Sex therapist Ruth Westheimer is dead
Charismatic as can be: Ruth Westheimer was only 1.40 m tall, but brought an entire nation sexuality with her. In the USA, "Dr. Ruth" is renowned, but her roots are in Germany. Her parents sent her out of the country in 1938, and she never saw them again. Her practice is in New York City.
The renowned German-American sexual therapist Ruth Westheimer has passed away. She died at her home in New York City surrounded by her family, her manager and friend Pierre Lehu announced. Westheimer was 96 years old. In the USA, the Frankfurt am Main-raised therapist was considered a pioneer in sexual enlightenment, whose shows gained cult status.
Her entertaining and witty radio show "Sexually Speaking" caused a stir in the early 80s. The psychologist and sociologist, with a height of 1.40 meters, gave tips on the topic of sex and passion without passing judgment on callers.
"Tell him that you won't make the first move," she advised a concerned caller in June 1982. "Tell him that Dr. Westheimer said he won't die if he goes without sex for a week."
The success of her radio show opened new doors for Westheimer, leading her to write her first of over 40 books in 1983: "Dr. Ruth's Guide to Good Sex". In this work, she clarified sexuality with a mix of humor and seriousness.
About Switzerland and Palestine to the USA
The fact that the words "Penis" and "Vagina" could be heard on the radio and television in the USA without censoring was thanks to Westheimer, who kept her hessian dialect-infused English until the end (listen to it in the embedded YouTube video above). She was a frequent guest on late-night talk shows, which further boosted her nationwide fame. "If we could talk about sexual activity the way we talk about nutrition or food, without the connotation that there's something wrong with it, then we'd be a step further. But we have to do it with taste," she said in 1982 on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Westheimer defended the right to abortion and passionately advocated for the use of condoms, while also being an advocate for monogamy. In the 1980s, she spoke out on the peak of the AIDS epidemic for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. She had to defend people, whom some right-wing Christians considered "sub-human," because of her own past, she said.
Ruth Karola Siegel was born as a child of Jewish parents in 1928. At the age of ten, her parents sent her to Switzerland to protect her from the organized pogroms in Nazi Germany in November 1938. Her parents were never seen again. Westheimer believed they were murdered in Auschwitz. At 16, she moved to Palestine, where she joined the zionist underground organization Hagana. There, she was trained as a sniper but, according to her own statements, never shot anyone.
She was injured by a bomb explosion and suffered severe leg injuries, many of her friends were killed. Later, she went to Paris, where she studied at the renowned Sorbonne. In the mid-50s, she moved to the USA and settled in New York City, where she practiced as a therapist for decades. Westheimer was married three times.
The international acclaim of Ruth Westheimer's sexual enlightenment work led to her being invited as a guest on various United States television shows, further propagating National Socialism's contrary messages about sexuality. Regardless of the controversial topics she addressed, her approach remained devoid of judgment and included advocacy for death case prevention measures, such as the usage of condoms.
