This episode Megan & Milena cover sexologist Virginia Johnson & Chicago Imagist painter Christina Ramberg

Virginia Johnson

This week, we’re taking a look at our problematic fav, Virginia Johnson. And she is looking real smug here. Probably because she helped normalize sexual conversations in the United States during the 1950s. And she did some shitty stuff to get to this point. But, hey, this lady did a lot to help women take a hold of their sexuality.

Johnson was one half of a controversial Sexology duo. Considered the “softer side” of the team, Johnson had no formal training and had only earned a degree in musical singing. As a desperate attempt to pay her bills and feed her kids, Johnson took a job as a secretary for Dr. Masters in his lab. The two would later team up to look into the nitty gritty of the birds and the bees, and discover groundbreaking truths about sex and the human body.

The first publication by the team, titled Human Sexual response, focused on the series of events that happen during sex, as well as how the human body reacts to sexual stimuli. It looked at the differences between the Male body and the Female body.

Publication number two? Focused on sexuality inadequacy. Erectile dysfunction and the inability to orgasm.

Masters and Johnson would go on to publish a multitude of journals and books that focused on the human sexual experience. But all was not perfect. Things got messy. Affairs were had. Shitty views were expressed. It was bad. This week we explore the good and the ugly that our lady sexologist, Virginia Johnson, brought into the world.

Christina Ramberg

            I’mma

be honest – this one doesn’t have a happy ending. Despite a life cut short,

during Christina’s professional career she received recognition and accolades

for her paintings. Settling in Chicago in the 1960’s, Christina’s art became

part of a wave of post WWII artists known as the Chicago Imagists. Setting her

apart from those artists was her depiction of the female form. Seen at the time

as both a support and critique of women’s bodies, Christina challenged

traditional notions of women as seen through the male gaze.

            Her work as an artist and

educator built on first wave feminism. This episode we talk her early sexy

paintings, being in Playboy and how insecurities can get to the best of us.

Selected Work

Early Work

The 1971 painting Black Widow, for this series of work Christina pulled from watching her mother get dressed for formal events while a child

1971, Shady Lacy, Acrylic on Masonite – Christina would sand down the surface in order to create her tightly rendered and smooth paintings

Christina’s most well known painting, her 1972 work Waiting Lady

Studies

Hand studies

Untitled painting, acrylic on Masonite

Shoe studies

A collection on her corset/urns

Later Work