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Betty is featured prominently in Buzz. Share something from the book that establishes Betty’s place as a cultural hero in the field of sexuality. Explain why you believe its significant. Include the chapter and page number, if possible.
On page 139 Betty talks about her new found adoration for the electric vibrator. I think this conversation speaks volumes as to why Betty is a cultural sexual hero. My reasoning on why this conversation is a great example is because in Betty’s other books she speaks about her fist experiences with a vibrator and her fears and hesitancy to use it. She decides to not live in fear but instead conquer her fears and gives it a go. Already let’s award Betty points! Not only does she use the vibrator and find it amazing she decides to step out on a limb and tell others about it, celebrating the newfound tool in all her experienced glory with it. Again more points for Betty. Deciding to speak in front of groups of people at NOW and share her experiences despite all the backlash that was so prominent surrounding womens independent sexuality only goes to show that never at any point was Betty’s work to feed her own ego but instead to truly educate and liberate women because it takes a ton of courage to speak about the things she did and speak about them with such passion and conviction. She also made them available to other women at the cost she paid never intending to market womens sexuality but again only liberate it. She went within and conquered her own sexual self, and then decided to conquer the sexual world. Iconic.
I loved seeing Betty mentioned so much throughout the book. One of the first things that establish Betty’s place as a cultural hero is when she starts attending CR groups and realizes that women know nothing about sexual pleasure so she decides to become a sexual mentor and teach women how to have orgasms (pages 86-89). Her work was the first of its kind and was very progressive for the time. Shortly after her presentation at the NOW conference and her book, Liberating Masturbation, demonstrated she was a true leader of the sexual revolution (p 138-145).
I’m am aware not to heroines Betty Dodson because she never wanted to be a guru, she said that it defeated the point of women knowing that all the empowerment was within them, she was just on a mission to remind woman that their pleasure was theirs to own and Betty made it her life times work to lead by example. Her CR groups kick started, women developing a healthy relationship to their bodies, this was sexual revolution in at it finest in the 20th contrary, followed by her talks at the Now Conference where she met a lot of resistance and appreciation for her advocacy for sexual freedom and owning your fuck. I love how brave she was even despite the resistance she received from some feminists. 141p- 142p
” Dodson’s vibrator workshop had been an unabashed success, as had her speech, but she was only just getting started”… “Dodson had began by projecting large images of anatomical vulva drawings…”
She was making waves in the feminist movement with her work including Liberating Masturbation which put her stamp on what all women wanted to talk about and now she had finally put the Cunt on the map in a big way (138- 144)
Chapter 4:
“For Dodson, masturbation was the key to women’s liberation because masturbation was the first stepping-stone to sexual freedom. This was a radical idea then, even among radical feminists. How could touching yourself in private, such an insular and seemingly selfish activity, actually be a form of liberation? According to Dodson philosophy, masturbation was liberating because it allowed women to learn about their bodies’ own sexual responses. Until women knew how to bring themselves pleasure, they would not be able to take control of their own sexuality. A woman could not have a successful sexual relationship without knowing how to give herself orgasms because they would not be able to transmit that knowledge to their partners, she said.” (74)
If Master and Johnson have taking masturbation out of the closet, Betty has putting it out in plain sight. Putting masturbation at the forefront is a revolutionary idea and still is because of the ongoing taboo surrounding female independent pleasure and sexuality. The culture teaches us that women are meant to take care of others but themselves and Betty is claiming the exact opposite: you have to take care of yourself first and put your pleasure on the top priority list. It is quite a radical feminist statement even today.
Chapter 8 Page 139: “… with her shaved head… After she finished the apology, she declared herself a ‘sex freak,’ saying that sex had made her ‘feel better than I have ever felt.’ To say that this was not an attitude that many feminists had at the time is an understatement. Enjoying sex was one thing, but abandoning marriage and being proudly promiscuous was quite another.”
Her views weren’t necessarily shared by anyone and she didn’t need them to be shared for her to keep pushing against the (incorrect) social norms of the time. She sacrificed her relationship with feminists, she sacrificed monogamous married life, she sacrificed her silence, all for her belief and instinct that there was more available for women (and others). “More” took the form of masterbation and other things. It’s radical to make love to yourself, even today, and it takes courage to do so.
Bringing her work full circle, her sacrifice made it possible for me to have the life I have today. I’ve shaved my head multiple times in my life and many of my AFAB and female friends have as well. This is a somewhat common ritual that we go through and I hadn’t realized Betty started that until reading Sex by Design. I realize this is a different book from Buzz but I think being willing to sacrifice one’s “crowning glory” and that it reached through time all the way to me at 19 (the first time I shaved my head) makes the case for her as a cultural hero, pressing back against what the culture feeds us about what a “woman” looks like. I live in a city where monogamy is less common than some form of poly relationship(s). I have a multitude of sex toys and can find others very easily from many different websites and in-person stores. She doesn’t touch on this from a non-binary or queer perspective as we know it currently but I’d imagine that she also paved the way for us queers to get to be out and proud.
In her claiming herself as “sex freak,” it gave the rest of us permission to also be sex freaks. Humans are sex freaks, there are now studies showing that we are more similar to bonobos than to chimps, both are equally our closest primate relatives. Betty lived this and preached it and made it beautiful and sexy.
Chapter 8, 145-146, 147
Betty Dodson was her own cultural sexual revolution. If ever there was a sexual emancipation document it is her book “Liberating Masturbation” This was one of the first books on masturbation written by a woman. Confronting the crippling beliefs: … that a woman’s pleasure was subordinate to a man’s pg 147. 2. That a woman should not know anything about their bodies let alone sexually until their husband taught them (Betty’s book L.M. Blew that myth out of the water).
Betty spoke loud and clear that masturbation is sex and should be celebrated for its own sake. And that women will enjoy sex if she learns to pleasure herself and this included using a vibrator. When the vibrator was being sold as a scalp and muscle massager. Not for sexual pleasure.
Betty, was fighting an up hill battle to educate women on their right to sexual pleasure( vibrators a great tool for self pleasure) in a culture drench in the belief and practices that a woman’s pleasure is subordinate to a man’s or even worse than that, women don’t deserve pleasure unless given to her by her husband.
Betty spearheaded the liberation of women through masturbation and many times, if not most of the time stood alone with this message.(Bodysex groups, books, art work). She introduced and sold vibrators at the one and only sexual NOW Conference. Now there is a gluten of websites including hers selling sex toys. It was Betty who brought the vibrator into woman’s lives.
So of course Betty Dodson, is an icon in the evolution (revolution)of woman’s sexual liberation/right to pleasure. Even as she has transitioned to be ancestor her legacy continues to change woman’s lives for the better. And mine is one of them.
When looking back into the book, I noted one page, 74, where Betty stated, “Until women knew how to bring themselves pleasure, they would not be able to take control of their own sexuality. A woman could not have a successful sexual relationship without knowing how to give themselves orgasms they would not be able to transmit that knowledge to their partners.” This has changed my life and I am preaching it to the choir!!
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