Free The Sex Myth: Why Everything We're Told Is Wrong by Brooke Magnanti

after sex, or masturbates ‘too
much’.
    Nymphomania has long been a term applied to women thought to have too great an interest in sex. But there is a word that was applied to an even greater proportion of the female
population, and is still used as an insult even today: hysteria.
    Up until the seventeenth century, hysteria referred to a condition thought to be caused by disturbances of the uterus (from the Greek hystera – uterus). In the
second century, the Roman physician Galen described hysteria as a disease caused by sexual deprivation. Nuns, virgins, and widows were especially susceptible. Some sources as recently as the 1850s
claimed 25 per cent of all women suffered from the disease; other sources list dozens of supposed symptoms of hysteria.
    Women who suffered from hysteria in medieval or Renaissance periods were prescribed intercourse if married, and pelvic massage – masturbation to you and me – if single. Naturally,
since touching yourself is a sin, a midwife would have to do it. Ooh er, matron! Other cures included bed rest, bland food, and sensory deprivation.
    Over time, doctors became more involved in treating hysteria. The invention of massage devices became more common, with hydrotherapy devices available in Bath. By the mid-nineteenth century,
such treatments were popular at bathing resorts worldwide. Wind-up vibrators were available for physician use by the 1870s.
    By the twentieth century, widespread electricity brought the vibrator to the home market, and it became a popular home appliance. In fact, it was widely available years before either the
electric vacuum cleaner or the electric iron. A Sears catalogue from 1918 includes a portable vibrator ‘with three applicators . . . very useful and satisfactory for home service’.
    Because hysteria had so many potential symptoms, it was possible for any unidentifiable ailment in a woman to be called hysteria. As medical fashions changed and diagnostic techniques improved,
the number of cases steadily decreased. For instance, before the introduction of electroencephalography, epilepsy was frequently confused with hysteria. Some cases that would once have been
labelled hysteria were reclassified by psychiatry as anxiety or other disorders. Today, some of the more severe symptoms once attributed to hysteria fall under diagnoses such as schizophrenia,
conversion disorder, and anxiety attacks.
    But the idea that there is such a thing as too little sex continues regardless. On Patrick Carnes’ website he describes a companion diagnosis to sexual addiction that he calls
‘sexual anorexia’. And, what’smore, a large number of small-scale, limited studies and press releases have recently been making the rounds, convincing
people that there is a biological origin to this ‘widespread problem’.
    ‘Women with low libidos “have different brains”,’ said the Telegraph. 40 ‘Libido problems “brain not
mind”,’ claimed the BBC. 41 The reports were in response to a study conducted in the US claiming to demonstrate a difference between
‘normal’ women and those with the ‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder’ (HSDD) diagnosis. The BBC recently implemented a policy of linking to original research papers when
reporting about science, and yet no such paper was linked in their coverage of his claim . . . probably because it was only a planned conference presentation, and hadn’t even been written up
and submitted for review.
    So, what were the results? The researchers took nineteen volunteers with a clinical diagnosis of HSDD and seven with ‘normal sexual function’. The women watched television for half
an hour, with programming switching every minute between a blue screen, everyday programmes, and erotic videos. Brain activity was monitored by MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
    According to the press releases, ‘women with normal sexual function had greater activation in superior frontal and supramarginal gyri’, whereas