Sex Research Archives

Inside Sexplorations. Photo Credit: Betsy Dorsett.

The first Thursday of every month, The Exploratorium holds a special night called “After Dark.” Each After Dark event showcases the scientific aspects behind “adult interests,” whether it be alcohol, sex or fashion. On February 4th, After Dark presented their program on all things sexual entitled “Sexplorations.” In between visiting the bar, patrons can check out live dissections of testicles, learn about the sex life of orchids and insects, and see the inner workings of vibrators. Want to know what testicles taste like? They offered that. Pined away trying to figure out which animal has the biggest sperm? It’s the fruit fly, that little bastards’ sperm is bigger than itself. Frankly, Sexplorations was a Valhalla for sex bio geeks, but a frustrating experience for those who are more interested in the cultural history of sex and sexuality. I was somewhere in between.

The keynote speech of the night was by Mary Roach, the author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Along with Bonk, Roach has written Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. More recently, Roach gained popularity from her featured lecture at TED Talks, entitled “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm” (Video of the lecture posted below). Roach’s humorous and thoughtful approach towards her study on sexual research was full of embarrassing and insightful aspects of sexuality researchers.

To begin, Roach discussed how being a sex researcher can be a bit awkward, how even just telling people what kind of work you do can get a bit embarrassing depending on the other persons reaction. As an example of the awkward aspects of being asexuality researcher Roach discussed a one Dr. Brimley who discovered a type of substance that when injected right into the penis can cause an impressive erection. Completely excited about this he showed up to his next black and white affair wearing a flimsy track suit. As the men and women wore expensive suits and glamorous gowns, Dr. Brimley walked around pulling the fabric to his track pants back to show the outline of his hard on. The guests looked appalled and the Doctor couldn’t understand why they weren’t impressed by his tumescence.

At points Mary Roach reiterated her TED Talks lecture, even showing the notorious romancing the pig video, but overall it was great to see her discuss her research and experience with sex researchers live. One unfortunate aspect that came up through her lecture was the lack of diversity in much of the sex research she encountered. Most of the researchers she interviewed were studying strictly heterosexual forms of sex for the purpose of reproduction. The more exciting aspects of her lecture were times when she met with a woman who could orgasm just through thought. The problem is that little biological and physiological research is being done when discussing non-heterosexual sex, other than when researchers want to find difference in brain size or finger length. However, I did appreciate that much of Roach’s book is dedicated to research on pleasure and orgasm, and seemingly not for the purpose of making desire abnormal.

Towards the end of her lecture, Mary Roach discussed coming across fascinating articles like “Observations of In Utero Fetal Masturbation,” where sonograms of little fetuses tugging it were the feature exhibit of the research study. Mary Roach then ended with a list she received from an article on foreign bodies found in the rectums of ER patients: frozen pig tails, hairspray can “incarcerated in a 37 year-old lawyer,” spatula, jewelers saw, and four hundred and two stones. Things that make you go “ow!”

Below is Mary Roach’s TED Talks lecture, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm,” if you’d like to view the video with one of fifteen translated subtitles or view the transcript, click here to view the video on the TED website.

To read more or purchase her books, follow the links below: