Remembering Betty Dodson – The Leading Pioneer of Self-Pleasure
As a superhero that prides herself on sharing vulva love and education, I owe a great deal to the self-love pioneer, Betty Dodson. She passed away, October 31st, 2020, and yet her legacy lives on more powerfully than ever. Betty Dodson was an artist, author, and PhD sexologist, becoming one of the most prominent voices in the space of women’s sexual pleasure and health over the last 4 decades.
Beginning to host workshops in the late 1960s, Dodson quickly became a leading voice in the sex-positive movement. In these workshops she developed the Betty Dodson technique, and helped thousands of women give themselves orgasm using clitoral stimulation. Her workshops allowed women to share their experiences, and see in real time, that yonis are unique in shape, size, and color. She gave thousands of women the space to access pleasure that they hadn’t even known was possible. She not only inspired thousands of women to connect to their bodies through self-pleasure, but she inspired a generation of sex educators, sexologists, and activists. Her mantra, “better orgasms, better world.”
Betty Dodson lit the fire that sparked My Little Yoni, and as one of many inspired by her mission, I’m committed to sharing vulva love and education to future generations. As a superhero, I believe everyone has a right to pleasure and sex education. Even with Dodson’s groundbreaking work, many women still live in the dark, unaware of their own pleasure and disconnected from their yonis. We thank Betty Dodson for the groundbreaking work she pioneered, elevating self-pleasure to the status of ‘solo-sex’ and affirming that the sexual relationship a woman has with herself is the most fundamental and primary relationship she will have in her lifetime. (Check out her book ‘Sex for One’ if you haven’t already.) May we continue this mission with as much spunk and tenacity as you brought, dear Betty!
- My Little Yoni