What do you think?
Rate this book
Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love
This critically acclaimed biography offers an unprecedented look at William Masters and Virginia Johnson, their pioneering studies on intimacy, and their lasting impact on the love lives of today's men and women.
411 pages, Audiobook
First published March 20, 2009
278 people are currently reading
3218 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 339 reviews
January 9, 2011
after reading masters of sex, i am totally charmed by virgina johnson. for whatever reason, i always thought she was a stiff old doc like bill masters. but i was wrong. some notes:
--seated on a leather lounge chair, a woman, naked except for a pillowcase over her head, rubbed the outside of her vulva with a long, plexiglas penis. attached to a small camera with a plate glass optical eye, this “motor powered phallus” could produce high-quality color-motion photographs. sensors fixed to various parts of the woman’s body recorded her heart rate, electrical impulses of her brain, and nearly every other kind of measurement conceivable. nearby sat researchers william h. masters and virginia johnson along with their staff, all clad in white cotton lab coats. when the woman slipped the dildo inside her vagina and climaxed, she allowed researchers a sustained, precise look at her flushed, contracting vagina. over the next few years this basic experiment would be repeated with hundreds of women. the findings proved explosive: the female orgasm in absolute physiological detail.
--a celebrated obstetrician and fertility specialist with a tenured position at washington university, bill masters began his sex research in 1955. during the next twenty-one months, he interviewed 118 female and 28 male sex workers in st. louis and other cities, meticulously recording their sexual and medical histories. he soon began observing the prostitutes with their clients. he stared on, stunned. unlike nearly every other MD in his field, masters made a crucial admittance: he knew next to nothing about female sexuality, or even, the most basic physiological facts of fucking itself.
--by 1956 masters had moved his studies into the controlled settings of a laboratory. with the help of a few bulky machines, he began his earliest inquiries into the female sexual response. however, the course of his research changed radically when a female participant asked him "what if I fake it?" masters blinked, said flatly, “i don’t know what you mean.” after months of watching prostitutes, it had simply never occurred to him. the woman tried explain: “that’s what I do for a living, i fake orgasms to hurry up and get the man to come...” he remained dumbfounded, and within months, hired his first and only female research assistant.
--the first time virgina johnson saw a penis was in the backseat of a 1941 plymouth. it was also the first time she had sex. “i didn’t know anything about anything,” she recalled. when she began singing on army bases at age eighteen, she experimented with different men, many men. “i had an active interest in sex,” she explained, “but never particularly to the men I was involved with.” able to separate sex from love, she needed neither devotion nor infatuation though she did fall in love with an army captain. “i took it [sex] for granted,” she said. "to me, it always a natural requirement, a need. it didn’t shock me.”
--hired as a secretary, johnson had little interest in medicine at the time or a college degree. after four months, masters promoted her to research assistant, a decision that perplexed almost everyone. but Johnson excelled. her ability to recruit as well as gain the trust of a wide variety of volunteers truly made the human sexual response (1966) possible. their sample pool shifted from prostitutes to coeds, nurses, university employees, friends and neighbors. the only requirement was that the women be able to orgasm regularly and easily from penetration. as one female participant explained, “she made me feel that i was not only getting paid but helping my gender as well.”
--less than a year into their partnership, masters made johnson a proposition: by engaging in sex with each other, they could extend their experiments into actual experience; rather than replying on photographic documentation, they could observe the so-called sex flush themselves, allowing them greater insight into the sexual response cycle. although a forced arrangement, according to the their biographer, masters saw it as consensual where as johnson interpreted it as a job requirement. “bill did it all—i didn’t want him,” she later remarked, “i had a job and i wanted it.”
--the overall effect of human sexual response (1966) was that it demanded that the clitoris be studied, described, written about. in fact, the study was so alarming precisely because it was so specific, so full of immutable details. although much of their ‘revelatory findings,’ such as the fact that women can climax as fast as men with proper stimulation, had been established by kinsey, masters and johnson were seen as proving these otherwise speculative assumption via "facts," i.e. hard science and technology.
--echoing kinsey, masters and johnson found that due to the clitoris’s small size, little blood is needed for the clitoris to become erect, and after orgasm, blood quickly floods out, allowing many women to have multiple orgasms. they stressed the clit’s singular, unmatched qualities: “the clitoris is a unique organ in the total of human anatomy,” they wrote. “no such organ exists within the anatomic structure of the human male.”
--seated on a leather lounge chair, a woman, naked except for a pillowcase over her head, rubbed the outside of her vulva with a long, plexiglas penis. attached to a small camera with a plate glass optical eye, this “motor powered phallus” could produce high-quality color-motion photographs. sensors fixed to various parts of the woman’s body recorded her heart rate, electrical impulses of her brain, and nearly every other kind of measurement conceivable. nearby sat researchers william h. masters and virginia johnson along with their staff, all clad in white cotton lab coats. when the woman slipped the dildo inside her vagina and climaxed, she allowed researchers a sustained, precise look at her flushed, contracting vagina. over the next few years this basic experiment would be repeated with hundreds of women. the findings proved explosive: the female orgasm in absolute physiological detail.
--a celebrated obstetrician and fertility specialist with a tenured position at washington university, bill masters began his sex research in 1955. during the next twenty-one months, he interviewed 118 female and 28 male sex workers in st. louis and other cities, meticulously recording their sexual and medical histories. he soon began observing the prostitutes with their clients. he stared on, stunned. unlike nearly every other MD in his field, masters made a crucial admittance: he knew next to nothing about female sexuality, or even, the most basic physiological facts of fucking itself.
--by 1956 masters had moved his studies into the controlled settings of a laboratory. with the help of a few bulky machines, he began his earliest inquiries into the female sexual response. however, the course of his research changed radically when a female participant asked him "what if I fake it?" masters blinked, said flatly, “i don’t know what you mean.” after months of watching prostitutes, it had simply never occurred to him. the woman tried explain: “that’s what I do for a living, i fake orgasms to hurry up and get the man to come...” he remained dumbfounded, and within months, hired his first and only female research assistant.
--the first time virgina johnson saw a penis was in the backseat of a 1941 plymouth. it was also the first time she had sex. “i didn’t know anything about anything,” she recalled. when she began singing on army bases at age eighteen, she experimented with different men, many men. “i had an active interest in sex,” she explained, “but never particularly to the men I was involved with.” able to separate sex from love, she needed neither devotion nor infatuation though she did fall in love with an army captain. “i took it [sex] for granted,” she said. "to me, it always a natural requirement, a need. it didn’t shock me.”
--hired as a secretary, johnson had little interest in medicine at the time or a college degree. after four months, masters promoted her to research assistant, a decision that perplexed almost everyone. but Johnson excelled. her ability to recruit as well as gain the trust of a wide variety of volunteers truly made the human sexual response (1966) possible. their sample pool shifted from prostitutes to coeds, nurses, university employees, friends and neighbors. the only requirement was that the women be able to orgasm regularly and easily from penetration. as one female participant explained, “she made me feel that i was not only getting paid but helping my gender as well.”
--less than a year into their partnership, masters made johnson a proposition: by engaging in sex with each other, they could extend their experiments into actual experience; rather than replying on photographic documentation, they could observe the so-called sex flush themselves, allowing them greater insight into the sexual response cycle. although a forced arrangement, according to the their biographer, masters saw it as consensual where as johnson interpreted it as a job requirement. “bill did it all—i didn’t want him,” she later remarked, “i had a job and i wanted it.”
--the overall effect of human sexual response (1966) was that it demanded that the clitoris be studied, described, written about. in fact, the study was so alarming precisely because it was so specific, so full of immutable details. although much of their ‘revelatory findings,’ such as the fact that women can climax as fast as men with proper stimulation, had been established by kinsey, masters and johnson were seen as proving these otherwise speculative assumption via "facts," i.e. hard science and technology.
--echoing kinsey, masters and johnson found that due to the clitoris’s small size, little blood is needed for the clitoris to become erect, and after orgasm, blood quickly floods out, allowing many women to have multiple orgasms. they stressed the clit’s singular, unmatched qualities: “the clitoris is a unique organ in the total of human anatomy,” they wrote. “no such organ exists within the anatomic structure of the human male.”
August 3, 2013
Somehow manages to be boring and interesting simultaneously.
June 22, 2009
I'm not generally in the habit of reading biographies (exception: I've read all the biographies there are to read about Victoria Woodhull), because I don't really subscribe to the "great men" approach to history (I'm somewhat more susceptible to "great women"). I'd rather read about social movements and popular culture. That said, William Masters and Virginia Johnson spawned a new age of sex in the United States, so: worth reading.
I really enjoyed this book - the prose was accessible and there was a lot of information without it getting too bogged down in details that the author was proud to have found but otherwise had no real reason to include. The characters were really vibrant - even though there were obvious gaps, like the degree to which both Masters and Johnson were just closed off, private people. Actually, that bit of mystery was an important and interesting element in the book.
The book's arc was very "rise and fall" - which worked well, but I felt that some of the criticisms of the pair and their methods came too late in the book. The final chapters of the book are more investigative in a way, but I would've liked it if the author offered up some of these questions to chew on earlier in the book.
I know I'm overly history-nerdy and maybe this book wasn't the right place for this (being a biography and not a history of the sexual revolution), but I wish the Masters and Johnson story was contexualized within the sexual revolution and American identity a bit more. Sure, M & J shaped American sexuality starting in the mid-twentieth century. But for and about whom? I'd love to see more analysis of representation, demographics, and sexual norms in their work. Fuck, did I just sign myself up for an essay about that?
I really enjoyed this book - the prose was accessible and there was a lot of information without it getting too bogged down in details that the author was proud to have found but otherwise had no real reason to include. The characters were really vibrant - even though there were obvious gaps, like the degree to which both Masters and Johnson were just closed off, private people. Actually, that bit of mystery was an important and interesting element in the book.
The book's arc was very "rise and fall" - which worked well, but I felt that some of the criticisms of the pair and their methods came too late in the book. The final chapters of the book are more investigative in a way, but I would've liked it if the author offered up some of these questions to chew on earlier in the book.
I know I'm overly history-nerdy and maybe this book wasn't the right place for this (being a biography and not a history of the sexual revolution), but I wish the Masters and Johnson story was contexualized within the sexual revolution and American identity a bit more. Sure, M & J shaped American sexuality starting in the mid-twentieth century. But for and about whom? I'd love to see more analysis of representation, demographics, and sexual norms in their work. Fuck, did I just sign myself up for an essay about that?
November 12, 2013
I am so glad Thomas Maier wrote this book: what a fascinating couple Masters and Johnson were. If you’ve been enjoying the Showtime series, read the book. It will not only increase your enjoyment of the TV show (because you realize it is largely based on the facts), you will get a deeper appreciation for what these two accomplished.
As a female, I was fascinated by Virginia Johnson. She didn’t ever get a college degree, yet through her intelligence, talents, and hard work became Dr. Masters’ equal. And this makes Masters equally fascinating: he was capable of letting go of the arrogance so many doctors take as their right.
Masters was also willing to risk everything for this research, which greatly elevates him in my mind, since making sexuality a subject of science was a great step forward, and he pushed for it against great obstacles (not really shown yet in the TV show, 5 episodes into season 1), including ending his successful ob/gyn career.
Maier isn’t a great writer. I was annoyed regularly by his tendency to start in the middle, and then rewind to tell some part of the story sequentially. But the material itself is interesting enough, and his research seems thorough enough, to make this a riveting read.
Unfortunately there are some things that never get explained, chief among them (in my mind) their attitude towards having sex with each other. Clearly it happened, but neither of them ever spoke or wrote about it (at least according to Maier’s research), so we can only speculate. The TV show portrays their sex as part of a long-standing scientific tradition of scientists experimenting on themselves. I imagine, given both of their dedication, that this was at least partially true. Their lives also demonstrated how difficult it is to separate sex from emotional attachment: they did eventually marry.
