A rollicking, myth-busting history of sex that moves from historical attempts at birth control to Hildegard von Bingen's treatise on the female orgasm, demystifying plenty of urban legends along the way.
Roman physicians told female patients they should sneeze out as much semen as possible after intercourse to avoid pregnancy. Historical treatments for erectile dysfunction included goat testicle transplants. In this kaleidoscopic compendium of centuries-old erotica, science writer Rachel Feltman shows how much sex has changed-and how much it hasn't. With unstoppable curiosity, she debunks myths, breaks down stigma, and uses the long, outlandish history of sex to dissect present-day practices and taboos.
Feltman's mischievous humor dismantles fear and brings scientific literacy to a subject surrounded by misinformation, and indeed, as it gravitates toward the strange, Been There, Done That delivers some sorely needed sex ed. Explorations into age-old questions and bizarre trivia around birth control, aphrodisiacs, STIs, courtship rituals, and more establish that, when it comes to carnal pleasures and procreation, there's never been a normal, and sex isn't something to be scared of.
Rachel Feltman's first paying gig was organizing a bookshelf full of textbooks on vulvar disease at the age of seven, and she never looked back. She's the Executive Editor of
Popular Science and hosts PopSci's podcast
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week. In 2014, Feltman founded the
Washington Post's
Speaking of Science blog, known for headlines like "You probably have herpes, but that's really okay," and "Uranus might be full of surprises." Feltman studied environmental science at Simon's Rock and has a master's in science reporting from NYU. She's a musician, an actress, and the stepmom of a very spry 14-year-old cat.
Über den Autor
Rachel Feltman’s first paying gig was organizing a bookshelf full of textbooks on vulvar disease at the age of seven, and she never looked back. She’s the Executive Editor of Popular Science and hosts PopSci’s podcast The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week. In 2014, Feltman founded the Washington Post’s Speaking of Science blog, known for headlines like “You probably have herpes, but that’s really okay,” and “Uranus might be full of surprises.” Feltman studied environmental science at Simon’s Rock and has a master’s in science reporting from NYU. She’s a musician, an actress, and the stepmom of a very spry 14-year-old cat.
Klappentext
"With curiosity and irreverent insight, science writer Rachel Feltman breaks down the long, weird, illustrious history of sex. She guides readers through the kaleidoscopic archives of centuries-old porn and erotica, as well as the bizarre history of treatments for erectile dysfunction, including radium suppositories and goat testicle transplants. Feltman provides the history of huge scientific questions-e.g., How are babies made?-and considers the ancient from a modern perspective: What was it like to have herpes several millennia ago? Even from unlikely sources like Hildegard von Bingen's treatise on the female orgasm, there's a lot we can learn about our modern-day sexual proclivities and practices from the historical record. And these figures from the past, from gay cowboys to polyamorous Vikings, prove that when it comes to how we have sex and who we do it with, there's no such thing as normal"--
