--- title: 6 Things the Real Masters of Sex Taught Us About Sex in 1970 description: Before Masters of Sex was a hit Showtime show, the real Virginia Johnson and Dr. William Masters graced the May 25, 1970 cover of TIME canonical: https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/ author: ashley Ross article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-11T21:48:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:38.955Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 6 Things the Real "Masters of Sex" Taught Us About Sex in 1970 og:description: Before Masters of Sex was a hit Showtime show, the real Virginia Johnson and Dr. William Masters graced the May 25, 1970 cover of TIME og:url: https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed89d4f0019e2cc/69869b7d13c79f2dbc1930e5/sexed.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: sexed og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 6 Things the Real "Masters of Sex" Taught Us About Sex in 1970 twitter:description: Before Masters of Sex was a hit Showtime show, the real Virginia Johnson and Dr. William Masters graced the May 25, 1970 cover of TIME twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed89d4f0019e2cc/69869b7d13c79f2dbc1930e5/sexed.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 6 Things the Real _Masters of Sex_ Taught Us About Sex in 1970 by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Jul 11, 2014 9:48 PM UTC  by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Jul 11, 2014 9:48 PM UTC Showtime’s acclaimed series _Masters of Sex_ comes back for its second season this weekend, but before it was a hit show, the real Virginia Johnson and Dr. William Masters graced the [May 25, 1970 cover of TIME](http://time.com/2976273/masters-of-sex-time-cover/) to talk about their groundbreaking adult sexual education. “The greatest form of sex education,” Masters once said, “is Pop walking past Mom in the kitchen and patting her on the fanny, and Mom obviously liking it. The kids take a look at this action and think, ‘Boy, that’s for me!'” While sexual myths of penis size and libido boosters still exist today, Masters and Johnson were the original debunkers. This is what their research concluded in the 70’s. **1.** Penis size has nothing to do with sexual effectiveness. **2\.** Baldness is not a sign of virility. **3\.** There is no physiological difference, as Freud first proposed, between a clitoral orgasm and a vaginal orgasm. **4\.** Humans can remain sexually active well into their ninth decade. “All that is necessary,” says Masters, “is reasonably good health and an interested and interesting partner.” **5\.** Intercourse is not dangerous at any time during pregnancy—unless, says Masters, it is contraindicated by “ruptured membranes, pain and bleeding.” **6\.** Masturbation is not harmful. Catch up on William Masters and Virginia Johnson by reading their [1970 cover story](http://time.com/2976273/masters-of-sex-time-cover/) now and see [what happened in the first season](http://time.com/2969902/catch-up-what-happened-on-masters-of-sex-last-year/) of the hit series. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/"},"headline":"6 Things the Real Masters of Sex Taught Us About Sex in 1970","datePublished":"2014-07-11T21:48:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:38.955Z","description":"Before they were on Showtime, they were on the cover of TIME","url":"https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/","keywords":["Living","Television","Pregnancy","Sex","Masters of Sex"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed89d4f0019e2cc/69869b7d13c79f2dbc1930e5/sexed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"ashley Ross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed89d4f0019e2cc/69869b7d13c79f2dbc1930e5/sexed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sexed","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2977919/masters-of-sex-time-cover-story/","name":"6 Things the Real Masters of Sex Taught Us About Sex in 1970"}}]}] ```