De Volmaakte Vrouw. Een Handleiding voor Speciale Lichaamscultuur. Met 534 Illustraties, waarvan 480 Filmbeelden.
Van der Velde, Th. H.
... Vrouwen die een kind hebben gebaard, doen fervent aan postnatale gymnastiek om weer in vorm te komen. Het wordt hen zelden expliciet verteld dat de oefeningen voor de versteviging van de bekkenbodemspieren niet zozeer bedoeld zijn om incontinentie te voorkomen, dan wel om hun postnataal seksleven -- én dat van hun man -- te vrijwaren. De Nederlandse gynaecoloog Th.H. Van de Velde wist alles van ,,paringstechnische vraagstukken''. Hij wist ook dat vrouwen vaak niet de kunst verstonden ,,de geslachtelijke gebeurtenissen door eigen activiteit in gunstige zin te beïnvloeden''. In De volmaakte vrouw. Een handleiding voor speciale lichaamscultuur, uit 1933, schreef hij turnoefeningen voor ter ,,verbetering van de vrouwelijke bekwaamheid om op de juiste wijze aan de paring deel te nemen''. Wat historisch gezien een vrij zeldzaam voorbeeld van waardering voor de seksueel actieve vrouw lijkt te zijn, is dat bij nadere beschouwing echter niet. Ook de als progressief bekend staande Van de Velde baseerde zijn model voor de verhouding tussen de seksen op de actieve spermatozoïde, die na een concurrentieslag met andere spermatozoïden binnendringt in een passief eitje ...
Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (1873-1937) was a Dutch gynecologist who was best known for his popular marriage manual, Ideal Marriage, published first in German and Dutch in 1926 and widely translated and reprinted. The English edition, published by William Heinemann in 1930, went through 43 printings and sold some 700, 000 copies, while the American edition, published by Random House, sold equally well. A revised edition was published in 1965, which also sold well.
Born in 1873, he attended medical school in Leiden and Amsterdam and won recognition as director of the Haarlem Gynecological Clinic. He married his first wife, Henrietta van de Veldeten Brink, in 1899, but the marriage was not a happy one; after some ten years, van de Velde eloped with one of his patients, a socially prominent married woman, Martha Breitenstein-Hooglandt, eight years his junior. In the ensuing scandal, he was forced to give up his practice, and he and Martha wandered through Europe. He finally received a divorce from Henrietta in 1913 and married Martha soon after, settling down near Locarno. He had no children by either wife.
He himself wrote that he did not begin his book on sex and marriage until he had practiced medicine for more than 25 years and was adjudged suitably old. Some of his data came directly from his patients and their husbands, from observations of his patients, and also from his own experience. He emphasized the importance of love play, including oral-genital contact. He also explored some ten different sexual positions.
He died in 1937 at the age of 64, in Locarno, Switzerland. His book was dedicated to his wife Martha.
For several years, Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have organized evenings for friends in which they share the strangest photo books in their collections. The books shown are rarely available in regular shops, but are picked up in thrift stores and from antiquaries. The group’s fascination for these pictorial non-fiction books comes from the need to find images that exist on the fringe of regular commercial photo books. It’s only in this area that it’s possible to find images with an uncontrived quality. What’s noticeable from these publications is that there’s a thin line between being terrible and being awesome. This constant tension makes the books interesting. It’s also worth noting that these tomes all fall within certain categories: the medical, instructional, scientific, sex, humour or propaganda. Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have made a selection of their finest books from within this questionable new genre.
