William H. Masters (1915–2001)

I admit to reading only two chapters of this classic account of sex research: Chapter 8, "The Uterus: Physiologic and Clinical Considerations," and Chapter 9, "The Female Orgasm." In a nutshell: "The primary requirement in objective identification of female orgasm is the knowledge that it is a total-body response with marked variation in reactive intensity and timing sequence." (That's what I was trying to say, honey!) An impressive blow-by-blow description of orgasmic response involving not only the reproductive organs, but the total-body musculature, breasts, skin, and cardiorespiratory systems is followed by a brief discussion of psychosocial factors, which the authors say will be covered in another book. It was interesting that Masters and Johnson think to point out that arousal of the male is necessary to achieving pregnancy, while no satisfaction of any sort is necessary on the part of the female. They also note that faking orgasm may be a woman's way of ensuring male excitement to ejaculation. They proceed to declare that their work establishes female orgasmic physiology, thus allowing "an undeniable opportunity to develop realistically her own sexual response levels." The authors make it clear that the female reproductive system is far more complex than the male and that a woman has a broader range of choices. It makes one wonder to what extent ancient woman may have made her own bed, so to speak, in order to gain cooperation for purposes of reproduction and protection. Scary! It is worth reminding that these two researchers observed sexual behavior in their research laboratory using human volunteers, a fact that was the subject of outrage in some corners of the religious community. Married to others at the outset of their research, Masters and Johnson divorced their respective spouses and married one another by the time of its completion.… (mer)