One huge disappointment: Virginia Johnson destroyed all the audiotapes of interviews and films that had been created during their research. These could and should have been donated to a university, and it’s a great loss to our culture. It’s kind of inexplicable considering her devotion to the studies, other than an expression of spite towards Masters (who had divorced her to marry his first love) or towards the society that had rendered Masters and Johnson somewhat irrelevant, after a decade or so of being on the cutting edge.
A bit of trivia: I was raised in St. Louis, where Masters and Johnson did all of their research. I lived there from 1961 until I graduated from high school in 1976 and I was completely unaware that they were based in my hometown. This was the height of their fame, and when I asked my mother about it she professed ignorance also.
As a female, I was fascinated by Virginia Johnson. She didn’t ever get a college degree, yet through her intelligence, talents, and hard work became Dr. Masters’ equal. And this makes Masters equally fascinating: he was capable of letting go of the arrogance so many doctors take as their right.
Masters was also willing to risk everything for this research, which greatly elevates him in my mind, since making sexuality a subject of science was a great step forward, and he pushed for it against great obstacles (not really shown yet in the TV show, 5 episodes into season 1), including ending his successful ob/gyn career.
Maier isn’t a great writer. I was annoyed regularly by his tendency to start in the middle, and then rewind to tell some part of the story sequentially. But the material itself is interesting enough, and his research seems thorough enough, to make this a riveting read.
Unfortunately there are some things that never get explained, chief among them (in my mind) their attitude towards having sex with each other. Clearly it happened, but neither of them ever spoke or wrote about it (at least according to Maier’s research), so we can only speculate. The TV show portrays their sex as part of a long-standing scientific tradition of scientists experimenting on themselves. I imagine, given both of their dedication, that this was at least partially true. Their lives also demonstrated how difficult it is to separate sex from emotional attachment: they did eventually marry.
One huge disappointment: Virginia Johnson destroyed all the audiotapes of interviews and films that had been created during their research. These could and should have been donated to a university, and it’s a great loss to our culture. It’s kind of inexplicable considering her devotion to the studies, other than an expression of spite towards Masters (who had divorced her to marry his first love) or towards the society that had rendered Masters and Johnson somewhat irrelevant, after a decade or so of being on the cutting edge.
A bit of trivia: I was raised in St. Louis, where Masters and Johnson did all of their research. I lived there from 1961 until I graduated from high school in 1976 and I was completely unaware that they were based in my hometown. This was the height of their fame, and when I asked my mother about it she professed ignorance also.
May 23, 2020
I would have started this review with "This is one loveless book" if it weren't for the last few chapters and Bill getting married to his high school sweetheart at the age of 78. I have to say the TV series did a great job preserving and presenting the best of Masters and Johnson, even if not 100% truthfully. What happens afterwards (last part of the book) is really sad and shows that despite their groundbreaking work they couldn't keep up when all they were preaching actually came true. I wouldn't say the feminist movement is greatly presented in the book and I think in this respect this year's "Mrs. America" is a much better continuation of Masters and Johnson, then is their own ending. The book finishes on the note that Virginia Johnson might have paved the way for feminists, but she could never be one of them. She was simply the product of a different age where women were supposed to "be anything any man wanted [them] to be" (her own words). In such a world she found solace in her work, which was so captivating at the time. I think it still is, at least to me. I simply love what Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen have made out of this story. They have made it human, in a way in which Masters himself never allowed it to be presented. At the end the book becomes a rather disturbing account of a woman who seemed to be a sex know-it-all, but could never find true love herself. I guess it reminds us to always look for the balance between physical and emotional, between giving and getting, between pleasing others and satisfying our own needs.
August 4, 2014
Wow, talk about Masters and Johnson! If there is anything you ever wanted to know about them, it is in this book. Plus quite a few things you didn't know you wanted to know. It may be because I'm in a related field to M&J and have always seen them as forefathers, but I was enthralled with the book from start to finish.
Why only 3 stars? I'm not positive that the content really required 375 pages of text to explicate. Also, the opening description of Virginia's first sex experience was almost bad enough to make me stop reading. Don't give up on page 6, it gets better, I promise! Finally, there were some statements, especially those defending M&J's position on the transmission of HIV, that are just not scientifically correct. Maier should have acknowledged their flaws instead of constantly aiming to prove how ahead of their time they were. (That said, there are plenty of other, very interesting, flaws mentioned in the book.)
All in all, I would recommend it - especially to someone who's interested in sex.
Why only 3 stars? I'm not positive that the content really required 375 pages of text to explicate. Also, the opening description of Virginia's first sex experience was almost bad enough to make me stop reading. Don't give up on page 6, it gets better, I promise! Finally, there were some statements, especially those defending M&J's position on the transmission of HIV, that are just not scientifically correct. Maier should have acknowledged their flaws instead of constantly aiming to prove how ahead of their time they were. (That said, there are plenty of other, very interesting, flaws mentioned in the book.)
All in all, I would recommend it - especially to someone who's interested in sex.
April 23, 2020
14 tysięcy orgazmów
Tyle razy (szacunkowo) w swoim gabinecie dr William Masters i jego asystentka Virginia Johnson obserwowali ludzkie orgazmy, drogę dochodzenia do nich i cały zestaw reakcji organizmu podczas stymulacji seksualnych, czy to w parach, czy solo podczas masturbacji. Obiekty badawcze, z popodpinanymi kabelkami, mierzeniem ciśnienia, tętna, i innych danych organizmu (nie jestem w stanie powtórzyć dokładnie) przeżywały chwile uniesień w gabinecie Doktora w specjalnym pomieszczeniu, który w parze z niewykształconą w tym kierunku (medycznym) Virginią obserwował zza lustra weneckiego magię seksualności człowieka. Nie ulega wątpliwości, że ta para zrewolucjonizowała badania nad ludzką seksualnością, prowadząc swoją krucjatę w latach 60 ubiegłego wieku.
Nie czytam za bardzo książek biograficznych, choć niektóre życiorysy są naprawdę ciekawe skupiam się raczej na fikcji. Cóż, dość powiedzieć, biografia ta jest napisana w taki sposób jakby się czytało powieść, aczkolwiek taką którą napisało życie. A ściślej rzecz ujmując upór i dążenie do celu wspomnianej już dwójki badaczy. Książka zawiera w sobie jednocześnie informacje dotyczące całej drogi powstawania pomysłu, koncepcji badań (od bycia chirurgiem i sławnym doktorem w ginekologii leczącym później także problemy par z płodnością do zapalonego badacza ludzkiej seksualności, który w pewnym momencie zatrudnia do pomocy niedoświadczoną medycznie Virginię i tak rozpoczyna się ich przygoda) aż do problemów i zakrętów życiowych obojga bohaterów (małżeństwa – nieudane, dzieci – zaniedbywane) i oczywiście co dość istotnie podkreślone w książce – oporu purytańskiej ameryki przeciwko badaniom seksualności człowieka. Takie były czasy, że poród i ginekologia w tym względzie się rozwijały, a jak do tego dochodziło – czarna magia i uporczywe tkwienie w wiekach średnich. Wielu lekarzy czy akademików odmawiało Mastersowi i Johnson pomocy czy wsparcia bojąc się reakcji polityków i kościoła na poruszanie tematów seksu, przez stulecia przecież opisywanego jako coś brudnego (znamy przecież podejście tylko prokreacja, a jak odczuwasz i co gorsza celowo czerpiesz z tego przyjemność – grzech i potępienie).
Niesamowite są opisy, jak ta dwójka oprócz oczywiście obserwacji badań empirycznych prowadziła terapię par, gdzie wysłuchiwali i starali się rozwiązać problemy w związkach. Leczenie impotencji, przedwczesnych wytrysków, oziębłości seksualnej, pochwicy itp. (wachlarz problemów jest dużo szerszy) poprzez rozmowy z parami, aż do wynajmowania surogatek seksualnych mających obudzić seksualność w wadliwych mężczyznach. Dzisiaj część z tych metod okazałaby się dość kontrowersyjna, nie mówiąc już o latach 60 ubiegłego wieku, kiedy to takie badania stawiały pierwsze kroki i były rewolucyjne – nie tylko pod względem naukowym, ale przede wszystkim mentalnym (dla ludzi), światopoglądowym. Seks przestawał być tematem tabu (owianym wieloma szkodliwymi mitami). Na przestrzeni lat nasz duet musiał się jednak zmierzyć z przeciwnościami losu, ale przecież nie będę streszczał książki – czy warto ją przeczytać? Jeśli interesujesz się może nie historią per se, ale seksuologią w ogólności – to dobra książka opisująca podwaliny tego co mamy dzisiaj. Książka niefortunnie opatrzona dość idiotycznym wstępem Lwa Starowicza, który aby nie psuł przyjemności z lektury, radzę od razu pominąć.
Redakcyjnie książka jest zrobiona idealnie. Nie mamy bzdurnych podziałów na „okres szkolny” czy inne tego typu biograficzne legendy, za to są krótkie rozdziały tematyczne pisane niczym dobry reportaż z lekką nutką napięcia fabularnego. To jest bardzo dobry zabieg uatrakcyjniający lekturę w dużej mierze. Poza tym wypowiedzi znajomych, osób współpracujących z naszymi bohaterami na przestrzeni lat, wstawki prasowe, medialne i oczywiście dla chętnych zapaleńców bibliografia na końcu książki. Bardzo dobre zestawienie z kompletem informacji. Czyta się długo, a i refleksje człowieka mogą napaść po lekturze (nie, nie skłaniające do badań nad seksem, broń borze! Po prostu jak upór i dążenie do celu mogą dać efekty, choć tutaj niestety kosztem życia rodzinnego i paradoksalnie… miłości).
Co jest jednak wadą publikacji, uważam że jak na biografię takich ludzi, powinno być więcej zdjęć czy wycinków prasowych jako zamieszczone dodatkowe grafiki. Czy też nagłówki prasowe, lub okładki pierwszych wydań ich książek.
A gdyby jednak temat Was trochę ciekawił, a trochę nie chce się Wam czytać biografii (jest to dość wymagająca czasowo lektura) – nakręcono serial w bardzo dobrej obsadzie o tytule takim samym jak książka. Bardzo dobry i przyjemnie się ogląda. Na pewno w jakiś sposób warto się zapoznać z historią duetu Masters – Johnson.😊
23.04.2020 r.
Tyle razy (szacunkowo) w swoim gabinecie dr William Masters i jego asystentka Virginia Johnson obserwowali ludzkie orgazmy, drogę dochodzenia do nich i cały zestaw reakcji organizmu podczas stymulacji seksualnych, czy to w parach, czy solo podczas masturbacji. Obiekty badawcze, z popodpinanymi kabelkami, mierzeniem ciśnienia, tętna, i innych danych organizmu (nie jestem w stanie powtórzyć dokładnie) przeżywały chwile uniesień w gabinecie Doktora w specjalnym pomieszczeniu, który w parze z niewykształconą w tym kierunku (medycznym) Virginią obserwował zza lustra weneckiego magię seksualności człowieka. Nie ulega wątpliwości, że ta para zrewolucjonizowała badania nad ludzką seksualnością, prowadząc swoją krucjatę w latach 60 ubiegłego wieku.
Nie czytam za bardzo książek biograficznych, choć niektóre życiorysy są naprawdę ciekawe skupiam się raczej na fikcji. Cóż, dość powiedzieć, biografia ta jest napisana w taki sposób jakby się czytało powieść, aczkolwiek taką którą napisało życie. A ściślej rzecz ujmując upór i dążenie do celu wspomnianej już dwójki badaczy. Książka zawiera w sobie jednocześnie informacje dotyczące całej drogi powstawania pomysłu, koncepcji badań (od bycia chirurgiem i sławnym doktorem w ginekologii leczącym później także problemy par z płodnością do zapalonego badacza ludzkiej seksualności, który w pewnym momencie zatrudnia do pomocy niedoświadczoną medycznie Virginię i tak rozpoczyna się ich przygoda) aż do problemów i zakrętów życiowych obojga bohaterów (małżeństwa – nieudane, dzieci – zaniedbywane) i oczywiście co dość istotnie podkreślone w książce – oporu purytańskiej ameryki przeciwko badaniom seksualności człowieka. Takie były czasy, że poród i ginekologia w tym względzie się rozwijały, a jak do tego dochodziło – czarna magia i uporczywe tkwienie w wiekach średnich. Wielu lekarzy czy akademików odmawiało Mastersowi i Johnson pomocy czy wsparcia bojąc się reakcji polityków i kościoła na poruszanie tematów seksu, przez stulecia przecież opisywanego jako coś brudnego (znamy przecież podejście tylko prokreacja, a jak odczuwasz i co gorsza celowo czerpiesz z tego przyjemność – grzech i potępienie).
