Silicone 101The study of sexual pleasure is full of controversy and injustice. It has only recently been explored through multiple perspectives and attitudes.
This blog aims to explore ideas and attitudes towards pleasure. I feel exploring this past is a very good way to demonstrate why we at Playing With Pleasure feel so strongly about providing all people and fetishes with toys they can identify with and love.
Sexual Pleasure’s Infancy
Sexology was in its infancy and largely explored with negative attitudes by predominantly male psychologists. Think of Dr. Sigmund Freud, the famous psycho-analytical psychologist. A large critique of Dr. Freud’s work surrounded his fixation (pun intended) on the phallus and ‘masculine’ sexuality.
Dr. Sigmund Freud
Dr. Freud (1856-1939) gave birth to the controversial theories of penis envy, castration anxiety, and the idea that hysteria stemmed from repressed sexual desire. His sexual theories were documents in a collection of essays “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” in 1949.
Dr. Freud had a cult-following that felt certain sex revolved about the phallus. Freud’s writings assume humans were slaves, bound to their respective sex organs.
According to Dr. Freud, as children, we become aware of our sex organs (or lack of) and develop strong feelings towards one or both parents.
Penis Envy
Penis Envy is when a daughter feels screwed out of life because her mother did not provide her with a penis and therefore holds resent towards her mother.
Castration Anxiety
Castration Anxiety is when a male is born, with a penis (the privileged of the two). However, this powerful penis creates great anxiety. This anxiety is produced by the fear of punishment (castration). Freud believed young boys were sexually attracted to their mothers (Oedipus Complex) and asserted that these incestuous fantasies would anger their mother’s partner. For this reason, males live in an anxious state, as their fathers (their sexual rival) may punish these fantasies by harming their penis.
Hysteria
Up until the 1980s, the term Hysteria was a physical ailment rather than the emotion-based definition we have today. The word Hysteria stems from the Greek word for uterus “hystera”. Ancient Greeks believed the disorder was caused by a ‘wandering uterus’. Basically the belief was that the uterus was able to migrate and cause other organs distress, resulting in various illnesses.
The disorder encompassed anything unexplainable regarding women: emotional extremity, excessive sexuality, pain, convulsions, and cramps. Conveniently, anything which men did not want to deal with or could not explain.
Many theories later, Hysteria became a medical condition of the mind. Freud believed Hysteria to be a psychosis resulting from repressed sexual fantasies in women and/or distress caused by their lack of penis. Freud suggested sexual therapy via marriage: you gain a husband and therefore a vicarious penis. Women were not encouraged to explore sex outside of marriage, therefore if marriage wasn’t realistic, psychoanalysts often “massaged” their clients to release this inner distress.
As you can imagine, these theories grew from misogynistic ideals and proved to be reflective of the period’s attitudes towards women. Luckily, since then, gender roles and attitudes towards sexuality grew less rigid.
The Development of Sexual Fluidity
Dr. Alfred Kinsey
Dr. Alfred Charles Kinsey (1894 – 1956) played a large part in shaping the sexual identities we now embrace. Kinsey was an American biologist turned sexologist who published very controversial books: “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” (1948) and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)”. These books became known as “The Kinsey Report”. They were described as liberating by some but sparked outrage in the 1940s and 50s as they shattered the sexual status quo.
Kinsey’s Scale
Alfred Kinsey introduced a scale dubbed “The Kinsey Scale”. It was created based on various sociological studies and interviews pertaining to individuals’ sexual histories. Through this approach, Kinsey explored the idea of personal sexualities rather than a pre-determined physically-based sexuality. Arguably the most controversial aspect of The Kinsey Report in its time was its assertion that the majority of people are at least a little bit homosexual.
This approach was sociological in nature and it only examined present data (real sexual histories up to that time) meaning it couldn’t give the answer of why or predict future preferences.
Klein’s Sexuality Grid
The “Klein’s Sexuality Grid” built upon Kinsey’s model. Created by Dr. Fritz Klein who found only exploring sexual histories, as Kinsey was, to be limiting. Klein asserted that it was important to also capture the present (the most recent 12 months), the past (up to 12 months ago), and the ideal preferences.
Dr. Klien’s model highlighted the potential to shift sexual preferences throughout one’s life. These scales tore into the idea of the Freudian view that sexuality is rooted in biology.
Sexual Paradigm Shift
Masters and Johnson
Fast forward to the 1950s and we had another massive breakthrough via a team of very ambitious researchers: Masters and Johnson.
They conducted studies designed to unravel the mystery of human sexuality, and even developed the very controversial dildo camera! This plexiglass camera was inserted into the vaginal opening during masturbation to further examine the sexual process. After watching hundreds of couples and logging 10,000+ orgasms they developed the Human Sexual Response Cycle and also discovered the large role the clitoris plays in sexual pleasure. Before the dildo cam was invented, no one assumed the external portion of the clitoris would be the tip of the iceberg. They published their studies in 1966’s “Human Sexual Response”.
The Human Sexual Response Cycle
As demonstrated, the cycle has 4 phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. These cycles showed that men and women are fundamentally similar but differed in their reactions (intensity and duration in each cycle).
Their theory is critiqued for being too general and potentially inaccurate for individuals. It didn’t quite account for the more complex parameters of female sexuality such as external and penetrative clitoral orgasm.
The Sexual Revolution
A decade later marked the beginning of the sexual revolution (1960-1980s). The status quo began to shift from procreation and sustainability to personal satisfaction and sexual freedom. Traditional values were shifted and less focused on maintaining monogamous, heterosexual relationships. The controversial birth control pill hitting the market signified new liberty for women: sex was no longer linked to their bodies via childbirth.
With the addition of family planning, these new ideals brought forth the framework for the ideals we hold now: an acceptance of the human body, sexuality, and sexual acts in their many forms.
The next time you look at a sex toy I hope you acknowledge and internalize this amazing history of pleasure as we have. I hope you appreciate the freedom to ride, suck, or wear whatever you damn well please!
References
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-quackery/history-hysteria
https://kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/kinsey-scale.php
https://www.americaninstituteofbisexuality.org/thekleingrid
https://kinseyinstitute.org/collections/archival/masters-and-johnson.php
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-and-sexual-revolution/
