Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science by Mary Roach, is an off-the-wall account of the ins-and-outs of shagging delivered with her dry wit.

Bonk is an enjoyable romp through human sex-research history. You get intimate with the sex researchers of the past, and the extraordinary lengths they underwent to conceal their work from disapproving eyes, because sex you see, far from being a natural phenomenon of human nature, is really a taboo.

You learn about Alfred Kinsey, the earliest sex researcher, who spent many a night in his attic watching couples having sex. He did this, not because he was a pervert, but because he had to perform his research under great secrecy. This was well before the time of Masters & Johnson, who incidentally, also make an appearance.

She relates the account of Maria Bonaparte, whom being a woman of great sexual appetite, took herself upon a quest to discover why she couldn't orgasm during intercourse. The reason, she discovered, was probably not because she was married to a gay man, but because her clitoris was positioned too far from her vagina, so that the penis didn't stimulate it during sex. Unfortunately for her, even having her clitoris moved to a closer proximity, did not result in the desired-for orgasm. Neither did changing her sexual partner - several affairs were unable to leave her satisfied.

There's also 1988 U.S. Patent 4,722,327 'Therapeutic Apparatus for Relieving Sexual Frustrations in Women Without Sex Partners'

Which is a machine consisting of a dildo attached to a track, so that it can simulate a thrusting motion. Harvey, the inventor, was clear in his mind as to why his machine was a necessity for 'women without sex partners'.

"'Vibrators and sex aids... cannot satisfy the true needs of a partnerless woman who wants not only the ultimate climax or orgasm, but also the feeling that she is actually having sex with a partner.'"

Harvey obviously had high hopes for his machine acting as a viable replacement for the real thing. Roach, however, points out that Harvey was possibly missing some of the finer qualities that shagging a real man provides:

"On some level, Harvey must have sensed that certain aspects of an actual partner were missing - warmth, say, or personality, arms and legs, a head, a soul. Harvey could not provide these things..."

There is one thing though that Harvey's machine could provide; at the base of the penial assembly was a cuff of hair or fur, which gave, "'the look and feel of a male's pubic hair.'"

Which Roach goes on to describe as akin to, "having sex with a shoe buffer."