[Politics of Intimacy: Dr. Sherfey 2]

This is raw footage shot for Julie Gustafson's documentary, "The Politics of Intimacy." In this seminal feminist video, ten women address the camera and seemingly each other in a wide-ranging exploration of such previously taboo subjects as women’s sexuality, power, and fears about intimacy. This interview is with Dr. Mary Jane Sherfey. Originally shot in 1/2" B & W video.

00:00Copy video clip URL Videomaker Julie Gustafson is on camera, speaking with her crew, one of whom asks Dr. Sherfey about vaginal orgasms. 

01:55Copy video clip URL Gustafson asks about Freud and women’s sexuality. Dr. Sherfey details Freud’s theories as they relate to the vaginal orgasm. 

05:17Copy video clip URL A discussion of the women’s movement’s relationship to Freud and the importance of queer women and of masturbation to the women’s movement. 

08:05Copy video clip URL Dr. Sherfey discusses the pros and cons of masturbation.

10:01Copy video clip URL Gustafson asks Dr. Sherfey to give an overview of her arguments about the history of female sexuality. Dr. Sherfey begins by discussing the physiological facts of embryos. She then talks about her research into the female orgasm, including the capacity for multiple – sometimes numerous – orgasms and the physical processes that occur during arousal and orgasm. 

14:03Copy video clip URL Gustafson asks about the cultural suppression of discussion of women’s sexuality, especially the multiple orgasm. Dr. Sherfey shares her theory that in the pre-history of humanity, women were much freer sexually. Monogamy and the suppression of women’s sexuality arrived with agriculture and more permanent settlement. 

18:43Copy video clip URL The advent of a society in which women were treated as men’s slaves.