Let's explore the fascinating history of sexual imaging and how it has transformed the field of sexology. Medical biophysics and technology have played a crucial role in understanding sex and desire. In this article, I will provide a brief history of sexual imaging, starting from the 15th century and moving to some contemporary examples.
The story begins with Leonardo Da Vinci, who spent a lot of time studying cadavers and the mechanisms of sex to create the perfect device for procreation. He translated Greek and Arab texts that possessed prior knowledge of this and created detailed diagrams. However, it is worth noting that he had an interesting hate for women, never had sex with any woman, and was thought to be gay. In his diagrams, the male has his head, but the woman does not, and the male sperm was thought to come from the brain and spinal cord. Moreover, in the woman, the nipples were attached to the uterus, and the cervix was depicted as sucking on the tip of the penis.
Moving forward in time, Dickinson and Belskie created models of the vulva, hymens, vaginas, uteruses, and all reproductive organs by visually drawing them and creating 102 plaster models using x-rays, which gave them sex-ray vision. They aimed to correct Leonardo Da Vinci's idea of a sucking cervix, and they were successful at this.
In 1966, researchers Masters and Johnson created a penis-camera called Ulysses to confirm the cervix idea and get information via visual imagery. They found a wealth of new information, including that natural vaginal lubrication is plasma that comes out of the blood and that during an orgasm, the cervix seems to create a tent where it rises, making orgasms and reproductive fitness incompatible.
Jumping to 1998, we see Dickinson's drawing tested out under an MRI for the first time. This study won a popular fake Nobel prize and has consistently been in the news for its impressiveness. Something that was not thought of before this imagery took place was that the penis takes on a boomerang-like shape, and as we can see, the cervix is not enveloping the penis.
In a 2008 study, researchers examined the effects of sildenafil on female sexual arousal disorder. After the success of Viagra for men, pharmaceutical companies raced to create a duplicate for women. However, the neural circuitry for men and women in regards to sexual arousal is quite different. The study involved 12 women with female sexual arousal disorder, and patients received either 50 mg of sildenafil or a placebo and watched either non-erotic or erotic films to determine if clitoral blood volume would increase. The results ended up being not statistically significant.
In a 2011 study on erogenous zones, researchers found that physical stimulation lit up identical parts of the brain, with toe stimulation being surprisingly vibrant. These studies have been ongoing since the 1950s by Alfred Kinsey.
Ultimately, the history of sexual imaging is fascinating, and it has played a crucial role in understanding sex and desire. From Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings to modern MRI studies, researchers have come a long way in understanding the complexities of human sexuality. However, there is still much to learn, and future studies will undoubtedly shed more light on this complex and intriguing subject.
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