The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm: Difference between revisions
Katastroid (talk | contribs) m Clarified the name of the journal, added primary sources that Koedt draws on, clarified origins of essay and date published |
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'''''The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm''''' is a classic [[Feminism|feminist]] |
'''''The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm''''' is a classic [[Feminism|feminist]] essay on [[Human female sexuality|women's sexuality]], written by [[Anne Koedt]], an [[United States|American]] feminist, in 1968 and published in 1970. It first appeared in a four-paragraph outline form in the '<i>Notes from the Second Year</i> journal published by the [[New York Radical Women]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gerhard|first=Jane|title=Revisiting "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm": The Female Orgasm in American Sexual Thought and Second Wave Feminism|journal=Feminist Studies|date=Summer 2000|volume=26|issue=2|pages=449–476|doi=10.2307/3178545|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178545}}</ref> and was partially based on findings from [[Masters and Johnson]]'s 1966 work ''Human Sexual Response''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Henry|first=Astrid|title=Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism|year=2004|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0-253-34454-0|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=W4U4Ss1OZGoC&lpg=PA83&dq=%22Myth%20of%20the%20Vaginal%20Orgasm%22&pg=PA83#v=onepage&q&f=false|page=83}}</ref>. The "Myth" was then distributed as a pamphlet in its full form <ref>http://www.blogher.com/remarkable-woman-anne-koedt</ref>, including sections on evidence for the clitoral orgasm, female anatomy, and reasons the "myth" is maintained <ref>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html</ref> |
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Koedt wrote this feminist response during the [[sexual revolution]] of the 1960s. The goal of this response is to address both the 'myth of the [[vaginal orgasm]]', create awareness and education for |
Koedt wrote this feminist response during the [[sexual revolution]] of the 1960s. The goal of this response is to address both the 'myth of the [[vaginal orgasm]]', create awareness and education for women and men about female sexual pleasure, and to counter previous thought about the female orgasm. Koedt reflects in her writing, "It was [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]'s feelings about women's secondary and inferior relationship to men that formed the basis for his theories on female sexuality. Once having laid down the law about the nature of our sexuality, Freud not so strangely discovered a tremendous problem of [[frigidity]] in women. His recommended cure for a woman who was frigid was psychiatric care. She was suffering from failure to mentally adjust to her "natural" role as a woman."<ref>Anne Koedt, "The Myth Of The Vaginal Orgasm", (1970).</ref> Koedt breaks societal barriers of what is considered acceptable to discuss and her article played a vital role in the feminist sexual revolution.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wade|first=Lisa|title=Orgasmic Birth and the Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm|url=http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/01/05/orgasmic-birth-and-the-myth-of-the-vaginal-orgasm/|publisher=Sociological Images|date=January 5, 2009}}</ref> |
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Koedt also draws on research done by [[Alfred Kinsey]] about [[human sexuality]] to support her claims. <ref>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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* [[Clitoris]] |
* [[Clitoris]] |
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* [[Non-penetrative sex]] |
* [[Non-penetrative sex]] |
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* [[Radical feminism]] |
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==References== |
==References== |
Revision as of 19:39, 3 June 2014
The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm is a classic feminist essay on women's sexuality, written by Anne Koedt, an American feminist, in 1968 and published in 1970. It first appeared in a four-paragraph outline form in the 'Notes from the Second Year journal published by the New York Radical Women[1] and was partially based on findings from Masters and Johnson's 1966 work Human Sexual Response.[2]. The "Myth" was then distributed as a pamphlet in its full form [3], including sections on evidence for the clitoral orgasm, female anatomy, and reasons the "myth" is maintained [4]
Koedt wrote this feminist response during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. The goal of this response is to address both the 'myth of the vaginal orgasm', create awareness and education for women and men about female sexual pleasure, and to counter previous thought about the female orgasm. Koedt reflects in her writing, "It was Freud's feelings about women's secondary and inferior relationship to men that formed the basis for his theories on female sexuality. Once having laid down the law about the nature of our sexuality, Freud not so strangely discovered a tremendous problem of frigidity in women. His recommended cure for a woman who was frigid was psychiatric care. She was suffering from failure to mentally adjust to her "natural" role as a woman."[5] Koedt breaks societal barriers of what is considered acceptable to discuss and her article played a vital role in the feminist sexual revolution.[6]
Koedt also draws on research done by Alfred Kinsey about human sexuality to support her claims. [7]
See also
References
- ^ Gerhard, Jane (Summer 2000). "Revisiting "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm": The Female Orgasm in American Sexual Thought and Second Wave Feminism". Feminist Studies. 26 (2): 449–476. doi:10.2307/3178545.
- ^ Henry, Astrid (2004). Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-253-34454-0.
- ^ http://www.blogher.com/remarkable-woman-anne-koedt
- ^ http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html
- ^ Anne Koedt, "The Myth Of The Vaginal Orgasm", (1970).
- ^ Wade, Lisa (January 5, 2009). "Orgasmic Birth and the Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm". Sociological Images.
- ^ http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html