Niesamowite są opisy, jak ta dwójka oprócz oczywiście obserwacji badań empirycznych prowadziła terapię par, gdzie wysłuchiwali i starali się rozwiązać problemy w związkach. Leczenie impotencji, przedwczesnych wytrysków, oziębłości seksualnej, pochwicy itp. (wachlarz problemów jest dużo szerszy) poprzez rozmowy z parami, aż do wynajmowania surogatek seksualnych mających obudzić seksualność w wadliwych mężczyznach. Dzisiaj część z tych metod okazałaby się dość kontrowersyjna, nie mówiąc już o latach 60 ubiegłego wieku, kiedy to takie badania stawiały pierwsze kroki i były rewolucyjne – nie tylko pod względem naukowym, ale przede wszystkim mentalnym (dla ludzi), światopoglądowym. Seks przestawał być tematem tabu (owianym wieloma szkodliwymi mitami). Na przestrzeni lat nasz duet musiał się jednak zmierzyć z przeciwnościami losu, ale przecież nie będę streszczał książki – czy warto ją przeczytać? Jeśli interesujesz się może nie historią per se, ale seksuologią w ogólności – to dobra książka opisująca podwaliny tego co mamy dzisiaj. Książka niefortunnie opatrzona dość idiotycznym wstępem Lwa Starowicza, który aby nie psuł przyjemności z lektury, radzę od razu pominąć.
Redakcyjnie książka jest zrobiona idealnie. Nie mamy bzdurnych podziałów na „okres szkolny” czy inne tego typu biograficzne legendy, za to są krótkie rozdziały tematyczne pisane niczym dobry reportaż z lekką nutką napięcia fabularnego. To jest bardzo dobry zabieg uatrakcyjniający lekturę w dużej mierze. Poza tym wypowiedzi znajomych, osób współpracujących z naszymi bohaterami na przestrzeni lat, wstawki prasowe, medialne i oczywiście dla chętnych zapaleńców bibliografia na końcu książki. Bardzo dobre zestawienie z kompletem informacji. Czyta się długo, a i refleksje człowieka mogą napaść po lekturze (nie, nie skłaniające do badań nad seksem, broń borze! Po prostu jak upór i dążenie do celu mogą dać efekty, choć tutaj niestety kosztem życia rodzinnego i paradoksalnie… miłości).
Co jest jednak wadą publikacji, uważam że jak na biografię takich ludzi, powinno być więcej zdjęć czy wycinków prasowych jako zamieszczone dodatkowe grafiki. Czy też nagłówki prasowe, lub okładki pierwszych wydań ich książek.
A gdyby jednak temat Was trochę ciekawił, a trochę nie chce się Wam czytać biografii (jest to dość wymagająca czasowo lektura) – nakręcono serial w bardzo dobrej obsadzie o tytule takim samym jak książka. Bardzo dobry i przyjemnie się ogląda. Na pewno w jakiś sposób warto się zapoznać z historią duetu Masters – Johnson.😊
23.04.2020 r.
March 12, 2015
"We're still entirely alone."
Okay! I'm gonna get two things out of the way really quickly so I can focus on my love for this book after I do:
1. This is not a work of fiction. I see too many reviews from people who are disappointed in it not being very similar to the show, and this is in no way to discredit them, but... don't expect a gripping tale of two people who breathe dramatically and talk in slogans and which does not deviate from their story - it's a biography. It goes off on tangents, it talks about more than just their personal relationship, so expect that.
2. Man, oh man, were there a lot of adverbs. If that sounds like something that won't bother you too much when reading, that's great - you're gonna fall in love with the language in this book, but after a while, to me, it got so irritating. It genuinely felt like Maier wrote with the thesaurus open at all times, which is never a good idea. I don't care what kind of book it is. Stop with the adverbs. And the elevated language for no other reason than to have elevated language. It does nothing for the work.
Alright, if you can call my love for Masters and Gini Johnson a kind of bias, you're free to do that, but I fell in love with this book extremely early on - this is most definitely not gonna be the last I read about these two, because they're the most wonderfully interesting people about whom I've read for a long, long time. And Maier did a masterful job - pun intended - of directing the book in the same direction of their lives - he starts with Virginia alone, independent, doing her own thing and slowly transitions into her connection to Masters; from then on, it's about them as an entity, because I'll dare go as far as to say they never really broke apart after their first meeting, and the name 'Johnson' is hardly ever mentioned without 'Masters' to accompany it. It rose so realistically - the book did - along with their ascension to fame.
Maier took small breaks from that to focus on their findings, though - a lot of the biography is a depiction of the American society then and how deeply narrow-minded they were about sex. He writes about the times when people actually dismissed scientific - or rather, biological - findings because it took away from the magic of 'making love' and made it a less human experience. He writes about how Masters and Johnson took offense to that and continued to elucidate the mysteries of sex without being deterred by potential criticism for being vulgar, which they did get. And ignored.
Of these little tangents, I'll say my favorite was the way he went through that wave of feminism which dominated America after Masters and Johnson's first book came out and made it clear, once and for all, that Freud didn't know what he was talking about - men were not sexually superior to women and, even more to the point, women could live completely independently of men in a sexual way. That kind of feminism - I'll subscribe to any day. Maier stayed objective throughout, for which I'll say kudos, but that description of how people finally realized there was nothing sexually superior to men and loved that the revelation came from a male/female team was the most involved I read him in the entire book.
Except, maybe, for the last couple of chapters, which killed me in all kinds of ways. The stoic nature of Bill Masters - his I-tolerate-people-and-that's-it attitude towards life in general, his hard look and rough air of authority - and the social nature of Virginia Johnson - her love of fame, willingness to speak freely about her work and general charisma - came to an end before the end of their lives. Bill, I choose to believe, acted differently because of the dementia and Gini, due to solitude - loneliness. They broke apart in a way that wasn't as satisfying as your typical drama - there was no closure. It didn't feel final, when the public were notified that Masters and Johnson were divorcing, it felt more like a betrayal. And that's exactly how Maier tells it - there's very little detail of their lives, of those we were aware of, that isn't in the book. I'll say it's a very complete compilation.
I'll end with a quote people like to mention a lot after reading the book, in which neither Virginia nor Bill were ever portrayed as two people in love - on the contrary: both of them rejected the idea, at least in relation to each other, that love was a possibility. They didn't even know what love was.
Maier remembers:
"I suggested she was still in love. For the first time, her tone sounded different.
'I guess so,' she said, wistfully."
Okay! I'm gonna get two things out of the way really quickly so I can focus on my love for this book after I do:
1. This is not a work of fiction. I see too many reviews from people who are disappointed in it not being very similar to the show, and this is in no way to discredit them, but... don't expect a gripping tale of two people who breathe dramatically and talk in slogans and which does not deviate from their story - it's a biography. It goes off on tangents, it talks about more than just their personal relationship, so expect that.
2. Man, oh man, were there a lot of adverbs. If that sounds like something that won't bother you too much when reading, that's great - you're gonna fall in love with the language in this book, but after a while, to me, it got so irritating. It genuinely felt like Maier wrote with the thesaurus open at all times, which is never a good idea. I don't care what kind of book it is. Stop with the adverbs. And the elevated language for no other reason than to have elevated language. It does nothing for the work.
Alright, if you can call my love for Masters and Gini Johnson a kind of bias, you're free to do that, but I fell in love with this book extremely early on - this is most definitely not gonna be the last I read about these two, because they're the most wonderfully interesting people about whom I've read for a long, long time. And Maier did a masterful job - pun intended - of directing the book in the same direction of their lives - he starts with Virginia alone, independent, doing her own thing and slowly transitions into her connection to Masters; from then on, it's about them as an entity, because I'll dare go as far as to say they never really broke apart after their first meeting, and the name 'Johnson' is hardly ever mentioned without 'Masters' to accompany it. It rose so realistically - the book did - along with their ascension to fame.
Maier took small breaks from that to focus on their findings, though - a lot of the biography is a depiction of the American society then and how deeply narrow-minded they were about sex. He writes about the times when people actually dismissed scientific - or rather, biological - findings because it took away from the magic of 'making love' and made it a less human experience. He writes about how Masters and Johnson took offense to that and continued to elucidate the mysteries of sex without being deterred by potential criticism for being vulgar, which they did get. And ignored.
Of these little tangents, I'll say my favorite was the way he went through that wave of feminism which dominated America after Masters and Johnson's first book came out and made it clear, once and for all, that Freud didn't know what he was talking about - men were not sexually superior to women and, even more to the point, women could live completely independently of men in a sexual way. That kind of feminism - I'll subscribe to any day. Maier stayed objective throughout, for which I'll say kudos, but that description of how people finally realized there was nothing sexually superior to men and loved that the revelation came from a male/female team was the most involved I read him in the entire book.
Except, maybe, for the last couple of chapters, which killed me in all kinds of ways. The stoic nature of Bill Masters - his I-tolerate-people-and-that's-it attitude towards life in general, his hard look and rough air of authority - and the social nature of Virginia Johnson - her love of fame, willingness to speak freely about her work and general charisma - came to an end before the end of their lives. Bill, I choose to believe, acted differently because of the dementia and Gini, due to solitude - loneliness. They broke apart in a way that wasn't as satisfying as your typical drama - there was no closure. It didn't feel final, when the public were notified that Masters and Johnson were divorcing, it felt more like a betrayal. And that's exactly how Maier tells it - there's very little detail of their lives, of those we were aware of, that isn't in the book. I'll say it's a very complete compilation.
I'll end with a quote people like to mention a lot after reading the book, in which neither Virginia nor Bill were ever portrayed as two people in love - on the contrary: both of them rejected the idea, at least in relation to each other, that love was a possibility. They didn't even know what love was.
Maier remembers:
"I suggested she was still in love. For the first time, her tone sounded different.
'I guess so,' she said, wistfully."
March 14, 2013
Their lives were a period piece. Their work would have had no other relevancy but during post war America. Masters was a pioneer in this medical field and Johnson a pioneer in her field of therapy. They were ahead of their time in taking a female inclusive approach to sex therapy. How would the sexual revolution have evolved without this staid Midwestern couple giving couples a means to discuss and/or improve their sex life?
At the end of the book we realize that besides their 1950's lab techniques, the necessary secretiveness of their work and their reluctance to franchise, they, themselves, were of this time as well. While the author doesn't speculate, besides Masters' deterioration with age, deeply rooted values probably affected his later work on homosexuality and AIDS. The norms of their youth and childhoods certainly informed both their attitudes towards each other.
The book is a great read, you can't put it down. I gave it 4 not 5 stars because there are some significant missing pieces in Johnson's portrait. While Masters' family life is well covered, Johnson's is vague. (How did she/someone else raise her children? "Uncle" Larry, whose death upsets her children had been mentioned only once.) Before and after the divorce, what was the actual governance/ownership of the institute, the copyrights and all the property associated with the partnership? Maier writes that Johnson lost heavily, but how is not clear. She has the very valuable tapes, which implies significant ownership.
The portrait of Virginia Johnson is so provocative it calls for more. Perhaps, someone can build on this and may get also get her cooperation, as had Maier.
