Today, I would like to introduce something that I find cool:
Sexology.
Believe it or not, I discovered this term in one of the least conventional ways possible. From fan fiction. Then again, I also learned that the word “vanilla” comes from the Latin word for “vagina” from fan fiction (don’t worry, I checked Wikipedia, it’s correct), so who says fan fiction isn’t educational?
Now, on to the big things. To begin with, what is sexology?
Sexology is a science that focuses on diverse aspects of human sexual behavior and sexuality. What that means is that a sexologist will study kinks, relationships, sexual intercourse, STDs, gender identity, and sexual development. Or, in other words, a sexologist studies what makes us aroused and the science of sex and gender.
Sex, of course, has always held human interests. The Kama Sutra, a book about love and sex (a sex manual), as well as how to develop relationships, is one of the first books ever to discuss these topics. Probably written in 2CE, the book, written in Sanskrit, is an example of how humans have always been interested in why and how we get pleasure.
Sexology as a science lends itself to many professions. Sex therapist, for instance, is a profession in which a scientific and healthy knowledge of what and how the human body works sexually is a good thing to know. Interestingly enough, being a sex therapist doesn’t actually mean having to know every sexual position under the sun (although I imagine that sounds like fun). It is more emotional, more about helping people work through mental and physical blocks that leave them unable to have sex when they want to.
Sexology can also be highly philosophical. For instance, the philosophy of sex. What is sex? Is sex purely about intercourse? In that case, for people who don’t like penetration, does that mean that they never have sex? And the philosophy of sex explore much more than merely what sex is. It also explores love, and how we define both love and sex. A leading philosopher in sex is Judith Butler, who is a famous gender studies researcher as well, proposing the idea that gender is merely a performance in their research. (I love Judith Butler’s ideas. Maybe a future post about that?)
So, what does learning about sexology help for us? For one, it helps to understand that if you should ever need to reach out to a sex therapist, they have a scientific understanding of what you’re going through. Considering how stigmatized sex is, we can often feel scared to talk to anyone about sex, and regardless of whether or not they’re a stranger, knowing that they know their stuff is definitely comforting. I also think it’s an interesting career path that not everyone knows exists, and is one that I think people should know about. I mean, I think I would like to know about it.
Anyway.
Sexology!!
Works Cited
Santilli, Mara. “15 Things I Wish I Knew before I Became a Sexologist.” Cosmopolitan, 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/a5280799/things-i-wish-i-knew-sexologist-career/.
“Sexology.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/science/sexology.
Soble, Alan. “Philosophy of Sexuality.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/sexualit/.
Vātsyāyana , et al. Kamasutra: A New, Complete English Translation of the Sanskrit Text: With Excerpts from the Sanskrit Jayamangala Commentary of Yashodhara Indrapada, the Hindi Jaya Commentary of Devadatta Shastri, and Explanatory Notes by the Translators. Oxford University Press, 2003.
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