NEW YORK — Industry friends and colleagues are paying tribute to renowned artist, activist and sex educator Betty Dodson, who passed away at the age of 91 on October 31. The cause was cirrhosis of the liver.
Dodson’s popularity recently spiked due to an appearance on an episode of “The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow," but for decades she was widely known as a pioneering sex educator who published several influential books on women’s sexuality and health, among them 1974’s “Liberating Masturbation” and 1987’s “Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving.”
"Betty did more to make the clit great again than Donald and all his 'yes men' will ever be able to do for this country,” artist, activist and professor Beth Stephens told XBIZ. “Betty is an American heroine among the greats of Annie Oakley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Lucille Ball and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was also a great visual artist. I’ve rarely seen anyone who could draw the body as beautifully and as powerfully as Betty and I’ve been teaching at a major university for over 25 years.”
News of her passing inspired fans and colleagues to share their positive thoughts about Dodson. On Twitter, Angie Rowntree's Sssh.com mourned her loss but celebrated Dodson’s dedication to sex positivity.
"It hurts to lose such a legend in the field, and such a kind, generous, and utterly radiant spirit," read their statement. "We hope Betty's legacy will carry onward and send our deepest condolences to her friends, family — and anyone else who's feeling the void like we are tonight.”
Longtime collaborator Carlin Ross broke the news and memorialized Dodson in a YouTube video uploaded earlier this week.
In many ways, Dodson was a forerunner to today’s sexperts. But her focus was not on simply talking about sex, it was about demystifying sex and empowering women so that they could better understand and enjoy their own sexual desires.
Early Life
Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1929, Dodson would become a skilled artist in her youth. This passion for art lead to her moving to New York City in 1950 and within a year she was a fashion illustrator. Discussing this time in her life in the documentary “Betty Dodson: Her Life of Sex & Art Part 1," Dodson shared that she became proficient at drawing lingerie and other undergarments. "I became the queen of underwear, and I’ve never worn it since,” she said.
This industrial work may not have been her passion, but it did pay for art school.
Upon deciding how she wanted to dedicate her life, in her late '20s, Dodson humorously recalled that she decided that she could not be a mother after she realized that she wasn’t able to draw a baby. Though becoming a mother wasn’t in her future, she did marry Frederick Stern in 1959, at the age of 29. Dodson later described him as “this nice guy. He was such a sweet man. Not very exciting [and a] premature ejaculator."
Stern nevertheless served as Dodson's patron. This support allowed Dodson to paint full time and the arrangement would last until their divorce in 1965.
Life After Divorce and "Art Erotica"
Dodson’s career as a sex educator and activist began in the 1960s, when she was in her late 30s, after she divorced her husband and began to explore her sexuality. "When I got divorced in 1965, I decided to find out everything I could about sexuality,” Dodson told the New York Times in 1971. “I set about letting go of jealousy and possessive feelings, and understanding I could love more than one person. It was the most important thing I ever did."
She dove into her art and sex. Marching to the beat of her own drum, Betty Dodson was aware of the fact that she stood out as an artist in the '60s, and not necessarily due to her erotic interests. She was not a fan of the trend of abstractionism that was popular in the art world at the time. "During the time that everybody [was] doing abstract expressionism, I am drawing the classical nude," she recalled in “Betty Dodson: The Fine Artist."
While she enjoyed a classical approach to art, she still struggled to find the subject matter that she was passionate about. That is, until Dodson was in her studio and decided to draw two people having sex. Having stumbled across a subject that captivated her imagination, Dodson soon began producing multiple pieces. The quality of her work was so high, and so engaging, that she drew the attention of a gallery owner who put her in a mixed exhibition.
Again, her work was so well-received that she was rewarded with her own show. And in 1968, Betty Dodson became the first one-woman show at the Wickersham Gallery to center on erotic art. Dodson later recalled selling nearly half of the work in the gallery and felt that she had made it as an artist.
A second show in 1970 initially focused on images of orgies. However, she became uninterested in this topic because she felt women in group sex scenes were faking their orgasms. This inspired her to go in an opposite direction and create classic nude images of people masturbating.
The second show was not as successful and Dodson experienced pushback from those who found images of masturbating off-putting, an experience that led Dodson to an epiphany that would shape her future.
“Masturbation is the foundation of all sex,” she said in "Betty Dodson: The Fine Artist." "If a woman can’t masturbate, she’s not gonna have an orgasm. She doesn't know her body." It was a revelation that would lead Dodson to the work that would define her career.
Feminism, Masturbation and Sex Education
The time between Dodson’s gallery shows in 1968 and 1970 was also marked by her becoming more involved in feminist groups and causes.
In an interview titled "Grassroots of Feminism," Dodson discussed how she was interested in taking part in women’s meetings, then known as "consciousness-raising groups." With all the preexisting groups filled up, Dodson was encouraged to start her own. After inviting her female friends to a meeting held at her apartment, Dodson was startled to realize it was the first time she had been in a room filled with only women.
Though this group was specifically formed with the intention of discussing the women’s movement, the experience served as an early model for how Dodson would run her future education programs.
Sometime after her second gallery show, Dodson would move away from hosting standard consciousness raising groups and create her "Bodysex masturbation workshops." As Dodson explained to Dope Magazine in 2019, “The workshops grew out of the consciousness-raising movement in the early days of feminism. Women would get together and use ‘I’ statements to share their experiences. I decided that I wanted to take it a step further and do physical and sexual consciousness-raising groups. Eventually, I shortened ‘physical and sexual consciousness-raising’ to ‘Bodysex.'"
The 1971 New York Times article, titled "Group Sex: Is It 'Life Art' or a Sign That Something is Wrong," described Dodson as “a 41-year-old artist whose erotic paintings were given a one-woman show at the Wickersham Gallery in 1969 [and] another group sex participant who has no hesitation about admitting it.”
The piece also includes several notable Dodson quotes: “Group sex is something you do with friends," she said, and later declared, “If you aren't into a sexual exchange that is bisexual, you aren't into sexual freedom.”
The Return of the Vibrator
As Dodson became better known as a sex expert, educator and feminist, she found herself attending more and more women’s events. One that stood out to Dodson, years later, was 1973’s NOW Sexuality Conference.
In “Betty Dodson: Her Life of Sex & Art Part 2," she states that the event allowed her to introduce a new generation of women to vibrators. “This [was] the first introduction of electric vibrators back into the culture, at this conference," Dodson recalled.
Author Rachel Maine, in her book “The Technology of Orgasm,” credited feminism in the 1960s with bringing the electric vibrator back. Dodson was not pleased with the claim and picked up the phone to call Maine. “Feminism did not bring back the electric vibrator," she declared. "Betty Dodson did it single-handed.”
Betty presenting at NOW’s Sexuality Conference 1973 (BAD Foundation)
“Liberating Masturbation”
In the mid-'70s, Ms. Magazine commissioned an article from Dodson, who turned in an 18-pager titled “Liberating Masturbation." It was too much for the magazine, whose editors reduced it to just two pages. However, they included an ad that noted readers could order the full piece for $3.
Dodson, who was living in San Francisco’s Castro District at the time, was flooded with thousands of $3 checks. The demand motivated Dodson to expand the initial 18 pages into a book with illustrations, a feat she accomplished in just three months. It sold over 150,000 copies.
With her newfound success as a writer and educator, Dodson continued to write books and articles, and teach courses about masturbation and sex positivity.
The 1980s found Dodson entering what she would later describe as her “Leather Dyke” period, during which she became involved in the women’s S/M community. Dodson recalled feeling a measure of hostility from lesbians because she was bisexual, but she eventually found her own place in the community.
The '80s was also when Dodson first met performer, artist and activist Annie Sprinkle.
“She was a brilliant teacher. She inspired me to teach my own sex workshops," Sprinkle told XBIZ. "In the early '80s we became neighbors and friends, and would work out at the same gym and do water aerobics together. She was always so much fun, and made me laugh with her badass humor.”
With “Liberating Masturbation” a self-published success, it was only a matter of time before a traditional publishing house reached out to Dodson. And in 1987 Crown Publishing Group (now a subsidiary of Random House) contacted her about re-releasing the book, retitled “Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving," which was a re-edited and expanded version of the original manuscript.
Despite a commercial publishing deal, Dodson was disappointed by the cover art and the inclusion of a warning label that stated, “This book contains adult subject matter.” Additionally, the publisher removed all the drawings of penises. While the penis pictures were not returned to the book, Dodson did complain long enough about the cover that it was changed for a reissue in 1996.
