Book summary “Human sexuality”: summary

Introduction

You often encounter fragmented information about human sexuality in daily life, ranging from shifting social norms to confusing clinical definitions. Navigating this vast landscape requires an organized framework that connects biology, history, and behavioral science.

Human sexuality encompasses a vast, multi-dimensional spectrum of biological, psychological, cultural, and historical phenomena that require comprehensive scientific study and empathetic clinical understanding.

Bonnie Bullough and contributors assemble an encyclopedic overview of sexual science, tracing research methodologies, historical milestones, and modern clinical practices. You will examine the foundational data of sexology alongside the evolution of social rules and therapeutic interventions.

Consider these questions as you read:

• How do researchers measure sexual behavior across diverse populations?
• What historical forces shaped modern legal and cultural norms?
• How did key pioneers transform clinical treatments for sexual disorders?

1. Research Foundations and Methodology

Investigating human sexuality requires specialized research methodologies, specialized library collections, professional sexology organizations, and benchmark historical data.

When initial library searches for sexuality topics yield no results due to strict subject headings, you must use alternative synonyms and broader or narrower terms. Library catalog subject headings are often inconsistent. You need to brainstorm alternative phrasings and related concepts.

Searching for courtship might yield little, but expanding the search to falling in place, dating, singles scene, or premarital sex will produce results.

• Write down alternative phrases and synonyms for the topic.
• Search under related topics such as abortion and birth control for teenage pregnancy.
• Start with the narrowest terms and broaden the search if needed.
• Use references in key sources as pointers to other sources through citation pearl growing.

Library Search Techniques

Benchmark data on human sexual behavior and anatomy are provided by historical comprehensive surveys and physiological studies. Alfred C. Kinsey and colleagues published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953. Kinsey provided benchmark data on sexual behavior frequencies, while Masters and Johnson documented human sexual response and inadequacy in their 1966 work Human Sexual Response. Subsequent surveys by Hite, Playboy, Redbook, and Janus updated these findings.

Specialized bibliographies compiled by research institutes and scholars serve as critical pointers for locating books, articles, and erotica on sexuality. The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction offers several hundred topic bibliographies available for purchase.

• Request the complete list of bibliographies from the Kinsey Institute.
• Request the SIECUS publications catalog for topic bibliographies including HIV and AIDS.

Classic Sex Surveys

Three major professional associations dominate the field of sexology, focusing on research, professional training, and sex education respectively. These organizations hold conferences, publish core journals, and offer networking and accreditation for professionals and researchers working in human sexuality. The Society for the Scientific Study of Sex was founded in 1957 and focuses primarily on research, boasting 1,000 members. The Sex Information and Education Council of the United States began in 1964 and has 3,600 members. The American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists started in 1967 and maintains 3,100 members.

• Join SSSS for a research-focused professional association.
• Join AASECT for training and accreditation as a sex educator, counselor, or therapist.
• Join SIECUS to support sex education in all contexts.

Researchers with financial resources can hire specialized information services to conduct manual and computer searches, verify facts, and contact experts. Known as information on demand or fee-based services, these entities handle comprehensive literature searches and obtain hard-to-find books and articles. Directories such as the Information Industry Directory list providers of fee-based information services.

• Check the Information Industry Directory under information on demand.
• Consult the Directory of Fee Based Information Services for providers who compile bibliographies and verify facts.

Professional Associations

Underground publications and little magazines provide reviews and advertisements for niche publications and organizations not listed in standard library directories. Periodicals and zines focused on alternative lifestyles, erotica, and minority sexualities often circulate outside mainstream indexes but offer vital primary insights. A list of gay, lesbian, and bisexual underground zines with titles like Holy Titclamps and Girl Jock was included in the newspaper Equal Time.

• Consult Factsheet Five for a comprehensive guide to underground zines and queer sections.
• Scan newsletters and little magazines for reviews of unindexed publications.

Specialized libraries holding extensive collections on sexuality, erotica, and gender studies serve as premier repositories for in-depth research. Institutions like the Kinsey Institute and university special collections maintain comprehensive holdings of books, archives, and newsletters dealing with sexual topics. The 1991 directory listed 22 libraries under topics beginning with sex. The Vern and Bonnie Bullough collection is housed at California State University, Northridge.

• Consult the Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers to locate specialized sex collections.
• Contact university libraries or archives with degree programs in sexuality to search thesis and research-paper holdings.

2. Historical Evolution of Sexual Norms

Societal rules governing abortion, adultery, aging, and reproduction have shifted dramatically across historical eras, legal frameworks, and cultural traditions.

Abortion practices date back to ancient times for family control. An Egyptian medical papyrus from 1550 B.C.E. described an early abortion technique. Civilizations utilized diverse methods like drugs, heavy weights, and cervical insertions.

In the 19th century, English and American common laws changed to criminalize abortion and surgical procedures. Physicians seeking to eliminate midwives often drove these restrictions. Connecticut enacted the first anti-abortion statute in 1821, outlawing abortions after quickening.

