Emilia Koehn

Topic

The Science and Art of Feminist Somatic Sex Education: Teaching Pleasure in the Mid- to Late Twentieth Century

Department of English

Date & location

• Wednesday, January 14, 2026
• 3:00 P.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room B021

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Rachel Cleves, Department of History, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Lynne Marks, Department of History, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Thea Cacchioni, Department of Gender Studies, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. William Carroll, Department of Sociology, UVic

Abstract

Today, female orgasms promise freedom: freedom from bad sex, from unhappy relationships, and sometimes even from the patriarchy. For those who struggle to orgasm, a plethora of “sexperts” offer solutions often in the form of somatic sex education. “The Science and Art of Feminist Somatic Sex Education: Teaching Pleasure in the Mid- to Late Twentieth Century” explores the evolution of somatic sex instruction for pre-orgasmic women from a tradition of scientia sexualis to an ars erotica. Using archival texts, oral histories, and secondary literature, this thesis highlights the sexologists William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, the psychologist Lonnie Barbach, and the artist Betty Dodson as important shapers of the discourse of female sexuality. Dissatisfied with the psychoanalytic treatments of “frigidity,” they set out to create new methodologies. In the 1960s and 1970s, Masters and Johnson achieved nationwide fame for their physiological research into the human sexual response and their consequent method for treating couples’ sexual “inadequacies.” Building on their work, Barbach created “pre-orgasmic therapy groups,” a distinctly feminist alternative to Masters and Johnson. This positions her in a sexual scientific discourse which Foucault termed scientia sexualis. Dodson, on the other hand, created a more artistic and spiritual approach with her Bodysex workshops, which place her in the orientalist and essentializing discourse of ars erotica. This thesis argues that its subjects were not lonesome pioneers who rose against the oppressive mainstream, even though many like to frame them as such. Instead, it locates them within wider discourses, such as the sexual revolution, radical and cultural feminism, neo-spirituality, and oppressive structures of race and gender. Barbach and Dodson have been overlooked by historians, but their stories are an important part of second-wave pro-sex feminism and help us better understand how sex has been framed as a site of empowerment.