Learning is fun, kids!

[rachg82]

This History of Sex documentary on The History Channel is great. Did you all know that the vibrator was actually invented by doctors? For the purpose of relieving hysteria in women? Heh! See, these women were plagued by the "unfeminine desire for sex", so they'd make regular visits to the doctor's office, where they'd be temporarily "cured." First, manually, and then by the giant vibrator in the office, when it was invented. They said a third of most doctor's work was doing this. Ha! I love it. The wives are all "Oh, I need to make another trip to the doctor's I think. . ." and the husband's like "Didn't you go yesterday?" One of the first top five electric devices people starting owning in the house, in fact? Were personal vibrators. Right along with the toaster, they were sold. These are the things we are just not taught in school, yo. Tsk tsk, sex ed. Heh.

I love these kinds of shows. What's really funny though, is how hard the freaky victorians and puritans tried to suppress these sorts of things, to no avail really. And how we're all taught that the victorian age was all pure, when really it wasn't. I mean, on one hand, it really was. But there was always this underlying totally non-pure thing going on. It's just that there were a few weirdos who tried to keep all that non-purity on the down low. One of my favorite things on this show was when they were talking about a study in France on how women really liked being seamstresses and riding their bicycles, because they could orgasm from it. Ha! Then it showed this picture of all these women, riding their bikes, and smiling widely. I will never be able to look at photos of seamstresses or women on bikes from that period the same way, again.

Thank God for the activists of those days, man. I mean, especially Sanger, like we always hear, but all the other ones who don't get credit too. This country really is pretty fucked up and crazy, when you think about it. I mean, birth control was encouraged in Europe in the mid 1800s, and yet in America, look at the fuss we had to raise for it. Americans always act like we're ahead of the times, you know, taking the lead and all. Such bullshit. We're like always the last to do anything, doesn't it seem? Or at least close to it.

I watched a good documentary before this, too, except on something totally different. Big ass earthquakes. I never tire of scaring the crap out of myself. Heh. Remember how I said once before that these shows always have the person say some threatening thing? Yeah. It was all "California/The west coast is due for another massive earthquake. The question is not if, but when!"? Heh. I'm all "Thanks for reminding me, guys." I was talking to willothewisps as I watched it, and like I was saying to her, I can't believe I kind of forgot about the big Northridge quake in '94, until they talked about it tonight. I was in one of the aftershocks for it, for crying out loud! But I remembered that always, like all "Well, I know that was an aftershock. But, an aftershock for what, I don't know." Heh. I remember now, though. Just had to see the footage, and it came back to me. I went down there on vacation soon after it happenned. I remember James (my stepdad's brother, whose house we stayed at) had cracks in his wall.

They also talked about the one that happenned in Mexico City in '85, and the rescue effort that followed. It was really moving. It was the first time anyone used cameras to help find survivors, and it allowed them to save all sorts of people who otherwise would've died. Like this married couple, who had been buried alive. Not to mention nineteen infants, who had managed to survive for days in the collapsed hospital. They found them after a priest had come by and performed last rites on the site, and everything. They didn't think they'd find any more people, alive. Can you imagine? Now all those babies are teenagers. Made me want to cry!

Speaking of tink, too, while talking to her, I learned that poor ole B.F. Skinner (heh, Skinner. Sorry, but I can't hear that name, without thinking of the X Files.) wasn't really a crazy freak, like I'd thought. Although, Freud? Yep, still a freak. Hee. Witness our, uh, interesting conversation for yourselves. . .

