Birds do it, bees do it, but do machines do it better? In this episode, we look at how sex aids are changing both the way people have sex, and the way they think about sex. As technology progresses, the need for actual physical contact between people -- and the psychic connection between sex and reproduction -- is diminishing.
Come back after the show for more links and information on this episode.
Segment I: Prehistoric dildo
Humans have been creating and using sex aids for tens of thousands of years, from the ancient
Venus of Willendorf to the as-seen-on-TV
Fukuoko 9000. Over the centuries, people have fashioned sex aids out of clay, wood, stone, and glass. One of the earliest known dildos was made from dried camel dung coated with a hard resin.
These days, sex toys like the
Purple Rabbit Pearl are often made from space-age materials and come with instruction manuals.
It is estimated that 10 percent of Americans enhance their love lives with sex toys. And the use of sex aids, especially in significant relationships, is widely recommended by those in the medical field. Dr. Al Cooper believes that "sex aids can be a way that people can add some spice to their relationship. If you don't make it new, then the novelty might come from extra marital activities."
Kim Airs of Boston saw a need for an alternative to the stereotypical seedy atmosphere most people associate with stores selling sex toys. She left a research position at Harvard to found
Grand Opening, "a woman's sex toy store," in 1993. According to Airs, there are now close to 75,000 sex aids on the market, which account for almost a quarter of the 12 billion dollars the adult entertainment industry takes in per year.
Guests
- Susan Block, sex therapist
- Camille Paglia, author
- Richard Kadrey, futurist
- Al Cooper, psychologist, marital/sexual therapist
- Kim Airs, Grand Opening
Segment II: Sex aids come of age
Sex therapist Susan Block points out that humans aren't the only fans of sex aids. "If you look at our kissing cousins, the Bonobo chimpanzees, we see them playing with bananas kind of like dildos," she says.
From ancient Greece to Renaissance Italy to the present day, dildos have been the most widely used sex toy. But while dildos have always had an explicit sexual purpose, vibrators have been able to operate (and pleasure) under the guise of "massage therapy."
During the mid-1800s, women were "treated" with vibrators for what physicians called "hysteria." The word "hysteria" is derived from a Greek word meaning "suffering uterus." Women suffering from "hysteria" exhibited symptoms of anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies, and "pelvic heaviness." To help alleviate these conditions, a physician would massage a patient's clitoris until "paroxysm" (now known as orgasm) was achieved.
Dildos, vibrators, and other sexual playthings are no longer limited to the realm of subcultures and secrecy (or the doctor's office). But even though the usage of sex aids is becoming more widely accepted, some still find their existence offense and obscene. Professor Paul Abramson says, "The major Judeo Christian tradition about sexuality is that sex is equated with reproduction. Historically, we've tended to criminalize things that are deviations for reproduction." Including sex toys.
Sex aids are illegal in some parts of the world -- even in some parts of the United States.
Guests- Dr. Paul Abramsom, professor of psychology
- Larry Walters, First Amendment lawyer
Segment III: Not your grandfather's sex toy
Every winter, Las Vegas hosts the
Adult Entertainment Expo, a convention bursting with adult film stars, adult movies, and adult toys (and you wondered why the neighboring Consumer Electronics Show was so popular?).
Sex aids such as the
Pleasure Swing and Tree [rated R] are transforming people's sex lives, enhancing both masturbation and sexplay. Now engineers, scientists, and computer programmers are hoping to make the next generation of toys even better than the real thing.
One of the most widely publicized Sex Toys ever is the
RealDoll [adult content], created by Matt McCullen of San Diego in the late 1990s. Since its creation, the RealDoll has made headlines as being an amazingly lifelike sex partner, complete with optional robotic hip gyration and MP3-enhanced sounds of pleasure.
The RealDoll isn't the only high-tech sex toy that tries to make a real partner optional. The
Virtual Sex Machine [adult content], created by Eric J. White, fits over the penis and generates a variety of sensations in synch with sexual activity portrayed on a CD-ROM.
Some sex toy visionaries are even working on sexual encounters that don't even take place in proximity with one another. In Seattle, entrepreneur Allen Stein has invented the
Thrillhammer Orgasmatron [adult content], an antique gynecological chair with a futuristic built-in vibrator that's controlled over the Internet.
Guests- Matthew McCullen, inventor
- Eric J. White, inventor
- Dr. C.J. Scheiner, professor of erotology
- Alan Stein, inventor
- Corrina Curves, adult pin-up
Segment IV: tech vs. the real thing
The present state of sex aids is quite amazing. Synthetic skin is being created for dildos, vibrators, and realistic sex dolls. Computer technology is allowing us to be pleasured by partners who aren't in the room -- or even on the same continent.
But will
virtual reality eventually replace human contact? According to futurist Richard Kadrey, "Technology works very hard. But it has replaced the natural human body to a very limited extent. If you try to have a technological intermediary, it's going to have to be really, really good in order for us to be happy with it."
Neither the present course of technology nor the quest for the ultimate virtual sexual experience is going to be derailed any time soon. Yet, the jury is still out on whether the intangible nuances of love and sex will ever be recreated artificially.
I think we are going to have machines that are sophisticated enough, and that do have sensory mechanisms, feedback mechanisms to the body, maybe even direct stimulation of the brain, that we're going to discover an entirely new kind of sexuality.
-- Richard Kadrey, futurist and degenerate artist
Guests- Dr. Cindy Meston, Female Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory
- Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist
