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The Machines of Sex Research

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The Machines of Sex Research

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology ((BRIEFSHIST))

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Abstract

The histories of gender, sexuality, and technology in the twentieth century link together in the context of human sex research. The development and use of specific machines in sex research began in 1896 and continues through the present. A relationship exists between the type of machines scientists invented, the historical context in which scientists operated, and the type of research that they published. This chapter describes the theoretical background for the book as a whole, overviews its contents chapter by chapter, and outlines the history of machines used in sex research from 1896 through the mid-1950s. The theoretical background combines spatial, gender, sexuality, and technology theories. The overview describes the following chapters: Chap. 2, which focuses on the development of the sex research laboratory, the penile strain gauge, and the rise and fall of aversion therapy; Chap. 3, which centers on the work of William Masters and Virginia Johnson on singles and couples using a penis-camera, published as Human Sexual Response (1966); Chap. 4, which describes the development of machines specifically for sex research on women, such as the vaginal photoplethysmograph and the labial thermistor; and the conclusion, which brings the narrative up to the present. The history of machine-based sex research from 1896 through the mid-1950s includes discussion of Martin Mendelsohn, John B. Watson, Alfred Kinsey, and Wilhelm Reich.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Michel Foucault framed his ideas regarding how to approach apparatus historically slightly differently: “What I’m trying to pick out with this term [apparatus] is, firstly, a thoroughly heterogenous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions—in short the said as much as the unsaid. Such are the elements of the apparatus. The apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements… The apparatus is thus always inscribed in a play of power, but it is also always linked to certain coordinates of knowledge which issue from it but, to an equal degree, condition it” (Foucault 1980, pp. 194–196).

  2. 2.

    Watson alluded to his findings in his use of machines for private sex research in a footnote to his 1913 article: “The whole area involved in sex function embraces a much wider zone than that of the sex organs proper. The erogenous areas are in infancy widely distributed throughout the body surfaces. Only gradually does the sex organ come to be looked upon as the focus of sex experience. Even in the case of most adults certain of these primitive zones remain functional, as, for example, the nipples, etc. The receptors lying in such areas are stimulated by the reflex motor processes initiated by the primary stimulus (i.e., the object under observation)” (Watson 1913, p. 427).

  3. 3.

    A contemporary anonymous reviewer wrote of the English translation of The Heart Rate: “The authors have investigated the many factors which influence heart rate, especially the results of emotion, exercise, hot and cold food and the varying conditions of sleep. Particularly instructive are their observations on the morning toilet which in several normal controls raised the pulse rate above 110. The many excellent trackings in the book record the effects of those homely and intimate events of daily life which have escaped scientific study in normal people” (Du B 1933, pp. 579–580).

  4. 4.

    They concluded that men and women with heart conditions should avoid having orgasmic sex, but realized that cautioning people against having sex was “hopeless,” as having unmet sexual needs could be just as much of a strain on the heart as having sex: “Because to forbid coitus is a hopeless start. The physician is probably stronger than Bacchus, but weaker than Venus. Moreover, this is also rejected by well-known authors, because unmet sexuality leads to heightened excitation of the heart—for the heart patients, that should be more harmful than coitus, as one says. Further reason to follow our instructions!” [Denn das coitus verbieten, ist ein hoffnungsloses Beginnin. Der Ärzt ist wohl stärker als Bacchus, aber schwächer als Venus. Au Berdem wird dieses auch von namhaften Autoren abgelehnt, weil unbefriedigte sexualität zu Erregungszustanden des Herzens fürht, die für den Herzkranken—wie man sagt—noch schädlicher sein sollen als der Coitus. Folgen Sie daher unseren Beobachtungen weiter!] (Klumbies and Kleinsorge 1950a, p. 957).

  5. 5.

    Roscoe G. Bartlett later served ten terms as a member of the United States Congress, representing a district in western Maryland from 1993 until 2013 (Maryland State Archives 2013).

  6. 6.

    For example, the Woody Allen film Sleeper (1973) prominently features a machine called an Orgasmatron, which Diane Keaton’s character Luna Schlosser keeps in her living room. When Luna and Miles Monroe (Erno Windt) want to have sex, they step into the white, tubular machine, it whirrs for a few seconds, and they step out of it, still clothed but looking slightly disheveled.

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  1. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Caroline-Herschel-Str. 14, 64293, Darmstadt, Germany

    Donna J. Drucker

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Drucker, D.J. (2014). The Machines of Sex Research. In: The Machines of Sex Research. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7064-5_1

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