Sex Education Videos and Going Digital
Dodson would continue to publish about sex and orgasms. In addition to numerous articles, she would publish “Orgasms for Two: The Joy of Partnersex” (2003), “Learn to Orgasm in 4 Acts” (2013), “My Sexual Memoir: From Monogamous Wife to Sexual Explorer to Feminist Revolutionary” (2015) and “Sex by Design: The Betty Dodson Story” (2016).
The '90s would also see Dodson earn a Ph.D. in sexology from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.
She also brought her art to the internet with Genital Art Gallery in 1998. She created the gallery to establish a place “where viewers could submit photos of their sex organs with a brief essay about their relationship to them,” Dodson wrote. “Never again would another woman think there was something wrong with her vulva for lack of positive imagery.”
A key business evolution for Dodson was the production and release of erotic sex education videos. Her first video, titled “Selfloving," was centered on her famous workshops. Following videos would document her one-on-one training sessions.
Annie Sprinkle recalled one of the more popular videos in the series, called “Viva La Vulva," which made it abundantly clear that Dodson “wanted every vulva to have an ecstatic experience.”
Dodson’s videos went viral several decades before the term would enter the zeitgeist and, as Beth Stephens recalled, made their way to college campuses. “I featured Betty’s masturbation rituals and her erotic drawings during a course I taught called 'Art Erotica,'" she said.
“Most of my students affectionately called it their 'porn class,' and porn was what they expected to see. For the class that featured her, I showed Betty’s drawings first, and mind you there were 200 students in this course, and they loved her drawings,” Stephens reminisced.
“Then I showed one of her group masturbation rituals. Were they ever surprised when they found themselves watching an eighty-plus old woman pleasuring herself, in a group of women who were also pleasuring themselves," said Stephens. "They masturbated with joy and absolutely no shame like the pleasure activists that they were. Well, some of my students could not believe their eyes. They could not even comprehend what they were seeing onscreen. Was it even possible that someone their grandmother’s age could still have sexual pleasure and shout out in ecstatic orgasm? It blew their minds and opened their eyes to the empowering worlds of women’s extended pleasure. Every student should be taught this!”
"Afterwards, many young women, and a couple of young men, came up to me and thanked me for showing that footage," said Stephens. "In turn, I’d like to say 'thank you, Betty' for showing us the way to freedom through pleasure and for giving us hope that we can do this well into the latter parts of our lives.”
Dodson would partner up with Carlin Ross to launch DodsonAndRoss.com. The goal of the site is to “promote the ‘Betty Dodson’ method of selflove and feminist-based sex education" through orgasm education materials and resources dedicated to helping people overcome shame and trauma.
Despite the claims that American culture had progressed from its prudish past, Dodson felt that her work was as necessary as ever. “Not much has changed from the ‘70s," she told Dope Magazine in 2019. "Women are still shamed and sexually repressed. The culture conditions us to hate our bodies, and touching ourselves is a no-no. Pleasure is not a priority or even an expectation."
Her Legacy and Legend Live On
With the passing of Betty Dodson, the sex positivity and masturbation education movements have lost a dedicated champion. As Sprinkle shared with XBIZ, “Her beautiful, powerful, liberated body was her laboratory for important sex research, and she generously shared that research through drawings, videos, writings, blogs. She was very multimedia.”
“No one today can come close to replacing Betty. She gave us sex educators courage. She showed us how to age sexily,” Sprinkle continued. “Betty didn’t have the shame that so many people have about their bodies and their genitals, which inspired others to let go of their shame. I only wish she could have been surrounded by her many beloveds these past months. Damned COVID-19. She would have had a harem of adoring sex goddesses pampering her to send her off!"
"Betty believed that death would be the ultimate orgasm," said Sprinkle. "I like to believe Betty had a great release. Now she’s raising hell from the other side.”
Ashley Manta, a noted sexpert and one of Dodson’s students, spoke to XBIZ about Dodson’s life and legacy. “Betty was a force of nature," she said.
“She inspired so much pleasure and masturbatory empowerment in the world through her Bodysex retreats. She was hilarious and unflinchingly honest. As a mentor, when she gave you a compliment, you knew it was genuine,” recalled Manta. “If she had an opinion, she shared it without hesitation. My favorite quote from her was, 'You create your own life' and she modeled that for 91 years on this planet.”
For Dodson, her work was not about fame or ego, but about empowering women to take ownership of their own pleasure.
"A real orgasm is something that no matter where it comes from, a woman takes for herself," she said in an interview with the New York Times earlier this year.
Main image: Wikimedia Commons; second image: BAD Foundation, via Daily Beast
