The Best of Sexology: Kinky and Kooky Excerpts from America's First Sex Magazine

by Craig Yoe (Editor)

Sexology, founded in 1933, was America's first sex magazine. Through its fifty-year run, Grandma and Grandpa got a rollicking taste of sexual exotica in articles such as...• Extra Breasts in Women
• Sexual Vampirism
• Pregnant Men
• Priapism: Uncontrollable Erections
•When Midgets Marry
•Homosexual Chickens
• Twin Beds or Single?
•Humans With Tails
• Do Women Marry each Other?
• Sexual Tattooing
• Can Humans and Animals Crossbreed?

From the looney to the libertine to the downright lecherous, Sexology covered it all . . . or should we say uncovered? Readers will laugh and learn in this hilarious book collecting the best of Sexology—it may even be better than sex itself!

Genres: Sexuality, Humor

480 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2008

About the author

Craig Yoe is an author, editor, art director, graphic designer, cartoonist and comics historian, best known for his Yoe! Studio creations and his line of Yoe! Books. Yoe is married to Clizia Gussoni, who is also his creative partner

Reviews

[Terence]

The Best of Sexology collects a range of articles from Hugo Gernsback’s groundbreaking Sexology magazine (1933-83), whose mission was to make “sex” and information about sex a topic for open and honest discussion.

The articles range from tabloid-worthy subjects like human-animal crossbreeds and BDSM essays that were more titillation than information to issues like transgenderism and maintaining healthy sexual relationships. Of this latter category, two examples that stood out to me were an essay written by who we would call a trans-woman today in the November 1959 issue narrating her journey from living as a man to (through a lucky break) finally being able to live as a woman. Another essay, from the May 1954 edition, begins, “Biologists, sexological scientists and researchers increasingly have come to the conclusion that there is no such individual as a 100% male or a 100% female.” Of the former sort, there’s the May 1940 article claiming to be able to determine a woman’s personality based on the shape of her legs. Or the two-part “Mechanics of Sexual Odor” (Nov-Dec 1945), which contains gems like: “Red-haired women have a stronger odor than brunettes; blondes have a milder odor. The odor of brunettes has been compared to that of ebony wood; that of blondes to the odor of amber…. The fact that prostitutes have a definite odor – an unpleasant rancid odor – has long been recognized” and “According to Jäger, homosexuals cannot find sexual satisfaction with a woman because to homosexuals the whole woman smells bad, particularly her breasts and lap.”

The Best of Sexology is an interesting snapshot into the constant struggle to understand human sexuality as opposed to condemning and persecuting it as too many of us today would like to do. It often crosses the line into sensationalism over professionalism but it always presented its subjects in a sympathetic light (and, yes, often a patronizing, sexist and/or racist one but still a far cry from the usual self-righteous persecutions of society at large).

[Ruth Collier]

A great time capsule of articles from the 1930's to 1960's. Some is hilarious, some is quite dry, some repetitive (the multiple articles on fetishism all seem to make the same points) but it's a good mix.
Of course there are a lot of predjudiced views included, but some of it is also quite progressive for the time it was written.

[Steve]

While at a book-signing for SECRET IDENTITY: THE FETISH ART OF SUPERMAN'S CO-CREATOR JOE SHUSTER, I chanced upon another fun bit of pop culture archaeology from author/historian Craig Yoe and found it to be right up my prurient alley. That delightful find was THE BEST OF SEXOLOGY-THE ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE OF SEX & SCIENCE, a compendium of articles that ran in the nation's first sex magazine, and from the look of the content it was probably seen as a legitimate journal of information on all matters sexual, be it biological schematics, examination of human sexuality and assorted fetishes from around the world, and even looks at the sex lives of famed historical figures.

Founded in 1933 and lasting well into the 1970's, SEXOLOGY also featured its share of truly sensationalistic and totally ridiculous material, prime examples of which find their way between the covers of this volume. Among the book's many fascinating topics can be found the following:

* Homosexual chickens
* Can humans and animals crossbreed?
* Poverty and sex immorality
* Why women become prostitutes
* Pregnant men
* Adolf Hitler's secret sex life
* A history of chastity belts
* Priapism...Uncontrollable erections
* Napoleon's sex conquests
* Sex organ worship
* Polymastia...Multiple breasts
* Why do men do it? (an explanation of male cross-dressing)
* Types of French prostitutes (an invaluable field guide)
* The story of a lesbian
* Sex among the Eskimos
* Sex and Satan
* Famous transvestites
* "Why I am a Fetishist" by "Boots"
* When midgets marry...
* The sex life of Victor Hugo

And much, much more, all contained in a 480-page extravaganza that can be had for a mere $14.95. And a good deal of the material is surprisingly sensitive and enlightened for its time, so THE BEST OF SEXOLOGY is that rare book that doubles as entertainment and a look back through time at sexual issues that still hold our interest and fascination, although how homosexual poultry enters into the discussion is somewhat beyond me. RECOMMENDED.

[Karl Kindt]

You may know that the Hugo Award, which is science fiction's most prestigious award, is named after Hugo Gernsback, the grandpa of sci-fi. But did you know he also was editor of this magazine? As crazy and silly as people's beliefs about sex were in the 1930s-1960s, this got boring after awhile.

[Shannon]

Interesting read

[Benson Hawk]

Poor.

[Honeylynn]

I found this book to be quite humorous, entertaining and very interesting.