A thank you to history...

History has shown that sexology was, for centuries, mainly linked to the anatomical study of sexual organs, their physical form, their physiology and how they performed, in order to sustain reproduction.

Other areas, we are slowly discovering as essential components of the sexual experience, such as the psychology, feelings, emotions, behaviours of humans involved in sexual activities, were considered not relevant as not directly involved in procreation, which is what sex is about after all …right?

One could say that and follow an innate human tendency, honed over millennia of being a predator's tasty morsel, to create two boxes, the known and therefore good, safe, and right and the unknown therefore labelled wrong, bad, and dangerous.

While this served humans well when dwelling in caves, a binary world is a limited, a poor figment of our imagination as our life, our reality, and the way we perceive it is anything but.

Consequently, centuries of forcing minds, souls, bodies, sex organs and emotions in two neat containers sustained societies, spiritual creeds, politics, economies yes, but not the development of a balanced and whole, sexual, and ultimately content human being.

And this is not counting those individuals who do not only not fit in the 2 boxes but smash them, either wilfully or by the sheer uncontrollable force of who they are. These humans have faced, and still do in so called “modern” Countries, prosecution, hate, shunning, death.

While this might appear as a grim picture for humanity, the same force that propels humans to study, discover and look for evidence to support a theory, also shaped and shapes the evolution of modern sexology, by questioning the status quo and not settling for the easy, convenient, cookie cutter answer.

Where we are today, is the result of layers of knowledge and evidence on top of previous gospel. Every layer discovers something new and, once exposed, it triggers a plethora of “what if?”, “is this an absolute truth?” in those hungry for knowledge and not happy to settle.

We should thank the discoveries of the early pioneers of sexology. They might no longer be relevant, in some cases totally incorrect, in other biased and an expression of a cultural moment in history, yet they are the foundation of modern sexology.

Thank them and let them go.