Mrs. Sherri Finkbine traveled to Sweden for a therapeutic abortion in the 1960s after taking thalidomide, highlighting the severe problems created by restrictive state abortion laws. Later, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade struck down state prohibitions against first-trimester abortions. Spontaneous abortions and induced abortions remain distinct clinical categories.

Adultery and Aging

The definition and social acceptance of adultery have evolved from ancient property-protecting laws applied primarily to women into modern concepts involving emotional and sexual exclusivity for both spouses. The Code of Hammurabi in Babylonia prohibited adultery around 1790 B.C.E. Historically, these laws protected the property rights of husbands and fathers.

Courtly love, the Protestant Reformation, and Victorian literature shifted marriage toward romantic love. Adultery then became a major threat to marital stability and divorce proceedings. Modern consensual alternatives include swinging and open marriage. Blumstein and Schwartz published a study in 1983 finding 15 percent of married couples and nearly 30 percent of cohabiting couples reported sexually open relationships.

Mature sexuality remains an active and vital part of life in middle and late age, defying the false public assumption that older individuals become asexual. Middle age spans the range from 40 to 60. Although physiological changes occur, such as a gradual decline in hormone levels, longer refractory periods for men, and menopause for women, the great majority of people over 50 remain sexually active. Regular sexual activity helps maintain the fitness of sexual tissues, following the principle of use it or lose it. Masters and Johnson published landmark work in 1966 providing reliable baseline data on sexual aging.

Religious Traditions

Organized religion in the Judaeo-Christian tradition has historically condemned homosexual behavior based on traditional biblical interpretations. Traditional teachings view homosexual acts as contrary to natural law or divine command. This creates severe spiritual dilemmas for gay individuals, especially those facing life-threatening illnesses like AIDS. Conversely, modern biblical scholarship emphasizes historical and cultural contexts, leading some mainstream Protestant churches and other groups to adopt policies of qualified or full acceptance.

3. Pioneers and Milestones in Sexology

Early researchers, therapists, and transgender pioneers established modern sexology by challenging taboos and developing clinical interventions.

Virginia Johnson and William Masters utilized a therapeutic team of one male and one female counselor. Johnson developed a specific touch-based technique to help couples reestablish physical intimacy without performance pressure. Masters and Johnson revolutionized sexual therapy by focusing on symptomatic treatment of sexual inadequacies rather than deep psychological issues.

In 1959, Masters and Johnson began treating couples for sexual inadequacy, later writing best-selling books like Human Sexual Response and Human Sexual Inadequacy for the medical community and popularizing their findings through magazines like Playboy and Redbook.

• Use nondemanding touching called sensate focus to reestablish the physical relationship of a couple.

Transgender History

Christine Jorgensen became a global media sensation in the 1950s, popularizing transsexualism and paving the way for surgical and hormonal sex reassignment. Jorgensen underwent initial surgeries in Denmark under Dr. Christian Hamburger, removing the testicles and penis, followed by hormone therapy and later a constructed vaginal canal using a skin graft.

Born George William Jorgensen, Jr. in New York City in 1926, she served in the U.S. Army, trained as a medical technician, traveled to Denmark for surgery, and upon returning to the United States became a famous stage personality while advocating for other transsexuals.

Research Journals

The scientific study of sexuality, or sexology, developed specialized academic journals slowly, with researchers frequently publishing in general disciplinary outlets due to academic prestige and audience size. Early journals like Jahrbuch für Sexuelle Zwischenstufen and Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft emerged in Germany before being terminated by the Nazi regime. Later, organizations like the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex founded dedicated publications like the Journal of Sex Research and the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

The Society for the Scientific Study of Sex was formed in 1957 and launched the Journal of Sex Research in 1965 as the first scholarly journal in the United States devoted exclusively to sexuality.

4. Kinsey Reports and Sexual Orientation

Alfred Kinsey revolutionized sex research by publishing comprehensive empirical data on human sexual behavior, challenging widespread societal myths. Kinsey shifted the focus from opinion-based clinical studies to large-scale empirical data collection, detailing the prevalence and frequency of six outlets to orgasm across various demographic factors.

Alfred Kinsey transformed the scientific study of sex through large-scale empirical interviews, demonstrating that human sexual behavior exists on a continuous scale.

Interview Methodology

Kinsey utilized a massive face-to-face interview methodology with standardized questions to gather deep sexual case histories while maintaining confidentiality. Without formal training, Kinsey became a master of empathetic, nonjudgmental interviewing using a 350-question format, conducting thousands of interviews himself and building a diverse taxonomic sample.

Between 1938 and 1956, over 17,000 total interviews were gathered, with approximately 8,000 conducted personally by Kinsey.

Kinsey published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953, both of which immediately became best-sellers despite severe public controversy. Over 250,000 copies sold for each of the two main Kinsey volumes.

The Kinsey Scale

Kinsey challenged the rigid binary categories of sexual orientation by demonstrating that human sexual behavior exists on a continuum. Finding that a significant percentage of individuals engaged in same-sex behavior, Kinsey developed a seven-point scale ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual to capture lifetime changes in behavior.