rachmarieg: i dream of them. i mean, in addition to the fruity pebbles, there were donuts in my dream
rachmarieg: heh
o TinkerI3ell o: heh I think donuts mean something else in dreams
rachmarieg: ohhh, hee
rachmarieg: that dirty freud
o TinkerI3ell o: freud was such the perv!
rachmarieg: he so was!
rachmarieg: i wonder if he got a lot of play
rachmarieg: i bet he didn't, and that's why he was so obsessed
o TinkerI3ell o: I bet his wife made him sleep on the couch
rachmarieg: assuming he had a wife
rachmarieg: hmm, i wonder if he did
rachmarieg: he'd be really annoying to be married to. everything you say/do, he'd analyze
o TinkerI3ell o: yeah he'd be all "you married me because I remind you of your dad"
o TinkerI3ell o: and "you wish you had a penis"
rachmarieg: she'd be all chopping a carrot for dinner, and he'd be like "care to share why you wish to mutilate my manhood, sweetie?"
rachmarieg: she'd drive through a tunnel, and he'd be all "hmm-mmm, that's what i thought" and accost her
rachmarieg: hee
rachmarieg: "get off!" "yeah, you want me"
o TinkerI3ell o: Hee!
o TinkerI3ell o: What an annoying husband be would be
rachmarieg: god, really.
rachmarieg: you'd have a fight with your mom, and he'd be all asking you about your secret lust for your dad
o TinkerI3ell o: I'd be all that's it, I'm leaving you for Skinner!
rachmarieg: hee!
rachmarieg: wasn't he the one who put his kid in the box?
o TinkerI3ell o: it wasnt like that! he was protective! hehe
o TinkerI3ell o: It was like a germ free environment thing
rachmarieg: so it was him? hee. freak
rachmarieg: nuh-uh! they told me it was an experiment or something!
rachmarieg: i thought
o TinkerI3ell o: he experimented with the mice in boxes! what he did with his kid was an experiment but it was a protective type one
rachmarieg: was the kid sick? or was the dad just psycho?
rachmarieg: like "must protect child from germs!"
o TinkerI3ell o: hee, psycho I guess.
o TinkerI3ell o: [defensive of Skinner] it was sweet in a way!
rachmarieg: yeah, that's crazy
rachmarieg: sure, sweet if you mean by sweet, CRAZY
o TinkerI3ell o: that was back in the days when babies dropped like flies!
rachmarieg: how long did he keep his kid in this box?
o TinkerI3ell o: Im not sure. It's been a couple of years since I took the class!
rachmarieg: i'm gonna look it up
rachmarieg: hee
o TinkerI3ell o: I mean it wasnt till he was 5 or something
o TinkerI3ell o: http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/skinner_box.html
rachmarieg: aw, now i feel bad. http://www.bfskinner.org/bio.asp
o TinkerI3ell o: See!, skinner, represent!
rachmarieg: hee
rachmarieg: poor old guy
rachmarieg: people still thinking that and all
o TinkerI3ell o: see I told you. he just liked his kid!
rachmarieg: i'm gonna see if freud had a wife
o TinkerI3ell o: I think he might have. poor thing
rachmarieg: hmm. it says he intended to marry, but not whether it ever happenned. i assume that means something went wrong
o TinkerI3ell o: He got on her nerves thats what happened
rachmarieg: yeah
rachmarieg: "After spending a short time as a resident in neurology and director of a children's ward in Berlin, he came back to Vienna, married his fiancée of many years Martha Bernays, and set up a practice in neuropsychiatry, with the help of Joseph Breuer"
rachmarieg: d'oh
o TinkerI3ell o: I remember Breuer
rachmarieg: yeah, anna wanted a piece of that.
o TinkerI3ell o: she wanted a man who did more than talk about penis
rachmarieg: anna was a patient. hee
rachmarieg: not freud's woman
o TinkerI3ell o: oops.
o TinkerI3ell o: she still wanted that!
rachmarieg: i bet martha did too
o TinkerI3ell o: everyone wanted it. Sexiest man alive!
rachmarieg: hee
rachmarieg: i bet breur's wife was bored by him, though
rachmarieg: she was all "whatever, go with anna, i don't care. i have knitting to do"
o TinkerI3ell o: hee!
o TinkerI3ell o: She had the hots for Piaget
rachmarieg: oh, i know him. but i can't remember what he did
rachmarieg: wasn't it jean piaget?
o TinkerI3ell o: I forget too. I think he had the stages, like adolescene, childhood etc
o TinkerI3ell o: yah
rachmarieg: right! okay
rachmarieg: yeah, i learned about him
rachmarieg: she was all "let me tell you a little about the stage i like to call 'turning a boy into a MAN'"
rachmarieg: or something
rachmarieg: hee
o TinkerI3ell o: hee!

So, yes, Skinner's name is cleared. At least in this LJ. Sorry for calling you a freak, dude! Heh.

My Mom keeps walking down here, and yakking on and on to me about boring crap, and trying to clean and stuff. I feel bad now, though, because I basically told her to go away. Heh. And she gave me this pouty face. But, man, I'm trying to talk here! Skidaddle!</lj-cut

Comments

[kopernik.livejournal.com]

Man, I wouldn't mind having a heated bed right now. Why can't Skinner be my dad?