Re Dr Jay Stewart MBE
‘GI’s Anatomy: a life drawing project for trans and intersex people’ – a £30,000 project funded by the Welcome Trust.
I just wanted to share some thoughts about the Welcome Trust, specifically about visiting an exhibition "The Institute of Sexology: Undress Your Mind" at the trust in Euston in 2015
The relevant page on the Welcome Trust's website is here
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/save/wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/institute-sexology-be-first-exhibition-expanded-wellcome-collection" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/save/wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/institute-sexology-be-first-exhibition-expanded-wellcome-collection
I would specifically like to draw the attention of readers to the following:
- the word sexology. Also see "sexological" as in "sexological bodywork" The field of sexology and sexual medicine has, rather like psychotherapy, occupied a liminal space between medicine and the human imagination and between science and pseudoscience. In this liminal space is where the trojan horses are usually found in my experience
- The exhibition, as one would expect, covered of the work of Masters and Johnson, two early pioneers of sexual medicine whose fascinating research was both groundbreaking and scandalous at the time. Readers should be aware of M&J's pioneering of the use of "sexual surrogates" in sexual medicine and of how the M&J brand and use of surrogates has morphed into something fascinating, especially in relation to neo-tantric sex cults that promote sex work as a form of sexual medicine. More on this later.
- The exhibition covered the batshit insane work of Wilhelm Reich in a completely uncritical manner. Reichian and neo-Reichian therapists, who may refer to themselves by various euphemisms, including "sexological bodyworker", promote the idea that repressed memories of trauma are held in the body at a cellular level and can be released via "bodywork" (massage). Genital and anal massage are promoted as empowering by various predators, quacks and charlatans so it was startling to see Reichian theories and beliefs being promoted in an entirely uncritical manner at the Welcome Trust. The exhibition even included an "orgone energy accumulator" - a padded box that visitors could sit inside to generate "orgone" - the invisible orgasmic energy that Reich posited flowed freely through the human body but that was blocked and disrupted by a variety of oppressive experiences ranging from sexual abuse through to anti-sex messages in society.
There is an interesting review of the exhibition by an interesting person in the BMJ here
srh.bmj.com/content/41/2/152.full
The author, Susan Quilliam, who I have mentioned before, has this to say about Reich
"we hear how Wilhelm Reich's belief in the healing power of orgasm caused authorities in the USA to brand him a fraudster, destroy his writings, and imprison him until death. A key theme throughout this exhibition is the emotional and also physical courage of many of the individuals profiled."
Those familiar with Reich will know that contributory factors towards Reich's public humiliation and mental health diagnosis were his belief that repressed sexual energy was the cause of fascism, a belief that sexual energy directed towards clouds could cause rain to fall and a preoccupation with UFOs and aliens. The theories and practices about using genital massage to liberate people from their innate fascism probably didn't help either.
Back to Jay Stewart MBE and GIs anatomy
I have mixed feelings about the life drawing project. Certainly I believe that, as a society we need to be much more sensitive and aware of intersex people and the diversity within the human body and human genitalia that the condition causes.
I do not understand why "trans" is often included in a category with intersex as the two categories are completely different on many levels.
Life drawing classes may provide a less intrusive opportunity to record variety and diversity in the human body than say photography, however nudity can very often be used to groom vulnerable people in the same way that massage and eye gazing can be used. Certainly the neo-tantric sex cults that I am aware of use naturism, naked contact improvisation and life drawing as part of their repertoire of grooming activities.
I also think that there is a prurient interest in society in the bodies of people who are different in various ways, including intersex people.
It may be that these life drawing classes were a wonderful thing and empowering for all concerned. I felt empowered when, with a group of feminist friends back in the 80s, we all used speculums and mirrors to examine our cervixes.
There is sometimes a fine line between exploitation and empowerment and I cannot claim to always know where that line is, however I believe that we should all be sensitive to the fact that a line always exists somewhere and that we should all do our best to avoid and expose the exploitation of the most vulnerable people in society.