At the end of the book we realize that besides their 1950's lab techniques, the necessary secretiveness of their work and their reluctance to franchise, they, themselves, were of this time as well. While the author doesn't speculate, besides Masters' deterioration with age, deeply rooted values probably affected his later work on homosexuality and AIDS. The norms of their youth and childhoods certainly informed both their attitudes towards each other.
The book is a great read, you can't put it down. I gave it 4 not 5 stars because there are some significant missing pieces in Johnson's portrait. While Masters' family life is well covered, Johnson's is vague. (How did she/someone else raise her children? "Uncle" Larry, whose death upsets her children had been mentioned only once.) Before and after the divorce, what was the actual governance/ownership of the institute, the copyrights and all the property associated with the partnership? Maier writes that Johnson lost heavily, but how is not clear. She has the very valuable tapes, which implies significant ownership.
The portrait of Virginia Johnson is so provocative it calls for more. Perhaps, someone can build on this and may get also get her cooperation, as had Maier.
June 13, 2016
-La posmodernidad sexual y afectiva.-
Género. Biografía.
Lo que nos cuenta. Acercamiento a las personalidades y obra de William Masters y Virgina Johnson, investigadores cuyas publicaciones trajeron luz a la “maquinaria” detrás de la respuesta sexual del individuo y cuyas vidas, que orbitaron alrededor de ello, resultan paradójicamente próximas al asunto.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
Género. Biografía.
Lo que nos cuenta. Acercamiento a las personalidades y obra de William Masters y Virgina Johnson, investigadores cuyas publicaciones trajeron luz a la “maquinaria” detrás de la respuesta sexual del individuo y cuyas vidas, que orbitaron alrededor de ello, resultan paradójicamente próximas al asunto.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
February 23, 2014
William Masters and Virginia Johnson undertook a task that would have seemed beyond the power of most of us: to study human sexual behaviour by direct observation.
Reading (or listening to) the account of their work, it’s hard not to wonder whether there wasn’t an element of prurience in what they were doing: viewing hundreds of acts of masturbation or copulation sounds terribly like something that is sold in seedy backstreets, behind suspicious looking doors.
However Masters and Johnson’s subjects were wired up to scientific instruments and were having a wide range of medical indicators observed and measured, on blood pressure, respiration, skin coloration, etc. The researchers even had a huge dildo, nicknamed ‘Ulysses’, with a built-in camera to record what was happening in the course of sexual stimulation inside a woman’s vagina – again a dubious notion, and yet a source of invaluable information: to give just one example of a major breakthrough in understanding, with these observations Masters and Johnson refuted Freud’s idea that a clitoral orgasm was immature, to be replaced in more mature sexual behaviour by the vaginal form. They found that all women might achieve either.
Indeed, they also showed that women were far more sexually capable than men. They identified four phases of sexual activity: excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution. The final phase involves recovery, and in women it is brief, whereas in men it can last many hours. A woman is much more quickly able to engage in sex again than a man.
To the comfort of a great many men, they even debunked the idea that size matters: a vaginal canal that can accommodate a baby’s head will adapt to a wide range of size. The idea seems so obvious once it’s been advanced, but it took Masters and Johnson to establish it.
Many of the ideas made common currency by other writers, mostly men, and based on assumption rather than evidence, including much of the stock in trade of psychoanalysis, were overthrown by Masters and Johnson’s work.
As well as their contribution to science, Thomas Maier’s biography is fascinating for what it reveals of the lives of these two key figures.
Masters was a fine obstetrician and gynaecologist with an excellent reputation even before he made his much more controversial name as a sexologist. Johnson was unqualified and joined him as a secretary, later moving on to become his research assistant. That she later became his lover too is revelatory of the complex relationship between the scientific and emotional aspects of their work: they started having sex as part of the research itself, but since they later married, it was clear that there was more at stake.
Just what it was that was at stake is hard to establish. Johnson comes across as much the warmer of the two, a woman who had been through a stormy love life even before meeting Masters, by which time she was a three times-divorced mother of two children. Masters emerges as colder, calculating, even manipulative, manoeuvring her into their affair and marriage.
And yet, by his own account, he was a man deeply disappointed romantically: the love of his life he missed out on marrying because the flowers he’d flown in a private plane to collect for her, were never delivered to her hospital bed; when he turned up to see her the next day, she’d already been discharged and, before he had a chance to explain himself, she had married another man.
The sense of being cheated by destiny would haunt him for life, though that included a first marriage even before his second with Johnson. To avoid spoilers, I will just say that its impact would be powerful even towards the end of his life, and Johnson’s.
In the meantime, the two of them would have accomplished some remarkably valuable, and historically unprecedented research. Both were driven, both achieved. Sadly, however, what they could never pull off was business success, and when they retired from work the institute they had founded drifted into decline and eventually liquidation.
Johnson, forced to live her last years in relative poverty, felt unable to keep paying the $300 a month it cost to store the institute’s papers and recordings, so ultimately had them destroyed. Many hundreds of hours of observations of sexual behaviour, a store unlikely ever to be replicated, were therefore lost.
That loss is deplorable. And yet, somehow, I felt it was appropriate to the lives of the two protagonists: they challenged so many ideas, they rose to such peaks through their enlightening findings, and yet in the end they faded into obscurity and dissatisfaction.
That’s a tale worth reading, and well told by Thomas Maier.
Reading (or listening to) the account of their work, it’s hard not to wonder whether there wasn’t an element of prurience in what they were doing: viewing hundreds of acts of masturbation or copulation sounds terribly like something that is sold in seedy backstreets, behind suspicious looking doors.
However Masters and Johnson’s subjects were wired up to scientific instruments and were having a wide range of medical indicators observed and measured, on blood pressure, respiration, skin coloration, etc. The researchers even had a huge dildo, nicknamed ‘Ulysses’, with a built-in camera to record what was happening in the course of sexual stimulation inside a woman’s vagina – again a dubious notion, and yet a source of invaluable information: to give just one example of a major breakthrough in understanding, with these observations Masters and Johnson refuted Freud’s idea that a clitoral orgasm was immature, to be replaced in more mature sexual behaviour by the vaginal form. They found that all women might achieve either.
Indeed, they also showed that women were far more sexually capable than men. They identified four phases of sexual activity: excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution. The final phase involves recovery, and in women it is brief, whereas in men it can last many hours. A woman is much more quickly able to engage in sex again than a man.
To the comfort of a great many men, they even debunked the idea that size matters: a vaginal canal that can accommodate a baby’s head will adapt to a wide range of size. The idea seems so obvious once it’s been advanced, but it took Masters and Johnson to establish it.
Many of the ideas made common currency by other writers, mostly men, and based on assumption rather than evidence, including much of the stock in trade of psychoanalysis, were overthrown by Masters and Johnson’s work.
As well as their contribution to science, Thomas Maier’s biography is fascinating for what it reveals of the lives of these two key figures.
Masters was a fine obstetrician and gynaecologist with an excellent reputation even before he made his much more controversial name as a sexologist. Johnson was unqualified and joined him as a secretary, later moving on to become his research assistant. That she later became his lover too is revelatory of the complex relationship between the scientific and emotional aspects of their work: they started having sex as part of the research itself, but since they later married, it was clear that there was more at stake.
Just what it was that was at stake is hard to establish. Johnson comes across as much the warmer of the two, a woman who had been through a stormy love life even before meeting Masters, by which time she was a three times-divorced mother of two children. Masters emerges as colder, calculating, even manipulative, manoeuvring her into their affair and marriage.
And yet, by his own account, he was a man deeply disappointed romantically: the love of his life he missed out on marrying because the flowers he’d flown in a private plane to collect for her, were never delivered to her hospital bed; when he turned up to see her the next day, she’d already been discharged and, before he had a chance to explain himself, she had married another man.
The sense of being cheated by destiny would haunt him for life, though that included a first marriage even before his second with Johnson. To avoid spoilers, I will just say that its impact would be powerful even towards the end of his life, and Johnson’s.
In the meantime, the two of them would have accomplished some remarkably valuable, and historically unprecedented research. Both were driven, both achieved. Sadly, however, what they could never pull off was business success, and when they retired from work the institute they had founded drifted into decline and eventually liquidation.
Johnson, forced to live her last years in relative poverty, felt unable to keep paying the $300 a month it cost to store the institute’s papers and recordings, so ultimately had them destroyed. Many hundreds of hours of observations of sexual behaviour, a store unlikely ever to be replicated, were therefore lost.
That loss is deplorable. And yet, somehow, I felt it was appropriate to the lives of the two protagonists: they challenged so many ideas, they rose to such peaks through their enlightening findings, and yet in the end they faded into obscurity and dissatisfaction.
That’s a tale worth reading, and well told by Thomas Maier.
September 24, 2013
If ever anyone needed proof that being scientific, secular and atheistic is no guarantee that a person will be a Humanist or even a decent human being, one need look no further than William Masters. An amazing doctor and great researcher in his early days, Masters was driven more by ego and self-interest than by his desire to help people or chart new territories in the science of sex. His manipulation of those around him, and especially of Virginia Johnson, is striking in its cold blooded narcissism.
Masters pride and force of personality helped him change the discussion of matters of sexuality in the United States and the world, and his discoveries, made with the help of Johnson, were apt refutations of Freudian theories that had no grounding in empirical evidence. Masters' pride eventually lead him astray, when he falsified the research that went into his book on homosexual sex and claimed unwarranted success in "conversion therapy," that is the transformation of homosexual desires to heterosexual desires in patients, which still resonates and causes real harm today.
Virginia Johnson comes off as a much more sympathetic character in the book, a woman more than willing to be, in her own words, whatever men wanted her to be. She stuck by Masters throughout his first failed marriage as his partner in research, his mistress (of a sort) and eventually as his wife of twenty years. The revelation that Masters divorced Johnson so that the man could marry his childhood sweetheart in his mid seventies is almost as astounding and crushing to the reader as it must have been to Virginia Johnson.
Another blow is the loss of the Masters and Johnson Clinic archives, invaluable reams of letters, patient records and audio recordings of patient interviews and therapy that would be astounding primary source research material if Johnson hadn't ordered her son to destroy it all after the clinic closed.
There is so much good about this book, and about the research Masters and Johnson conducted, the lives they helped to improve, and the positive effect they have had on the culture. Like all great pioneers, they sacrificed their normal lives for their greater ambitions, and Virginia Johnson, at least, lived her later years in regret for opportunities lost. She died shortly after this book's release, so her death is not recorded within these pages, but we get a sense of her final days nonetheless.
Just as those who lead ordinary lives often dream of adventure and discovery, it is apparent that many who live extraordinary lives often dream of the pleasures of the ordinary.
Masters pride and force of personality helped him change the discussion of matters of sexuality in the United States and the world, and his discoveries, made with the help of Johnson, were apt refutations of Freudian theories that had no grounding in empirical evidence. Masters' pride eventually lead him astray, when he falsified the research that went into his book on homosexual sex and claimed unwarranted success in "conversion therapy," that is the transformation of homosexual desires to heterosexual desires in patients, which still resonates and causes real harm today.
Virginia Johnson comes off as a much more sympathetic character in the book, a woman more than willing to be, in her own words, whatever men wanted her to be. She stuck by Masters throughout his first failed marriage as his partner in research, his mistress (of a sort) and eventually as his wife of twenty years. The revelation that Masters divorced Johnson so that the man could marry his childhood sweetheart in his mid seventies is almost as astounding and crushing to the reader as it must have been to Virginia Johnson.
Another blow is the loss of the Masters and Johnson Clinic archives, invaluable reams of letters, patient records and audio recordings of patient interviews and therapy that would be astounding primary source research material if Johnson hadn't ordered her son to destroy it all after the clinic closed.
There is so much good about this book, and about the research Masters and Johnson conducted, the lives they helped to improve, and the positive effect they have had on the culture. Like all great pioneers, they sacrificed their normal lives for their greater ambitions, and Virginia Johnson, at least, lived her later years in regret for opportunities lost. She died shortly after this book's release, so her death is not recorded within these pages, but we get a sense of her final days nonetheless.
