Take Roach’s observation that “Kinsey wanted Dellenback to film his own staff. Naturally, the humour is sometimes a bit juvenile - Roach appears to have never met a double entendre she didn’t like - but it’s effective. A respectable, scholarly examination of the last century or so of sex research might be illuminating, but it would be terribly dull. After all, sex has been (ahem) fertile ground for comedians since the dawn of humour. And Roach seizes that potential with gusto. Her affection and respect for these oddball scientists is clear and the potential for comedy is high. The methods for overcoming these practical challenges are the best parts of Bonk, due to their ingenuity and Roach’s witty, irreverent descriptions.
How do you see what a cervix does during orgasm? Who do you experiment on when studying orgasms? Can arousal be measured objectively? The answers seem to be, respectively, a penis camera, any willing volunteer, and maybe. The challenges are more financial - most sex research will never lead to a money-spinner like Viagra - and practical. Social conservatism is still a barrier to research, although comparing Roach’s description of a club night dedicated to (literal) sex-machines with the necessary coyness of pre-war journal articles, it’s clearly a diminishing one. Much of Bonk explores the unique challenges of researching this basic human activity. It comes as a surprise that our sex-obsessed society knows so little about how the act works. Most of the research is still conducted in poorly-funded laboratories, where staff conceal their jobs from friends and family behind baffling titles.
In fact, as far as we may have come since Kinsey, sexology is still a difficult and curiously inexact science. If sex seems like a more conventional topic than those previous, the people and studies that Roach uncovers are anything but. While Stiff looked at cadavers and Spook studied the spirit world, Bonk covers the science of sex. Following the popular Stiff and Spook, Roach presents another monosyllabically-titled letter from the oddball research frontline with Bonk. The funny side of science is the gift that keeps giving for Californian writer Mary Roach.
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