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Dr. Ruth Westheimer Still Talking Sex at 76
Nov.
10, 2004 – At 76, Dr. Ruth Westheimer is still at it – talking about
sex. She spoke Tuesday at Princeton University, standing on two stacked
crates, and told the students her views on abortion, homosexuality,
condoms and what it is like to be a psychosexual therapist.
Only four-foot-seven-inch, Dr. Ruth is
world-renowned. She helped to pioneer the field of media psychology with
her radio program, Sexually Speaking. It began in September of
1980 as a fifteen minute, taped show that aired Sundays after midnight
on WYNY-FM (NBC) in New York. One year later it became a live, one-hour
show airing at 10 PM on which Dr. Ruth, as she became known, answered
call-in questions from listeners. Soon it became part of a
communications network to distribute Dr. Westheimer's expertise which
has included television, books, newspapers, games, home video and
computer software.
During her speech at Princeton, Westheimer said
people should always stick to their moral values when making decisions
about having sex. She said individuals should "not to be pressured by
others into having sex just because 'everyone else is doing it.' It
should be by choice."
Respect for all sexual preferences, including
homosexuality, should be a universal value, she added.
Westheimer said she believes abortion should be
legal, but "only be used in instances of contraceptive failures."
She said condoms should be made available on campus
— they should be free and put in private places. "They should be put in
boys' and girls' bathrooms where there is privacy, not in places like
the dining halls where people can see who's taking them," she said.
"We were really excited that she would be on
campus," said Azalea Kim '05, senior class president. "The turnout
definitely exceeded expectations and the students asked lots of
questions." The lecture was sponsored by the Women's Center and the
Class of 2005.
"I knew who she was and just had to go see . . .
she's a dynamo," Melissa Rosenberg '08 said. "I really appreciated that
she was older and expressed her progressive views very frankly."
Born in Germany in 1928, Dr. Westheimer was sent to
a school in Switzerland at the age of ten which became an orphanage for
most of the German Jewish students who had been sent there to escape the
Holocaust. At 16 she went to Israel where she fought for that country's
independence as a member of the Haganah, the Jewish freedom fighters.
She then moved to Paris where she studied at the Sorbonne and taught
kindergarten. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 where she obtained her
Masters Degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School
of Social Research. In 1970, she received a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.)
in the Interdisciplinary Study of the Family from Columbia University
Teacher's College.
She worked for Planned Parenthood for a time and it
was that experience that prompted her to further her education in human
sexuality by studying under Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan at New York
Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. She later participated in
the program for five years as an Adjunct Associate Professor. She has
also taught at Lehman College, Brooklyn College, Adelphi University,
Columbia University and West Point.
For the complete story by
Viola Huang in Princtonian.com -
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/11/10/news/11376.shtml
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