Just as those who lead ordinary lives often dream of adventure and discovery, it is apparent that many who live extraordinary lives often dream of the pleasures of the ordinary.
March 2, 2016
I read this after finishing the first two seasons of the HBO series "Masters of Sex." I really liked the series (and am anxiously awaiting the third season). But I knew they'd taken some creative liberties with it so I was curious to see what was really true.
Although the real story is interesting, lets just say that the writers of the series knew what to add to make it more compelling and titillating. I guess it's the whole visual aspect of it--watching people participate (well, simulate participating) in Masters and Johnson's sex studies on TV is oh so different from reading about it! The clearest departure from the book is the characters. Some were added. And it was interesting to see how they took some minor characters and turned them into fully developed characters in the series.
Anyway, the book was good and obviously well-researched. I don't have much negative to say about it other than the author had an annoying habit of repeating himself over and over again. I guess that's good for people who have trouble keeping track of a large cast of characters (that includes me) but when I reached page 226, and the author wrote, once again, "Because of his demanding career, Bill wasn't home very much," I almost felt insulted. He'd made it clear over and over again that the main character, Bill Masters, wasn't home very much because of his demanding career. If we don't know that Bill Masters wasn't home very much because of his demanding career by page 226, then we're missing a very vital part of the book. On the other hand, on page 364, Virginia Johnson loses her only brother to lung cancer and is so devastated by that she can't even attend the memorial service for her former business partner and husband, Bill Masters. This brother is never even mentioned until page 364, almost the end of the book. And she went into "an emotional tailspin" because of it? If that's the case, that brother, whose death devastated her, should probably have been mentioned before page 364. Unless, as I suspect, it was just an excuse for a justifiably bitter Virginia Johnson to avoid going to Bill Masters' memorial service.
Ultimately, I felt a sense of sadness throughout Masters of Sex. Despite their vast amount of knowledge about the body's physiological response during sex, neither of them ever understood how love fit into the scheme of things. In that department, both of them failed miserably. "...the secrets of desire--the attraction between men and women and their endless quest for love--remained unfathomable, they agreed."
Although the real story is interesting, lets just say that the writers of the series knew what to add to make it more compelling and titillating. I guess it's the whole visual aspect of it--watching people participate (well, simulate participating) in Masters and Johnson's sex studies on TV is oh so different from reading about it! The clearest departure from the book is the characters. Some were added. And it was interesting to see how they took some minor characters and turned them into fully developed characters in the series.
Anyway, the book was good and obviously well-researched. I don't have much negative to say about it other than the author had an annoying habit of repeating himself over and over again. I guess that's good for people who have trouble keeping track of a large cast of characters (that includes me) but when I reached page 226, and the author wrote, once again, "Because of his demanding career, Bill wasn't home very much," I almost felt insulted. He'd made it clear over and over again that the main character, Bill Masters, wasn't home very much because of his demanding career. If we don't know that Bill Masters wasn't home very much because of his demanding career by page 226, then we're missing a very vital part of the book. On the other hand, on page 364, Virginia Johnson loses her only brother to lung cancer and is so devastated by that she can't even attend the memorial service for her former business partner and husband, Bill Masters. This brother is never even mentioned until page 364, almost the end of the book. And she went into "an emotional tailspin" because of it? If that's the case, that brother, whose death devastated her, should probably have been mentioned before page 364. Unless, as I suspect, it was just an excuse for a justifiably bitter Virginia Johnson to avoid going to Bill Masters' memorial service.
Ultimately, I felt a sense of sadness throughout Masters of Sex. Despite their vast amount of knowledge about the body's physiological response during sex, neither of them ever understood how love fit into the scheme of things. In that department, both of them failed miserably. "...the secrets of desire--the attraction between men and women and their endless quest for love--remained unfathomable, they agreed."
April 5, 2014
A thorough retelling of the personal lives, the careers and "the times" of sex researches William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Masters' discoveries, his (sometimes flawed) methods and his chilly, driven personality are of interest, but even more interesting is Virginia Johnson. Without any medical or academic degree, and with a minimum of training, she developed into an influential figure in sexual research through the force of her enthusiasm and her winning personality. Until she too became driven enough to lose her zeal and the purity of her approach-- but this part of the story might require a SPOILER ALERT!)
Although this book provided everything I wanted to know about Masters and Johnson, I can't recommend it because of the style of its expression. The author seems to aim for a gravitas that is not an essential part of his expression, and this results in many awkwardly phrased sentences. For several chapters I accepted this as a mere difference in taste, maybe as Just Me Being Finicky. But then I began to encounter notably awkward phrases:
"a wilted flower no longer in bloom"
"the orchestra played a slight timpani"
and words that were entirely misused--
"proscribed" when the context clearly indicate "prescribed"
"twirl" for "whirl"
And then came tortured, dreadful similes like:
[ideas for] "intricate therapies that sprang out of Gini's head like Medusa" (really? her ideas were like snakes that strike therapy patients dead?)
And finally, he managed to include my very own CURRRENT PET PEEVE:
"several remarkable children, one smarter than the next"
(when he plainly means "each smarter than the last" or simply "several remarkable, intelligent children.")
I encountered one or more of these invitations-to-blue-pencil every few pages, and so-- although interested in all of its information in this book-- I was often distracted during my reading of it. It is very possible that you, Dear Reader, are not as finicky as I, and will enjoy it more.
Although this book provided everything I wanted to know about Masters and Johnson, I can't recommend it because of the style of its expression. The author seems to aim for a gravitas that is not an essential part of his expression, and this results in many awkwardly phrased sentences. For several chapters I accepted this as a mere difference in taste, maybe as Just Me Being Finicky. But then I began to encounter notably awkward phrases:
"a wilted flower no longer in bloom"
"the orchestra played a slight timpani"
and words that were entirely misused--
"proscribed" when the context clearly indicate "prescribed"
"twirl" for "whirl"
And then came tortured, dreadful similes like:
[ideas for] "intricate therapies that sprang out of Gini's head like Medusa" (really? her ideas were like snakes that strike therapy patients dead?)
And finally, he managed to include my very own CURRRENT PET PEEVE:
"several remarkable children, one smarter than the next"
(when he plainly means "each smarter than the last" or simply "several remarkable, intelligent children.")
I encountered one or more of these invitations-to-blue-pencil every few pages, and so-- although interested in all of its information in this book-- I was often distracted during my reading of it. It is very possible that you, Dear Reader, are not as finicky as I, and will enjoy it more.
October 11, 2014
I've been enjoying the TV series loosely based on the book; the book, not so much. The TV series, while true to the premise of what Masters and Johnson accomplished, and what they did, is fiction -- it has a narrative arc and characters do things to advance the story. The book, while a lot of work went into the research and writing, is, quite frankly, about an asshole and an idiot. These two may have been world-renowned sex researchers and sex therapists, but they both could have used a little (a lot!) of psychological therapy. Why they slept together (I suspect Masters would have been charged with sexual harassment if it happened today), got married and stayed together as long as they did is not clear from the book. And really, beyond there sexual accomplishments, that is what the reader wants to know. I really found this a book of anecdotes -- some of them admittedly interesting -- that jumped around in time. They may have been famous, but they had sad little lives. I wanted to find out the facts behind the fiction of the TV series. I've found them out. But it was not worth the read.
November 30, 2013
When you look at my undergraduate transcript, it looks like I studied to be a whore. Every other subject has "sex" or "sexuality" in the title - "Philosophy and Sexuality", "Sex and Society", "Gender, Sex and Power in Australian Politics", "Sex and Sexuality" - you get the drift. That's what you get for being a women's studies major. As a result, I quickly became familiar with Masters and Johnson and their study, but I always just thought of it as a regular university study that a couple of scientists conducted - I don't remember ever delving any deeper into it than that.
This is an engagingly written biography of Masters and Johnson, and their work. It is well-researched, drawing upon interviews with colleagues, friends and family of the pair, as well as Masters' unpublished memoir and interviews with Johnson, and other media sources. Maier has a clear admiration for their achievements (and I suspect a fondness for Johnson and her account of events), but does not shy away from exploring the problematic dimensions of their work and its impact.
This edition includes an afterword that addresses the Showtime series. I am a big fan of the show - not in the least because of Lizzie Caplan and Michael Sheen, of whom Maier also seemed a little enamoured - and I know that television and film adaptations are rarely accurate representations of events and people, and that various changes are necessary for adaptation to screen, but after reading this it is interesting how romanticised the Showtime account is. I think "inspired by" or "loosely based on" Maier's book is a little more accurate. It does not, however, stop me from enjoying both the show and the book.
This is an engagingly written biography of Masters and Johnson, and their work. It is well-researched, drawing upon interviews with colleagues, friends and family of the pair, as well as Masters' unpublished memoir and interviews with Johnson, and other media sources. Maier has a clear admiration for their achievements (and I suspect a fondness for Johnson and her account of events), but does not shy away from exploring the problematic dimensions of their work and its impact.
This edition includes an afterword that addresses the Showtime series. I am a big fan of the show - not in the least because of Lizzie Caplan and Michael Sheen, of whom Maier also seemed a little enamoured - and I know that television and film adaptations are rarely accurate representations of events and people, and that various changes are necessary for adaptation to screen, but after reading this it is interesting how romanticised the Showtime account is. I think "inspired by" or "loosely based on" Maier's book is a little more accurate. It does not, however, stop me from enjoying both the show and the book.
November 26, 2012
Clearly, as Thomas Maier shows, that was the case in the marriage of William Masters and Virginia Johnson. It's not just that a quasi-forcible sexual relationship devolved into a quasi-loveless marriage. It's that Gini Johnson, for all her sexuality, never thought of looking outside the marriage, apparently. It's that Bill Masters apparently, until his end-of-life marriage to a college flame, couldn't be with a woman unless he could dominate her.
In a sense, they both, despite their groundbreaking research on sexuality, come off as old-fashioned, not on morals, but on personal psychology. With Masters, I think that "informed" some of his unscientific work on homosexuality. With Johnson, I think it was behind her refusal to get involved with feminism.
Anyway, if you don't want to accept just my judgment for this, Maier presents a full dual biography of both sex researchers, back to their childhoods, and what from that may have made them tick the way they did as adults.
And, a sidebar about the "love" in the subtitle. Masters and Johnson, while encouraging Americans to be more comfortable about their sexuality, only taught Americans indirectly how to love. They may have taught them how to "make love," but that's different.
That said, the author says the subtitle was his idea, and intended to be ironic, in part. Maier also said, though, that he thought the two were in love, bittersweet as that match might have been.
And, you can see that in Maier's book, too.
In a sense, they both, despite their groundbreaking research on sexuality, come off as old-fashioned, not on morals, but on personal psychology. With Masters, I think that "informed" some of his unscientific work on homosexuality. With Johnson, I think it was behind her refusal to get involved with feminism.
Anyway, if you don't want to accept just my judgment for this, Maier presents a full dual biography of both sex researchers, back to their childhoods, and what from that may have made them tick the way they did as adults.
And, a sidebar about the "love" in the subtitle. Masters and Johnson, while encouraging Americans to be more comfortable about their sexuality, only taught Americans indirectly how to love. They may have taught them how to "make love," but that's different.
That said, the author says the subtitle was his idea, and intended to be ironic, in part. Maier also said, though, that he thought the two were in love, bittersweet as that match might have been.
And, you can see that in Maier's book, too.
October 3, 2013
Bought this because I saw the pilot on Showtime, and I've been a huge fan of Lizzy Caplan since 'Party Down'. So instead of waiting for a new episode every week, I wanted to know more of the story immediately. This is a very problematic book. There's no sense of what's interesting. Quotes and stories are plopped in the way you'd serve a child a cold omelette. The story is built on direct quotes that sound formal and deliberate, or hearsay he picked up from one of the interviewees, the interviews never give real insight into things.
