovered that women mostly complain about not being able to reach an orgasm and that the reasons were not of a physical nature, i.e. they were psychical. He tried to help women find pleasure in sex and to orgasm. His research on female responses to sexual stimulation became extremely widespread. Among other things, Dr. Dickinson also spent time learning about external and internal parts of the genitalia, pelvic problems, extreme sexual behavior, abstinence and he also studied the changes of sexual experiences from childhood to maturity.
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