Masters and Johnson are two famous scientists who studied the physiology of
sexual response.
William Howell Masters is a
gynecologist from
Ohio born in 1915. And
Virginia Eshelman Johnson is a female
psychologist from
Montana born in 1925. They have been studying
sexual disorders,
sexual excitement, and all other parts of
sexuality since 1957. They also have become experts in sexual
therapy.
They acted as a follow up to the
human sexuality research performed by
Alfred Kinsey. They wrote a follow up to Kinsey's
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male with the book
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. These books allowed for more open discussion on sexuality. Many people were hesitant to talk about
sex during this time, but these began a revolution of
sexual awareness. Their primary contribution defines sexuality as a healthy human trait and the experience of intimacy and pleasure during sex as socially acceptable. They were the first to describe the
physiological changes during sex. They documented the inevitability of an
ejaculation after a certain point in the
sexual response cycle. The
male refractory period was first discovered and documented by them. They discovered that sexual response relating to
intercourse and
masturbation is basically universal. And they wrote first on the capacity of
females for
multiple orgasms.
They began their research by building a machine to record human sexual response. They researched on over 700
men and
women during different situations such as intercourse and masturbation. The recorded over 10,000 episodes of activity. Based upon their findings they wrote a book in 1966 titled
Human Sexual Response. See
Sexual Response Cycle. They became celebrities as the book became a best seller and
sexuality became more accepted. Soon after the book's release Masters
divorced his
wife and married Johnson.
In 1970, they published
Human Sexual Inadequacy. This book dealt with dysfunctions such as
premature ejaculation and
impotence. During this time
sex therapy was also born.
Their next book
Homosexuality in Perspective, described the sexual responses of
gay men and
lesbians, and was published in 1979. We can thank this book for the rejection of the idea that
homosexuality as a
mental illness. However they did say that people could change their sexuality. This obviously brought much controversy from the
liberal straight and
gay communities.
The last book they wrote was published in 1988 and was titled
Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS. This was not well received, because it encouraged
condom use in the
heterosexual community.
Unfortunately their expertise on relationships could not help them. After 30 years Masters and Johnson divorced. During their time together they did start a
sex clinic in
St. Louis called simply Masters and Johnson. This clinic was based on research and therapy.