Kinsey found that a third of males and 13 percent of females reported at least one same-sex experience to the point of orgasm by age 45. Other specific findings documented:

• 10 percent of male respondents predominantly homosexual for at least three years between ages 16 and 55;
• 4 percent of white males exclusively homosexual.

The Kinsey Institute

The Institute for Sex Research was established to protect data confidentiality and eventually broadened its research scope to include biomedical and psychobiological issues. Founded in 1947 at Indiana University under President Herman B Wells, the Institute survived political and funding pressures, transitioning from pure data collection to expanded archives, public outreach, and AIDS-related behavioral studies.

When congressional pressure caused the Rockefeller Foundation to withdraw funding in 1954, the Institute relied on book royalties and private donations to continue its work. June Machover Reinisch was appointed as director in 1982.

The Kinsey Institute maintains vast archival collections and educational outreach programs to preserve global sexual history and demystify sex through research. The Institute houses extensive print items, films, art objects, and photographs accessible to qualified scholars, while also educating the public via syndicated columns and resource books.

The collections comprise extensive assets:

• 80,000+ print items in the collection;
• 7,800 films and videotapes;
• 25,000 photographs;
• 28,500 art objects and artifacts.

The Institute produced the internationally syndicated newspaper column 'The Kinsey Report,' answering over 2,900 questions over nine years.

5. Language, Law, and Love

Human sexual expression is mediated through distinct linguistic discourses, legal obscenity tests, script theories, and the evolution of romantic attachment.

Sexual Discourses

Sexual language is divided into multiple distinct discourses. Each discourse serves a specific context and is defined by what it excludes. Medico-scientific language aims for absolute neutrality to avoid sensationalism. Slang and taboo words rely on rich imagery drawn from war, animals, and food. Tim Healey in 1980 reported collecting 1,000 terms for the penis, 1,200 for the vulva, 800 for sexual intercourse, and 2,000 for a prostitute.

According to script theory, human sexual motivation and conduct are not driven by innate biological instincts alone. You accumulate sexual motivation and conduct through social learning and structured cultural scripts. Theorists John Gagnon and Simon assert that biological foundations set general capacities, while a sexual script provides the learned guidelines answering what to do, with whom, how often, and why.

Obscenity Laws

The legal regulation of sexual expression and obscenity in the United States relies on a complex three-part test. Under current legal standards established in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), a work is deemed obscene and unprotected by the First Amendment if the average person applying contemporary community standards finds it appeals to prurient interest. It must also depict specified sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, was acquitted of obscenity and child pornography charges for displaying Robert Mapplethorpe's photographic exhibition.

Legal reform regarding sexual behavior has long been shaped by the debate between enforcing traditional public morality and protecting private adult consensual acts from state intervention. Traditionalists like Lord Devlin argued that the criminal law must defend society's core moral code much like treason laws defend the state. The Wolfenden Report and legal philosopher H.L.A. Hart argued that private morality is not the business of the law. Adultery remained legally categorized as a crime in New York after legislative battles. Consensual homosexual conduct was eventually decriminalized through state constitutional court decisions.

Love and Script Theory

Human romantic love evolved as an epiphenomenon of sex to keep parents bonded long enough to raise infants through their unusually prolonged developmental dependency period. Because human babies are born at an earlier developmental stage to accommodate larger brains, infants require unconditional care. Nature co-opted the mother-infant bonding mechanism, endorphin chemistry, and the shift to frontal intercourse to tie male-female sexual attraction to lasting emotional attachment.

Lovemaps are idealized developmental templates residing in the brain and mind that depict an individual's preferred partner, love affair, and pattern of sexual activity. Formed through a combination of biological predispositions and childhood social input around the critical age of eight, lovemaps guide adult sexual orientation and partner preferences. When childhood development is disrupted, paraphilic distortions can occur, with Money listing 40-odd paraphilias.

10 Key Ideas

1. Investigating human sexuality requires specialized research methodologies, bibliographies, professional sexology organizations, and benchmark historical data.
2. Societal rules governing abortion, adultery, aging, and reproduction have shifted dramatically across historical eras, legal frameworks, and cultural traditions.
3. Organized religion in the Judaeo-Christian tradition has historically condemned homosexual behavior based on traditional biblical interpretations.
4. Early researchers, therapists, and transgender pioneers established modern sexology by challenging taboos and developing clinical interventions.
5. Christine Jorgensen became a global media sensation in the 1950s, popularizing transsexualism and paving the way for surgical and hormonal sex reassignment.
6. Alfred Kinsey transformed the scientific study of sex through large-scale empirical interviews, demonstrating that human sexual behavior exists on a continuous scale.
7. The Kinsey Institute maintains vast archival collections and educational outreach programs to preserve global sexual history and demystify sex through research.
8. Human sexual expression is mediated through distinct linguistic discourses, legal obscenity tests, script theories, and the evolution of romantic attachment.
9. The legal regulation of sexual expression and obscenity in the United States relies on a complex three-part test established in Miller v. California.
10. Lovemaps are idealized developmental templates residing in the brain and mind that depict an individual's preferred partner, love affair, and pattern of sexual activity.