Teaching America About Sex: Marriage Guides and Sex Manuals from the Late Victorians to Dr. Ruth.

Teaching America About Sex: Marriage Guides and Sex Manuals from the Late Victorians to Dr. Ruth. By M. E. Melody and Linda M. Peterson. New York: New York University Press, 1999, 304 pages. Cloth, $28.95.

Reviewed by Vern L. Bullough, R.N., Ph.D., Department of Nursing, University of Southern California, Center for Health Professions, 1540 East Alcazar St., Los Angeles, CA 90033; e-mail: [e-mail].

Over the past two centuries there have been hundreds of published marriage guides and sex manuals. Melody and Peterson examine some of them, emphasizing a feminist perspective and illustrating the changes that took place over time. However, the authors are highly selective in the manuals they include, and their coverage of the twentieth century is much better than their coverage of the nineteenth. The nineteenth-century manuals selected for inclusion were authored by Hanchett and Kellogg, and neither were the most widely read nor most important of the sex manuals (and both emphasized the dangers of masturbation). Overlooked by the current authors are individuals like Knowlton, Foote, and others who had more positive messages about sex, and were probably more widely read.

The first American sex manual was probably Aristotle's Masterpiece, which dates from at least the seventeenth century and was widely read in the United States from colonial times through to the twentieth century. There are many editions and each printer modified it somewhat. Although Melody and Peterson include Aristotle's Masterpiece, their discussion of it is not particularly accurate. They do emphasize, however, that in the mishmash of information included in Aristotle's Masterpiece the importance of the clitoris and the sexual responsiveness of women was emphasized, a theme somewhat different from the other nineteenth-century manuals. Overall, in a period in which there were dozens of sex manuals, the authors' coverage of the nineteenth century is not necessarily representative and may give a misleading impression of the era.

Comments on the twentieth-century sex manuals are the core of the book, but here too the authors ignore important individuals, such as Robinson, Dickinson, and others who were particularly influential in changing American attitudes. Similarly, the authors do not include much of the socialist and free love literature put out under the "Little Blue Book" label by Haldeman-Julius. The result is a somewhat distorted picture of the ferment about sexuality which took place. The authors seemed to either not know or not care about discoveries taking place in the sexuality field, except to make a passing reference to the role of hormones.

I have pointed to weaknesses in Teaching America About Sex, but there are strengths, including detailed analysis of a selective group of twentieth-century writers. Melody and Peterson are particularly solid in their coverage of Sanger, Collins, Wile and Winn, R. Binkley and F. Binkley, and Groves, all of whom wrote in the 1920s. The current authors' coverage of Stopes, probably the most influential Of the writers and one who emphasized the importance of sexual satisfaction for women, is not as strong and based upon only one of her books.

One of the interesting things Melody and Peterson point out is the changing viewpoint in some of the standard manuals over various editions, particularly in the writings of van de Velde, probably the dominant figure of the 1930s and 1940s. In his original edition, information and data about anatomical and physiological aspects of sexuality was not always accurate. He also initially opposed use of any artificial birth control method, but quickly changed his mind. Although van de Velde emphasized heterosexual intercourse within marriage, he was a strong believer in foreplay, including oral sex, the possibility of copulation during menstruation, and the use of a variety of positions for sexual intercourse. Surprisingly, some of the later manuals, like the one issued by H. Stone and A. Stone in the early 1950s, seemed much more prudish than the earlier work of van de Velde.

The best part of Teaching America About Sex is the analysis of the post-World War II writers: Chesser, Ruben, and Comfort. The authors are much more tolerant of Ruben than I would be, and somewhat more critical of Comfort. Melody and Peterson also cover books by Silverstein and his collaborators, as well as Sisley and her successors, which finally break the heterosexual barriers and talk about the joys of gay and lesbian sex. Teaching America About Sex ends with an examination of various editions of works by Westheimer, who seemingly became more conservative in her later books than in her earlier ones.

Melody and Peterson propose that there was a change over time in American sex manuals, from what might be called a Christian theology of sex, one the current authors believe was hostile to sexual pleasure, to one far more accepting of sex. For a time, sex manuals, such as those by Comfort, seem to tolerate if not encourage promiscuity; a concept rejected by Westheimer in her books. Most of the sex manuals remained male centered and, except for the lesbian-oriented books, emphasized penetration. Even some of the later manual writers like Chesser emphasized worry about the undisciplined nature of female desire and advocated that the aim of sexual intercourse must be conception. Melody and Peterson end with a plea that males need to be freed from the tyranny of power and performance and females from their unnatural "natural selves."

In spite of the deficiencies I noted, Teaching America About Sex makes for interesting reading. Also, there is a good index and a lengthy bibliography. Unfortunately, however, several key works are missing and others are included that have little to do with the subject at hand.