The characters and entire narrative remain paper-bound, the author explores everything from a very detached, unemotional way that makes it a hard book to invest yourself into. Also, the book is one half delicious gossip and the other half is an identity crisis.
Sometimes its trying to talk about science, it does this with boisterous quotes from doctors or medical professionals. There's suddenly an odd chapter about the Masters staying in the Playboy mansion. And other unnecessary details or anecdotes that were thoroughly boring, don't add anything to what I want to know or feel about the Masters.
It was a struggle to finish this, but thankfully each chapter is short at about about 10-20 pages.
The characters and entire narrative remain paper-bound, the author explores everything from a very detached, unemotional way that makes it a hard book to invest yourself into. Also, the book is one half delicious gossip and the other half is an identity crisis.
Sometimes its trying to talk about science, it does this with boisterous quotes from doctors or medical professionals. There's suddenly an odd chapter about the Masters staying in the Playboy mansion. And other unnecessary details or anecdotes that were thoroughly boring, don't add anything to what I want to know or feel about the Masters.
It was a struggle to finish this, but thankfully each chapter is short at about about 10-20 pages.
April 8, 2015
One thing is clear: Both Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson were two unique and most intersting, yet flawed and complicated persons who complimented each other on many levels. Bringing their lives to paper must have been a difficult task and I compliment Thomas Maier for his extensive research, especially since not everybody involved was eager to comment on all topics (especially all things surrounding Bill and Gini's marriage, oh how I would've loved to get more details on that).
The thing is, the (assumed) complications above made the book a tough read at times; some chapters just flew by, others were rather tedious; overall, the book lacked a bit of emotion for me to hold onto it for longer periods of time.
Interesting subjects, working in an even more interesting area that met the limitations of its time; but the way it was told didn't get me overall.
The thing is, the (assumed) complications above made the book a tough read at times; some chapters just flew by, others were rather tedious; overall, the book lacked a bit of emotion for me to hold onto it for longer periods of time.
Interesting subjects, working in an even more interesting area that met the limitations of its time; but the way it was told didn't get me overall.
December 7, 2013
It's hard not to be charmed by Virginia Johnson in this biography about her and partner Bill Masters who pioneered sexual research. It's also an interesting portrait of feminism trapped by the mores of an era, as well as the struggle aging poses for someone whose ideas were revolutionary and cutting edge but then sparked understanding that eclipsed those breakthrough insights. In a way it's also a love story, but a repressed one lacking in the intimacy that comes with vulnerability. It was a fascinating portrait.
December 16, 2013
I picked up this book because I've been watching the Showtime series and really enjoying it. I wanted to have a stronger sense of the history and the impact that Masters and Johnson had on American culture since their research was so revolutionary. The fact that the pair were able to create such enormous changes outside of the bounds of scientific research after their first publication is what I found so fascinating.
Maier does a great job of telling their story and some of the strongest parts of the text are where he comments on the cultural significance of their research. For example, Maier provides an accessible explanation of Freud's theories about women and sex which provides a bridge for understanding just how revolutionary Masters and Johnson's discoveries about the female orgasm really were. Maier's discussion of the cultural significance of their work here and in relationship to their later breakthroughs in the area of therapy is both illuminating and thorough. Viewing their research through this cultural lens shows how their discoveries on the female orgasm really did form one of the cornerstones of the sexual revolution of the 60s. Of course, it's that particular discovery that led to them being ostracized from the medical community. Much of their work with couples therapy, surrogates for sex research and conversion therapy probably wouldn't have happened if they had remained a part of the working scientific community. That part of the story reads like a cautionary tale on the importance of peer review in research.
And therein lies the enormous paradox of their whole story. Part of their being cast out of the scientific community was the fact that Johnson lacked medical credentials. And Masters kept her from finishing her degree. Masters' clear controlling of Johnson's education kept her in his thrall and at his side. The irony is that their own discovery wasn't enough to set Johnson completely free. She also might not have wanted to be free, however, because even she didn't quite understand the importance of their discoveries at the time. Despite the groundbreaking nature of their work, both still had their feet firmly planted in the culture they were raised in, and those worldviews contributed to their nearsightedness on issues of homosexuality and their disastrous support for conversion therapy.
Maier does an incredible job taking stock of their relationship through hours and hours of interviews and research. But Bill Masters' character remains stubbornly remote throughout the book, and that's not entirely Maier's fault. Masters was clearly a difficult character and has the hallmarks of a genius thinker. But I think it's in this area that Maier could have done just a bit more to contextualize Masters' personality and its contribution to the revolutionary nature of the discoveries. There are certainly others throughout history who have had similar characteristics in their personalities, and some further context here would have been helpful. But Maier takes a more closeup view of Masters' upbringing and background in order to make his case.
The last third of the book is difficult to read, but maybe the experience of watching the show did that to me--the visual nature of what Masters and Johnson were doing in the prime of their lives is enthralling, and the Showtime series is really capturing that thrill of discovery and innovation. To read about their decline as working partners, her insistence on destroying all of the clinic recordings after his death and the waning of their memories as they grew older and fell apart was depressing in its inevitability.
In the end, if you're looking to understand the enormous contributions that Masters and Johnson made to our current culture, this book is well worth a read.
Maier does a great job of telling their story and some of the strongest parts of the text are where he comments on the cultural significance of their research. For example, Maier provides an accessible explanation of Freud's theories about women and sex which provides a bridge for understanding just how revolutionary Masters and Johnson's discoveries about the female orgasm really were. Maier's discussion of the cultural significance of their work here and in relationship to their later breakthroughs in the area of therapy is both illuminating and thorough. Viewing their research through this cultural lens shows how their discoveries on the female orgasm really did form one of the cornerstones of the sexual revolution of the 60s. Of course, it's that particular discovery that led to them being ostracized from the medical community. Much of their work with couples therapy, surrogates for sex research and conversion therapy probably wouldn't have happened if they had remained a part of the working scientific community. That part of the story reads like a cautionary tale on the importance of peer review in research.
And therein lies the enormous paradox of their whole story. Part of their being cast out of the scientific community was the fact that Johnson lacked medical credentials. And Masters kept her from finishing her degree. Masters' clear controlling of Johnson's education kept her in his thrall and at his side. The irony is that their own discovery wasn't enough to set Johnson completely free. She also might not have wanted to be free, however, because even she didn't quite understand the importance of their discoveries at the time. Despite the groundbreaking nature of their work, both still had their feet firmly planted in the culture they were raised in, and those worldviews contributed to their nearsightedness on issues of homosexuality and their disastrous support for conversion therapy.
Maier does an incredible job taking stock of their relationship through hours and hours of interviews and research. But Bill Masters' character remains stubbornly remote throughout the book, and that's not entirely Maier's fault. Masters was clearly a difficult character and has the hallmarks of a genius thinker. But I think it's in this area that Maier could have done just a bit more to contextualize Masters' personality and its contribution to the revolutionary nature of the discoveries. There are certainly others throughout history who have had similar characteristics in their personalities, and some further context here would have been helpful. But Maier takes a more closeup view of Masters' upbringing and background in order to make his case.
The last third of the book is difficult to read, but maybe the experience of watching the show did that to me--the visual nature of what Masters and Johnson were doing in the prime of their lives is enthralling, and the Showtime series is really capturing that thrill of discovery and innovation. To read about their decline as working partners, her insistence on destroying all of the clinic recordings after his death and the waning of their memories as they grew older and fell apart was depressing in its inevitability.
In the end, if you're looking to understand the enormous contributions that Masters and Johnson made to our current culture, this book is well worth a read.
December 27, 2013
Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier (published in 2009) is a dual biography of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the famous researchers who in the 1950s and 60s did much to determine the physical responses of human sexuality. Although I purchased the book when it was originally published, I didn’t start reading it until Showtime starting airing their series Masters of Sex which is loosely based upon this book. And loosely is being kind. Although several incidents in the show are historically accurate, many of the characters in the show are composites or wholly made up. And of course, that’s fine. Showtime isn’t making a documentary, they’re making a drama.
Masters of Sex, the biography, not the series, is an excellently told tale of two people who found a common interest and became world famous for their discoveries. Virginia (Gini) Johnson grew up in a small rural town in southern Missouri. She was ambitious and didn’t want to end up as a farmer’s wife. She eventually landed in St. Louis as a secretary/receptionist in the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis. It was here that she met Dr. William Masters, a brilliant surgeon and star doctor. Masters, who grew up moving frequently, had a difficult childhood. He always felt he had to overachieve. Generally, he was not a particularly warm man.
Once the two got together, the research Masters was most interested in flowered. After 11 years in relative secrecy, Masters presented his findings to a dismayed faculty and administration. However, the publication of their first book, Human Sexual Response, took America by storm. Although highly technical, it still became a bestseller. As time moved on, Masters and Johnson opened a highly successful clinic to treat sexual problems, both physical and psychological, achieving a high success rate compared to traditional methods then practiced.
With the publication in 1979 of their book, Homosexuality in Perspective, much of their good reputation came under fire for their claims of success in converting gay men back to heterosexuality.
In many ways, this was the start of their drifting apart, although it took many years. After divorcing his first wife, Libby in 1970, Masters married Johnson in 1971. However, it was more of a compact than a marriage of love. Finally, they divorced in 1993 and Masters married a college girlfriend. The hope was that they could continue to work together. However, this became increasingly difficult. Masters, suffering from Parkinson’s, shut down the clinic in 1994 and moved to Arizona and passed away in 2001. Johnson, who talked extensively to the author, was still alive, living in St. Louis, when Masters of Sex was published. However, she passed away in July, 2013.
I found the book a very fascinating read about the team of Masters and Johnson. Their contributions to the study of sex are invaluable. Masters, although brilliant, does not come off particularly well as a person. However, there is one thing he did. In all his publications regarding the study of sex, he gave Johnson equal credit. He could have easily, and many men would have, not credited her at all. After all, she did not have a college degree (and to a large extent, that was his fault). Johnson, on the other hand, seems a particularly sympathetic figure. Although she loved the fame and lights, she was also the one who sacrificed to please Masters.
I easily recommend the book if you want the true story of Masters and Johnson as opposed to the fictionalized account of the TV series.
Masters of Sex, the biography, not the series, is an excellently told tale of two people who found a common interest and became world famous for their discoveries. Virginia (Gini) Johnson grew up in a small rural town in southern Missouri. She was ambitious and didn’t want to end up as a farmer’s wife. She eventually landed in St. Louis as a secretary/receptionist in the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis. It was here that she met Dr. William Masters, a brilliant surgeon and star doctor. Masters, who grew up moving frequently, had a difficult childhood. He always felt he had to overachieve. Generally, he was not a particularly warm man.
Once the two got together, the research Masters was most interested in flowered. After 11 years in relative secrecy, Masters presented his findings to a dismayed faculty and administration. However, the publication of their first book, Human Sexual Response, took America by storm. Although highly technical, it still became a bestseller. As time moved on, Masters and Johnson opened a highly successful clinic to treat sexual problems, both physical and psychological, achieving a high success rate compared to traditional methods then practiced.
With the publication in 1979 of their book, Homosexuality in Perspective, much of their good reputation came under fire for their claims of success in converting gay men back to heterosexuality.
In many ways, this was the start of their drifting apart, although it took many years. After divorcing his first wife, Libby in 1970, Masters married Johnson in 1971. However, it was more of a compact than a marriage of love. Finally, they divorced in 1993 and Masters married a college girlfriend. The hope was that they could continue to work together. However, this became increasingly difficult. Masters, suffering from Parkinson’s, shut down the clinic in 1994 and moved to Arizona and passed away in 2001. Johnson, who talked extensively to the author, was still alive, living in St. Louis, when Masters of Sex was published. However, she passed away in July, 2013.
I found the book a very fascinating read about the team of Masters and Johnson. Their contributions to the study of sex are invaluable. Masters, although brilliant, does not come off particularly well as a person. However, there is one thing he did. In all his publications regarding the study of sex, he gave Johnson equal credit. He could have easily, and many men would have, not credited her at all. After all, she did not have a college degree (and to a large extent, that was his fault). Johnson, on the other hand, seems a particularly sympathetic figure. Although she loved the fame and lights, she was also the one who sacrificed to please Masters.
