{"id":1283,"date":"2014-12-17T11:09:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T11:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonings.com\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2019-10-29T14:35:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:35:59","slug":"to-commemorate-my-first-visit-to-torture-garden-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=1283","title":{"rendered":"The science of desperate fumbling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mg22429991.800-1_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How Sexual Desire Works: The enigmatic urge by Frederick Toates (Cambridge University Press)
\nFuckology: Critical essays on John Money\u2019s diagnostic concepts by Lisa Downing, Iain Morland, Nikki Sullivan (University of Chicago Press)<\/p>\n

for New Scientist<\/a><\/p>\n

SEX. It\u2019s one of the few subjects about which we know everything and nothing: a paradox facing all who study it scientifically. Sex doesn\u2019t have to be private, but most sex acts are, so even when shame is put aside, it\u2019s a tricky thing to study. How do you make a science out of more or less desperate fumbling?<\/p>\n

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To judge by an exhibition on sexology, the first show at a newly refurbished Wellcome Collection in London, researchers were more upbeat in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Take Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish radical who collected books, documents and artefacts on sexual behaviour, charted his proclivities in coloured inks, and fought discrimination against homosexuals. His\u00a0Institute of Sexology<\/i>, which was ransacked by the Nazis in 1933,\u00a0gives the name to the<\/i>\u00a0Wellcome show.<\/p>\n

Then there is Alfred Kinsey, who brought taxonomic skills gained studying gall wasps to the complexities of human sexual behaviour. And in the 1960s and 70s, William Masters and Virginia Johnson observed the sexual responses of anyone for whom they could get ethical approval.<\/p>\n

One of the strongest elements of the show looks at Marie Stopes, who was a vigorous advocate of contraception and was opposed to sexual shame.<\/p>\n

Today, the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, set up in 1990, is one of the few globally to gather the broad information that would have fascinated Stopes. Most of today\u2019s cash funds brain-imaging studies or \u201cperformance\u201d drugs.<\/p>\n

Leaving Wellcome\u2019s quiet, informative show, you would be forgiven for thinking its unblushing researchers have gifted us a profounder understanding of ourselves. On reflection, however, it\u2019s hard to say what their work adds up to.<\/p>\n

Is sexology a science, or a series of well-intentioned, evidence-based campaigns? Maybe labelling this messy field as science is helpful, securing funding in an age of austerity. For it is the absence of understanding of our needs and desires that matters, showing up over time in illegal abortions, gay-bashing, sexually transmitted diseases and more.<\/p>\n

How Sexual Desire Works<\/i>\u00a0is psychologist Frederick Toates\u2019s stab at a proper scientific account. He maps the mess as rigorously as he can, and the book is worth it for its bibliography alone. But sexual desire turns out to be as much about boredom, habit, disgust, rage, self-image, disappointment and the like as it is about desire. How to make a science out of this?<\/p>\n

John Money, a New Zealand-born psychologist who died in 2006, applied boundless energy to the problem, creating concepts, with their own neologisms, such as \u201ctroopbondance\u201d. In\u00a0Fuckology<\/i>\u00a0(another of his), Lisa Downing and co-authors capture his story ably.<\/p>\n

Money was interested in gender identity, and the possibilities for gender reassignment. Depending on what you read, he either tried to eradicate \u201cman\u201d and \u201cwoman\u201d as categories, or to link sexuality and gender with a scalpel. After a botched circumcision, David Reimer had gender reassignment surgery at age 2, on Money\u2019s recommendation. His miserable life and suicide in 2004 defined the psychologist\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

The authors are ironic about Money\u2019s approach to his work: \u201cTo admit the potential of being wrong, or to settle for the productive tension of ambiguity, is not a feature of Money\u2019s rhetorical range\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But Money is in good company. Sexology lures big personalities: Sigmund Freud was its founder, after all. Have these strong egos bequeathed us a science? It\u2019s hard to say. Sex, when push comes to shove, is not for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n

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How Sexual Desire Works: The enigmatic urge by Frederick Toates (Cambridge University Press) Fuckology: Critical essays on John Money\u2019s diagnostic concepts by Lisa Downing, Iain Morland, Nikki Sullivan (University of Chicago Press) for New Scientist SEX. It\u2019s one of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[619,78],"tags":[315,232,264,539,325],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-museums","category-reviews-and-opinion","tag-exhibition","tag-new-scientist","tag-sex","tag-sexology","tag-wellcome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2939,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/2939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}