The Scientific and Medical Study of Sex

1. The Scientific and Medical Study of Sex Scott Stewart PHIL 2103

2. Defining Science • Consists in “systematic observation, measurement, experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.” • Hypothetico-Deductive method • (1) Form a hypothesis, (2) State its implications, (3) Test the implications, (4a) If it fails, reject hypothesis and start again, (4b) If it passes, retest and build up (inductive) support for the probable truth of the hypothesis. • Popper, Falsifiabilty

3. Alternative view of science • Kuhn and the sociology of science: scientific paradigms and scientific revolutions • Hubbard and “fact makers” • ‘Science wars’: positivism vs. Social constructionism

4. Is sexology a science? • 19’th century & fear of sex, especially masturbation and homosexuality • Early 20th century: Sigmund Freud: Dream and unconscious, Oedipus or Electra complex, Thanatos • Case studies • Problems: skewed, unrepresentative samples; refusal to accept falsifiability

5. Mid and later 20th century • Alfred Kinsey: biological rigour and huge samples. Americans more sexual than was thought previously • William Master and Virginia Johnson: sex therapy; 4 stage sexual response cycle – excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution • John Money and the sex-gender distinction • Michel Foucault: knowledge-power and the social construction of sex and sex and gender roles

6. Female Orgasm • 2 issues: (1)Source of female orgasms, (2) whether female orgasm plays any biological, reproductive role. • Freud and psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital. Healthy, adult should focus of vaginal and not clitoral orgasms • Marie Bonaparte and the surgical relocation of clitoris. • Kinsey and empirical evidence (only 20% of women attain orgasm without direct clitoral stimulation)

7. Elisabeth Lloyd • Adaptionist vs nonadaptionist accounts of female orgasms • Adaptionist accounts, where female orgasms taken to have some evolutionary benefit: • (i) pair bonding accounts, female orgasm cement pair bonding (and monogamy) and keep male around to help rear children • Problem: women don’t usually orgasm from vaginal penetration alone.

8. Lloyd • (ii) non-pair bonding accounts: e.g., Hrdy. Women need longer sex to attain orgasm and will continue to copulate until they are sexually satisfied. Lots of promiscuity which ensures pregnancy and a number of men (who may be the father) will help rear children. • Problem: No evidence that women ever behaved in this way.

9. Lloyd • (iii) sperm selection accounts: • Upsuck hypothesis: female orgasm causes uterus to upsuck sperm adding to likelihood of pregnancy. • Problem: No evidence for upsuck and likely orgasm does the opposite.

10. Lloyd • Lloyd’s thesis: (1) adaptionist accounts sexist (because looking for similarities b/w sexes when there isn’t any) and a focus on vaginal intercourse. • (ii) Female orgasm is a by-product of evolution, like nipples in men and has no evolutionary value.

11. Medicalization of sex • The process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions and problems, and this under the authority of doctors and other health professional to study, diagnose, prevent, or treat. • Tiefer: a process of establishing universal norms, and then declaring all variations disordered and in need of treatment.

12. Pharma’s big influence • Erectile dysfunction & the move away from “Impotence” • ED: a persistent or recurrent inability to attain, or to maintain until completion of the sexual activity, an adequate erection and which cause the person marked stress or interpersonal difficulty

13. Sildenafil (Viagra) • Angina: Failed tests but a side effect • 70% success rate for men with ED & approved in March 1998 in US. • Vasodilators and sexual desire • Psychological, emotional, and relationship problems vs. Physiological problems • Expansion to new markets