Masters and Johnson, the gurus of a sexual revolution.

The 60s of the last century were a revulsive time, there is no doubt about it. Rebellious as seldom, the masses (particularly the youth) opposed almost anything in the form of an obligation imposed by the state or its corporate partners. One of his "trademarks" was the work of the sexologist couple Masters and Johnson, clear guides to the human sexual response.

The hippies, the rock of those times (already far from its first manifestations, like Elvis Presley or Bill Haley and launched into the most ferocious experimentation), hallucinogenic drugs, rejection of the Vietnam War, the danger of the "cold war" , the assassination of John F. Kennedy and other revulsive events, configured a panorama of "before and after".

By the way, sexual behaviors were not left out, and they had their own revolution. To the enormous relaxation of the love customs that promoted the 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 y virginia johnson They 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 visibility comparable to rock stars. And a similar ability to shock the establishment.

One of his 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" prevailed as an ideal of orgasm. The research of Masters and Johnson, the gurus of a revolution in its heyday, showed that vaginal stimulation was not very relevant to female orgasm.

It was thus that they "valued" an organ that had been discovered by the anatomist and surgeon Mateo Renaldo Colón, in XNUMXth century Italy. That earned him the inquisitorial persecution, because he said that this appendage had no other use than to cause pleasure.

Actually, his "discovery", to call it somehow, is also attributed to him by two other anatomists of the time. And a contemporary historian of these scientists states that the clitoris has actually been known since the second century.

Anyway, they were William Masters y virginia johnson who gave it popularity, using the mass 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 view of sex in the West. And since they never stood still, at an advanced age (in 1994) they published another volume that, 28 years after the first, gave it a different focus. “heterosexuality”, giving his work a vision from a more "affective" plane and contemplating emotions. Something very different from the very physiological of his most famous work.

At its core, Masters and Johnson's model of sex 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 sexual 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 completely different. To the scandal of many, this couple of gurus of the sexual revolution (she a psychologist, the gynecologist) went much further: they took notes of the reactions of the volunteers who agreed to be analyzed in the middle of the sexual act. They recorded the times. Couples of lovers were given electrodes to better monitor them while they had sex in a laboratory. They used electrocardiographs, vibrators, cameras, etc.

Because of these methods (which earned them the nickname of perverts, voyeurs and worse) and because of the conclusions they drew, Masters and Johnson were a pivot in research on sex and its perception in the Western world.

THE LEGACY

In addition to their best-known work, "The Human Sexual Response" (1966), these gurus of the sexual revolution published "Human Sexual Incompatibility" (1970), "The Bond of Pleasure" (1975), and the aforementioned "Heterosexuality" (1994). All were fundamental works of sexology and great bestsellers.

“I just 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 people's sexual lives, all against the prejudices of the time. Not only because of a moral taboo: the scientific community did not consider sex as 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 in the laboratory."

Today, when almost all prejudices have fallen and both independent escorts as women of all professions give and receive sexual pleasure without major problems, it is good to remember those who did a lot to make it possible.

William Masters passed away in 2001, aged 85, and virginia johnson in 2013, with 88.