The History of Women's Sexuality

Dr. Thomas Laquer, author of "Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology," is a distinguished history professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Laquer received his PhD from Princeton in 1971 and has since circulated various books and articles predominately on the history of sex. His latest endeavor was published by Zone Books in 2004 and was entitled, "Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation". Laquer is a popular speaker worldwide and is currently completing a book on the subject of death and memory.

In "Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology," the author compares the history of the view of the human body, especially of women, while furnishing the history of men's and women's differing sexual freedom, ideas about sex and gender differences, and how the escalation and downfall of sexual acceptability coincided with society's political reconstruction and reformation throughout time. Although human bodies have forever been concise, the expression or social ideal of feminine biology and sexuality has changed since the 18th century Enlightenment and repeatedly agreed with conventional political thought throughout history.

Laquer supports the article well with a number of sources. He chose to cite sources of varying publication dates, from years 1564 to 1984. Most of the scholars quoted are, however, male. In an article discussing the biology of women, one would expect to receive more input from the true experts on women's bodies, women themselves. The lack of variety of foundation suggests the article's subjectivity and may not be comfortable to all readers.

The piece is written in chronological order, offering ideologies that correspond with events pertaining to the subject. It begins in the late eighteenth century, explaining ideas of the time about views of the body and the female orgasm. Radical views of femininity caused political disruption, resulting in the desensitization of women's sexuality and especially the clitoris in relation to the female orgasm. It was believed that sexual pleasure did not need to take place to reproduce, and so accounts of female stimulation by the clitoris came to be known as "controversial if not manifestly stupid". The reader understands that before this sub-revolution, orgasms were explored and not considered taboo to discuss, like the subject became in time.

For thousands of years, the popular thought was that men and women shared similar, if not nearly identical reproductive organs. Intellectuals believed that women, along with men, possessed testes but that the feminine version was simply turned inside out, projecting inside of the body instead of outward. The female organ did not receive the name "vagina" for nearly two millennia! Both male and female organs were termed "orchis," while the female ovaries were called "testicles". It wasn't until 1797 that a detailed female skeleton was produced to illustrate its apparent dissimilarity. Science was advancing academically and the Reformation was underway socially.

As civilization approached the early 19th century, there was still an apparent confusion about the difference or lack of differentiation between men and women. Doctors and scholars began to form ideas, although false, about ovulation and femininity. A common suggestion of the time was, for women to avoid pregnancy, to have sex in the midst of their menstrual cycle, which was not proved until the 1930s to be their most fertile time. By 1800, the general view about sex was under attack.

"New ways of interpreting the body were Ð'... new ways of representing and indeed of constituting social realities." The question of biology and sexual pleasure fit well with the societal order at the time. Society was "shaken". "There can be no way of considering the body that does not involve at the same time a social dimension."

Points of sexuality were consistently referred to as heat.