Support Us

Description of the video:

Dr. Justin Garcia: Hi, I'm Dr. Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute and I'm here today with my friend, the great, legendary Dr. Ruth Westheimer. So tell us a little bit more about your work as New York's loneliness ambassador.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer: So what we are doing right now is the work on loneliness. And I have been working on that for many years, but now it's coming to full vision by having a book about loneliness and about my coming to the Kinsey Institute. And any student who needs material, and any student who needs a doctorate or master's can get that by going to the Institute, by getting material.

Garcia: I love it. And I love the idea that your materials and your work and your archives, your more than 40 books that you've written and the way you've helped educate people of all ages around the world, that that material is going to be archived with us at the Kinsey Institute and accessible.

Westheimer: That's the most important thing to learn from it. And it's going. Going to be a wonderful, wonderful relationship.

Garcia: And I'm so honored that we're going to have your materials at Kinsey, along other giants in the field of sex education and sex research, like Dr. Kinsey and Masters and Johnson. We're thrilled that you're a partner with us in this continuing and important work.

Westherimer: It's very nice. Very nice. I like your smile.

Garcia: Oh, thank you. Thank you. You have a good smile, too. I have to keep up with you. You've been such an important and impactful force in the United States and around the world, educating people about sex and sexuality. And do you think that work needs to continue? What do you see as the important things that we still need to talk about?

Westheimer: Of course, what I'm doing is I'm not staying just with that issue of sex and intercourse. I. I am branching out. I'm making sure that I talk about what is needed in order to have a good sex life and what is needed in a good relationship so that you and I will work on that together.

Garcia: So when your archives come to the Kinsey Institute, our library and special collections, what are some things that scholars and students and the public will find?

Westheimer: They will find my first advice in terms of sex therapy, in terms of people having better understanding of each other, of knowing how to really know the other person, how to give them pleasure and how to smile like you smile, and then we'll work together. What is needed for me to participate in your work?

Garcia: We're really lucky. We have an amazing team with the Kinsey Institute, with your colleagues and friends, and our Wonderful Liana Zhao and Rebecca Fassman and Shawn Wilson. Our team's gonna take good care of your material. When you think of all the different type of advice and guidance that people have come to you for, what do you see as really important sex advice that people still need to remember today.

Westheimer: To be able to speak about it? That's the most important thing. Because people were not used to talk about it, and people were dissatisfied because they did not talk about what they needed.

Garcia: I love that. And I think for us, that's so much of what the Kinsey Institute, for almost eight decades, has stood for. The right to ask questions and talk about human sexuality. And then I want to ask you one more thing. I know you love turtles and you collect turtles.

Westheimer: Yes.

Garcia: Why do you love them so much?

Westheimer: I love turtles because a turtle has to stick its neck out. Otherwise, it doesn't help each other, doesn't advance.

Garcia: And you've stuck your neck out for your career. You've taken risks in order to advance for your career.

Westheimer: Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly the point that I did. Stuck my neck out with my German Jewish accent, and people thought, what is this older woman doing in sex therapy? And I proved that ,never mind the age, I proved that What I can provide is the knowledge about sexuality.

Garcia: That's right. And we need it just as much now as ever before.

Westheimer: Right. Yeah.

Garcia: Well, thank you. And thank you for all you've done to educate and inspire people to study sexuality, to educate about it and make sure the world around us is informed.

Westheimer: Now we are partners.

Garcia: That's right.

Westheimer: At the Kinsey Institute.