I easily recommend the book if you want the true story of Masters and Johnson as opposed to the fictionalized account of the TV series.
December 30, 2013
I got this because I have so enjoyed Masters of Sex on Showtime. I also have worked for many years in HIV and STD prevention in public health, so Masters and Johnson's work is in my wheelhouse as well as a clear popular influence during my adolescence and young adult years. (I was a graduate student when Masters and Johnson published Crisis.)
I have to say that I rate this around a 3.5. I gave it 4 because it is well written and engaging, but for content it deserves something closer to a 3.
I am struck my the disparities in the biographies of Johnson and Masters. The first sexual experiences of Masters are not detailed, nor is the emphasis quite as resolutely focused on relationships for Masters as for Johnson. Some of this may be because the author was able to interview Johnson and worked only posthumously with materials left by Masters. I was struck by how little rounded the portrait of Johnson was (especially in the early days) aside from her relationships with men.
I didn't think that Maier did much to put Johnson, specifically, into context as a female clinician (already marginalized in her time), in a marginalized field. My mother, a married sociology graduate student around the same time, was forbidden to teach when she was pregnant as this was considered inappropriate for university students to see. Female students and clinicians were not common, were often not well supported and not provided with the mentorship and opportunities afforded to their male counterparts; and husband and wife teams were not uncommon in academia in that time where men had the credentials and women put in enormous amounts of labor without the credentials or credibility of their husbands. Theirs is an amazing story of the rise of famous and influential clinicians, but not an uncommon scientific partnership for the era.
I was also disturbed by Maier's apology for Crisis, which in fact did not prove out its main arguments. The driving force in HIV in the US and in most developed countries has not been a general heterosexual epidemic, and the "support" that Maier provides for this out of context and inaccurate. We do not need to further misunderstandings about HIV transmissions. Indeed, Maier appears to limit himself to popular accounts and sources and does little to put the biography into a scientific or clinical context. In some ways this is understandable because Masters and Johnson had enormous popular influence, and in other ways, it provides a shallow look into their work.
Still, in spite of all the complaining above, I found Masters of Sex to be well written and engaging. The conflicts between celebrity, fame, nepotism, science and good clinical work were clearly drawn, as well as a lack of "business" vision that doomed Masters and Johnson's clinic to ultimate failure. The relationship between Masters and Johnson was fascinating; regardless of how much love and affection there was between them, it was a true symbiotic partnership that transcended their marriage.
I have to say that I rate this around a 3.5. I gave it 4 because it is well written and engaging, but for content it deserves something closer to a 3.
I am struck my the disparities in the biographies of Johnson and Masters. The first sexual experiences of Masters are not detailed, nor is the emphasis quite as resolutely focused on relationships for Masters as for Johnson. Some of this may be because the author was able to interview Johnson and worked only posthumously with materials left by Masters. I was struck by how little rounded the portrait of Johnson was (especially in the early days) aside from her relationships with men.
I didn't think that Maier did much to put Johnson, specifically, into context as a female clinician (already marginalized in her time), in a marginalized field. My mother, a married sociology graduate student around the same time, was forbidden to teach when she was pregnant as this was considered inappropriate for university students to see. Female students and clinicians were not common, were often not well supported and not provided with the mentorship and opportunities afforded to their male counterparts; and husband and wife teams were not uncommon in academia in that time where men had the credentials and women put in enormous amounts of labor without the credentials or credibility of their husbands. Theirs is an amazing story of the rise of famous and influential clinicians, but not an uncommon scientific partnership for the era.
I was also disturbed by Maier's apology for Crisis, which in fact did not prove out its main arguments. The driving force in HIV in the US and in most developed countries has not been a general heterosexual epidemic, and the "support" that Maier provides for this out of context and inaccurate. We do not need to further misunderstandings about HIV transmissions. Indeed, Maier appears to limit himself to popular accounts and sources and does little to put the biography into a scientific or clinical context. In some ways this is understandable because Masters and Johnson had enormous popular influence, and in other ways, it provides a shallow look into their work.
Still, in spite of all the complaining above, I found Masters of Sex to be well written and engaging. The conflicts between celebrity, fame, nepotism, science and good clinical work were clearly drawn, as well as a lack of "business" vision that doomed Masters and Johnson's clinic to ultimate failure. The relationship between Masters and Johnson was fascinating; regardless of how much love and affection there was between them, it was a true symbiotic partnership that transcended their marriage.
January 14, 2016
For the last several years, I have watched Showtime’s series by the same name, perhaps the reason I've come to know this book at all. In 1999, I read James H. Jones’s Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life, and, in 2004 T. C. Boyle’s novel, The Inner Circle in which Boyle delves further into Kinsey’s organization. Maier’s book seems to pick up where Kinsey’s story of investigating Americans’ sex lives leaves off (he dies in 1956). Whereas Kinsey uses an interview method with obvious limits and weaknesses, Masters and Johnson pioneer primarily an area of laboratory research investigating how the female in American culture achieves sexual satisfaction.
Maier’s research seems thorough, exploring the early lives of both William Masters and Virginia Johnson. As with all human beings, no matter how lofty their research aims later become, Masters and Johnson both have their strong and weak points as both scientists and human beings. Masters, after helping thousands of people in the St. Louis area achieve successful fertility, actually conceals from his first wife, Libby, that it is he who is the sterile partner. Because of her own initiative, Libby becomes informed of the situation and is artificially inseminated with Masters’s own semen (for some reason frozen). Moreover, Masters is a cold man emotionally, more than likely due to having been physically abused by his father; he is virtually estranged from both of his children though they all live in the same house. Virginia, a free spirit since birth, owns her sex life from an early age, experiencing a full sex life with various men, including her business partner, William Masters. Their relationship in the TV series is deemed more romantic than actually seems to happen. Like everything else in their lives, marrying becomes the easier choice: to work and live together. Legally bland.
One of the amazing elements of their research is that they were able to keep it under wraps from the local and national media:
Among Masters and Johnson's failures is their third book, one about homosexuality. It is basically panned and really begins a long, slow decline toward their ultimate demise in the 1980s. I annotated far more interesting points than I can present here. If you are at all interested in the research that most assuredly has brought our culture to where it is today—for good or ill—you need to read this four-hundred-page book. Soon.
Maier’s research seems thorough, exploring the early lives of both William Masters and Virginia Johnson. As with all human beings, no matter how lofty their research aims later become, Masters and Johnson both have their strong and weak points as both scientists and human beings. Masters, after helping thousands of people in the St. Louis area achieve successful fertility, actually conceals from his first wife, Libby, that it is he who is the sterile partner. Because of her own initiative, Libby becomes informed of the situation and is artificially inseminated with Masters’s own semen (for some reason frozen). Moreover, Masters is a cold man emotionally, more than likely due to having been physically abused by his father; he is virtually estranged from both of his children though they all live in the same house. Virginia, a free spirit since birth, owns her sex life from an early age, experiencing a full sex life with various men, including her business partner, William Masters. Their relationship in the TV series is deemed more romantic than actually seems to happen. Like everything else in their lives, marrying becomes the easier choice: to work and live together. Legally bland.
One of the amazing elements of their research is that they were able to keep it under wraps from the local and national media:
“For nearly a decade, their secret remained safe. Rumors of a lab study devoted to sex, operating in the heart of St. Louis, never appeared on television or radio or in print. As a personal favor to Masters, St. Louis Globe-Democrat publisher Richard Amberg vowed his daily newspaper wouldn’t breathe a word to its readers. The city’s other competing paper, owned by Pulitzer, stayed mum. Reporters for the Associated Press and United Press International, the two wire services beaming scoops across the world, also knew of this sensational human experiment but refused to say anything to the American public” (150).Wow.
Among Masters and Johnson's failures is their third book, one about homosexuality. It is basically panned and really begins a long, slow decline toward their ultimate demise in the 1980s. I annotated far more interesting points than I can present here. If you are at all interested in the research that most assuredly has brought our culture to where it is today—for good or ill—you need to read this four-hundred-page book. Soon.
May 4, 2014
I loved reading this biography, in which Maier really highlights the way that the contradictions in the relationship of these two researchers reflect some of the contradictions of their times. I can see after reading this book why Showtime decided to move ahead with the series; after finishing Season One, I was wondering where else they could possibly go, and the old cliché truth is stranger than fiction definitely applies here. Not only are many of the most vivid details from Season One drawn from real life, but also the possibilities for future seasons of the show are seemingly endless. They even party at the Playboy mansion at one point!
Maier paints a darker, more complex portrait of the relationship between Masters and Johnson that the Showtime series does. While the Showtime series does nod to the element of sexual harassment and threat in the beginning of their sexual relationship together, for the most part, it romanticizes their union. Maier looks much more unshrinkingly at the possibility that Johnson felt that she had to sleep with her boss in order to keep her rewarding job and, even more interestingly to me, that one of her great skills as a colleague was massaging egos and acting the way that her male compatriots (especially Masters) wanted her to. This is not to sell short her inventiveness, intelligence, and commitment to the work, especially once they turned to sex therapy rather than simply physiological studies, but rather to say that Maier does a wonderful job painting a portrait of a woman who at once is a model protofeminist achiever and also who lived a very conflicted life, filled with resentments, disappointments, and self-transformations.
Maier does a wonderful job letting the interviews speak for themselves. He always contextualizes the attitudes of the speakers in terms of their relative loyalties to Masters or Johnson (which become particularly divided as the century wears on), but he also allows the friction between different accounts of their romantic relationship and their professional collaboration generate a rich character study of both. Sometimes Masters seems arrogant, manipulative, and cold; from other vantagepoints, he was sincere, dedicated and approachable. Sometimes Johnson seems charismatic, determined, and inspiring, and from other vantagepoints, she seems ambitious, shrill, and controlling. I think Maier is an accomplished biographer, both in his clean, clear prose and in these balanced (yet compelling) portraits.
He also does a wonderful job introducing key midcentury cultural and historical touchstones to contextualize what they accomplished and the role that their studies and their celebrities played in the culture at large. A gripping account of a fascinating couple and the shifting attitudes towards sex from before the sexual revolution until the present day (or near it, as Masters died in 2001 and Johnson died in 2013).
Maier paints a darker, more complex portrait of the relationship between Masters and Johnson that the Showtime series does. While the Showtime series does nod to the element of sexual harassment and threat in the beginning of their sexual relationship together, for the most part, it romanticizes their union. Maier looks much more unshrinkingly at the possibility that Johnson felt that she had to sleep with her boss in order to keep her rewarding job and, even more interestingly to me, that one of her great skills as a colleague was massaging egos and acting the way that her male compatriots (especially Masters) wanted her to. This is not to sell short her inventiveness, intelligence, and commitment to the work, especially once they turned to sex therapy rather than simply physiological studies, but rather to say that Maier does a wonderful job painting a portrait of a woman who at once is a model protofeminist achiever and also who lived a very conflicted life, filled with resentments, disappointments, and self-transformations.
Maier does a wonderful job letting the interviews speak for themselves. He always contextualizes the attitudes of the speakers in terms of their relative loyalties to Masters or Johnson (which become particularly divided as the century wears on), but he also allows the friction between different accounts of their romantic relationship and their professional collaboration generate a rich character study of both. Sometimes Masters seems arrogant, manipulative, and cold; from other vantagepoints, he was sincere, dedicated and approachable. Sometimes Johnson seems charismatic, determined, and inspiring, and from other vantagepoints, she seems ambitious, shrill, and controlling. I think Maier is an accomplished biographer, both in his clean, clear prose and in these balanced (yet compelling) portraits.
He also does a wonderful job introducing key midcentury cultural and historical touchstones to contextualize what they accomplished and the role that their studies and their celebrities played in the culture at large. A gripping account of a fascinating couple and the shifting attitudes towards sex from before the sexual revolution until the present day (or near it, as Masters died in 2001 and Johnson died in 2013).
January 9, 2014
I began reading this excellent biography as a result of watching the Showtime series of the same name. Initially, I found myself annoyed by the disparities between the two sources -- the show changes many things in the book by inventing characters, or combining them -- but ultimately found that it didn't matter. The story of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, whether fictionalized, or presented realistically, is still compelling and fresh as it probes to get at the universal truths underlying the connections between sex and love.
Thomas Maier's balanced approach to the material does a fantastic job allowing the story to unfold in an unbiased way. If anything, he comes across as too compassionate towards the subjects during periods of their life when they should have been roasted. During the late 70s, they published a book about homosexuality that uttered all sorts of nonsense about conversion therapy, yet the book implies that Masters's research about the material was possibly fabricated. We get a similarly dishonest take on Johnson as colleagues often thought she didn't even read the books they "wrote" before making appearances on TV.
Yet, it is this compassion that serves Maier well, and allows him to probe the essential questions at the heart of Masters and Johnson's public relationship: were they in love? Is it possible to separate love from the sexual equation? The book leaves no doubt of the importance and influence their landmark research and therapy techniques had on the field of sexology, yet as it peels back the layers of their characters and relationships, it also shows the cost. Left in the wake are the shattered relationships with spouses, children, co-workers, colleagues, and their own identities. At the end of the book, we discover that Masters, after divorcing Johnson, rekindles a romance with a young woman from his youth, incessantly uttering the mantra that she was the love of his life. This sums up the sadness that resides in the heart of this book, that on some level William Masters wanted to leave behind all of his pioneering work to return to a simpler time with a simple woman, without all the complications of sex and science.
Masters of Sex is an engrossing, in depth portrait of two guarded people, their controversial, essential work, and the toll it took on them. If the television show, despite making its adaptation necessary changes, can continue its great work exploring these themes, it will be fitting tribute.
Thomas Maier's balanced approach to the material does a fantastic job allowing the story to unfold in an unbiased way. If anything, he comes across as too compassionate towards the subjects during periods of their life when they should have been roasted. During the late 70s, they published a book about homosexuality that uttered all sorts of nonsense about conversion therapy, yet the book implies that Masters's research about the material was possibly fabricated. We get a similarly dishonest take on Johnson as colleagues often thought she didn't even read the books they "wrote" before making appearances on TV.
Yet, it is this compassion that serves Maier well, and allows him to probe the essential questions at the heart of Masters and Johnson's public relationship: were they in love? Is it possible to separate love from the sexual equation? The book leaves no doubt of the importance and influence their landmark research and therapy techniques had on the field of sexology, yet as it peels back the layers of their characters and relationships, it also shows the cost. Left in the wake are the shattered relationships with spouses, children, co-workers, colleagues, and their own identities. At the end of the book, we discover that Masters, after divorcing Johnson, rekindles a romance with a young woman from his youth, incessantly uttering the mantra that she was the love of his life. This sums up the sadness that resides in the heart of this book, that on some level William Masters wanted to leave behind all of his pioneering work to return to a simpler time with a simple woman, without all the complications of sex and science.
Masters of Sex is an engrossing, in depth portrait of two guarded people, their controversial, essential work, and the toll it took on them. If the television show, despite making its adaptation necessary changes, can continue its great work exploring these themes, it will be fitting tribute.
November 17, 2015
Brilliant, intelligent, educational and well written bio on the lives of two incredibly intricate, passionate, dedicated and interesting people. What a life they lived and what a contribution to society they made. As a companion to the tv series 'Masters of sex' of which was based on this non-fiction book, it gives extra insight & more detail on the research, it's protocol and back story on the 'characters'. Bill, as per the show, was a real hard ass work-a-holic, not exactly likable... but admirable, who had a deeply hidden angst for a romantic longing, and Gini, well is as charming and smart as the show portrays.
I found myself writing lots of notes in my updates as I read this book. It provoked alot of questions which also lead to more research on the sexology industry.... From Kinsey (who came first in 'groundbreaking research'...the old chicken or the egg debate of which I definetly credit M&J for breaking new ground - controversial as it was!) to researching how the female orgasm was used as a medical technique to 'cure hysteria'. It definetly provokes interest for more education as it is SO interesting.
I was interested to read that all subjects who participated in the sex research wore pillow cases over their faces to protect their anonymity, (something the show doesn't show) and even though i am very open minded and impressed that this team broke such controversial new ground in the 50's and beyond, I was a bit appauled to read that they allowed a pregnant woman to participate in a coupled sex research session (whose sex partner then delivered her baby....gross...was there NO moral code :/ ?)
The personal lives of Bill and Gini were very jaggered to say the least. For a couple who spent their lives dedicated to sexology industry, who have created a legacy, it is such an obvious catch 22 to see that while preaching intimacy, sex and yes even love. They never really found the right formular for love.
BRILLIANT BOOK.
RECOMMENDED.
*Extras
*Loved learning about Bills first wife Libby- awesome, strong, classy woman.
*The 'DESTINY of Bill and Gini's meeting, their time as work mates, then a married couple and then a divorced couple...is all so interesting, so many questions of 'what if' , a real 'Sliding Doors' subtext throught the book regarding their meeting, Bill's past and romantic past (Dody) and Gini's never-to-be other romantic interests.
Great book.
I found myself writing lots of notes in my updates as I read this book. It provoked alot of questions which also lead to more research on the sexology industry.... From Kinsey (who came first in 'groundbreaking research'...the old chicken or the egg debate of which I definetly credit M&J for breaking new ground - controversial as it was!) to researching how the female orgasm was used as a medical technique to 'cure hysteria'. It definetly provokes interest for more education as it is SO interesting.
I was interested to read that all subjects who participated in the sex research wore pillow cases over their faces to protect their anonymity, (something the show doesn't show) and even though i am very open minded and impressed that this team broke such controversial new ground in the 50's and beyond, I was a bit appauled to read that they allowed a pregnant woman to participate in a coupled sex research session (whose sex partner then delivered her baby....gross...was there NO moral code :/ ?)
The personal lives of Bill and Gini were very jaggered to say the least. For a couple who spent their lives dedicated to sexology industry, who have created a legacy, it is such an obvious catch 22 to see that while preaching intimacy, sex and yes even love. They never really found the right formular for love.
BRILLIANT BOOK.
RECOMMENDED.
*Extras
*Loved learning about Bills first wife Libby- awesome, strong, classy woman.
*The 'DESTINY of Bill and Gini's meeting, their time as work mates, then a married couple and then a divorced couple...is all so interesting, so many questions of 'what if' , a real 'Sliding Doors' subtext throught the book regarding their meeting, Bill's past and romantic past (Dody) and Gini's never-to-be other romantic interests.
Great book.
January 21, 2014
Masters of Sex: The life and times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the couple who taught America how to love,” by Thomas Maier (2010, Basic Books paperback). Yes, I’m reading this because of the TV series—but also because Tom is a former colleague of mine from Newsday. First, it is clear that TV took a lot of liberties---not with the basic science, the personalities of the two protagonists, or the way they carried out the research, but all the added characters and plot lines that make it good drama. Very well written, scrupulous research (Johnson was still alive when he began, so he did lengthy interviews with her). It can easily be argued that M/J, after Kinsey, built the foundation for the second feminist revolution of the 1950s onward. They also destroyed a lot of Freudianism, beginning with the idea of the clitoral vs vaginal orgasm. Freud said only mature women had vaginal orgasms. M/J proved that there was no difference. They showed that women were multiorgasmic and could have orgasms lasting a long time, that they were, basically, superior to men when it comes to sexual pleasure. Among the remarkable things: how easily and even enthusiastically women (and men) in St. Louis volunteered to have their most intimate moments recorded electronically and visually. Masters did have to fight hard to get the project going; Johnson had no training, but turned out to be supremely intuitive and able to comfort and persuade the subjects to go ahead with the project and to reveal their histories. But the book goes through their entire lives, including their 20-year, essentially loveless marriage (they worked together so long and so closely, why not?). He was cold, impersonal, extremely private, precise and demanding. She was warmer, more open, but also precise and careful. But after a few decades, they lost their way. Masters foundered on efforts to “cure” or “convert’ homosexuals. His later books did not do well. They were bad businesspeople, and when there were sex clinics all over the country using the techniques and data they had developed and collected, there was less need for their own clinic. Their process was expensive, but needed just two weeks to solve almost all the problems they encountered. An important book, and the series does them justice.
http://www.thomasmaierbooks.com
October 20, 2023
This was an interesting examination of both the lives and the work done by Virginia Johnson and William Masters. More than any other researchers, with the possible exception of Kinsey, they came to represent the changing times and the sexual revolution. Their seminal (🤭) work was Human Sexual Response and it represented years of research into the mechanics of sex, how arousal occurs, how male and female organs react. While couched in clinical terms, this was a revolutionary book that captured the American public and vaulted the duo into public consciousness.
This book gives you insights into the backgrounds of both Bill Masters and Ginny Johnson. The forces that shaped them and brought them together, first as work partners, and later as marital partners. It is interesting, especially if you've seen the miniseries based on this book, and gives you a complete look at the good and bad aspects of their collaboration as well as explores some of the controversies surrounding them. Overall it was good, although it did seem to drag a little at times as it bogged down in the minutiae. They were the first to come out publicly and acknowledge that women were sexual beings and for that alone will be remembered as leaders in the sexual awakening of America.
This book gives you insights into the backgrounds of both Bill Masters and Ginny Johnson. The forces that shaped them and brought them together, first as work partners, and later as marital partners. It is interesting, especially if you've seen the miniseries based on this book, and gives you a complete look at the good and bad aspects of their collaboration as well as explores some of the controversies surrounding them. Overall it was good, although it did seem to drag a little at times as it bogged down in the minutiae. They were the first to come out publicly and acknowledge that women were sexual beings and for that alone will be remembered as leaders in the sexual awakening of America.
January 1, 2016
As much as it is a biography of the famous sex-research duo, Masters and Johnson, Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love is about the sexual revolution that took place in the United States between the 1950s and 70s.
Masters and Johnson, of course, are the male/female team (who later married then divorced) who conducted years of scientific research on the physiology of sex. Their work destroyed myths and helped fuel the feminist movement even though neither Masters nor Johnson were interested in any such political movement. Their work also led to an entirely new approach to sex therapy. Yet, their work also led to questionable practices such as the use of surrogates and conversion therapy for gays and lesbians.
I do not usually enjoy reading biographies, but I did like this one. The author clearly admired Masters and Johnson yet was able to show not only their courage and insight, but their loneliness and pain. Their relationship fascinated me. Though they probably did not love each other, they were both so wedded to the work that they needed each other. In fact, Masters thought the word "love" was too imprecise and Johnson said "she had never married anybody I really cared about.”
The book takes us through the "uptight" 50s to the sexual revolution and into the age of AIDS. It shows us the physiology and science of sex but leaves the reader with the knowledge that love and romance are probably as important and mysterious.
Masters and Johnson, of course, are the male/female team (who later married then divorced) who conducted years of scientific research on the physiology of sex. Their work destroyed myths and helped fuel the feminist movement even though neither Masters nor Johnson were interested in any such political movement. Their work also led to an entirely new approach to sex therapy. Yet, their work also led to questionable practices such as the use of surrogates and conversion therapy for gays and lesbians.
I do not usually enjoy reading biographies, but I did like this one. The author clearly admired Masters and Johnson yet was able to show not only their courage and insight, but their loneliness and pain. Their relationship fascinated me. Though they probably did not love each other, they were both so wedded to the work that they needed each other. In fact, Masters thought the word "love" was too imprecise and Johnson said "she had never married anybody I really cared about.”
The book takes us through the "uptight" 50s to the sexual revolution and into the age of AIDS. It shows us the physiology and science of sex but leaves the reader with the knowledge that love and romance are probably as important and mysterious.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 339 reviews