WTF: Kellogg Edition
October 11, 2009 § 6 Comments
Did you know that the makers of Kellogg cereals (we’re talking about the original makers here), were super anti-masturbation and actively campaigned against it? The first Kellogg cereals were actually designed specifically to be super bland because J. H. Kellogg thought that a bland breakfast would decrease sexual arousal throughout the day (huh?). Kellogg and his buddy Graham (of Graham crackers, yes) wrote lots of books on the evils of masturbation, even suggesting that carbolic acid be placed on the clitoris to keep girls from touching themselves.
WTF?!
I never liked those Kellogg cereals anyway….
Source: Abnormal Psychology, Hansell and Damour.
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I’m a little conflicted by all this. In Michigan, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has established a wonderful philanthropic network.
Right. I think there are a bunch of charitable organizations related to Kellogg, and that’s awesome and commendable. I just wanted to point out the extremely odd and questionable roots of the cereal’s inception.
I took a class on the history of foods (obviously a G.E. course) over the summer. The original Kelloggs started a “sanitarium” (essentially a get-away retreat) to improve people’s health. He served his cereal at the sanitarium and his brother began to sell it. Kellogg attended the Seventh Day Adventist Church (whose members were against alcohol and tobacco), though I’m unsure of the connection between his cereal and his wanting to reduce sexual arousal.
..interesting though
You don’t know the half of it! You might want to look at T.C. Boyle’s novel, “The Road to Wellville”. It is a funny, satirical account of the Kellogg’s clinic and turn-of-the-century health fads of the middle class.
At Amazon: http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=baslowselectr-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0140167188&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
There’s also a movie (which I haven’t seen and wasn’t particularly well-received; Amazon buyers seemed to like it better): http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=baslowselectr-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00006BIJ9
Wikipedia has an article on the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Wellville
Among other things, Boyle contrasts the Puritanical ideas of Kellogg with those of a fictional (I think) Dr. Spitzvogel, who specializes in therapeutic genital massages for women which are very popular. This practice was real. See the scholarly book by Rachel Maines, “The Technology of Orgasm” ( http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=baslowselectr-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0801866464&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr ). Maines documents the fact that so many doctors found the “medical obligation” to massage women’s genitals so onerous that, out of necessity, the vibrator was invented!
I swear I didn’t know about this play until today:
http://lct.org/showMain.htm?id=189
It is entitled “In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play”
It turns out that Sarah Ruhl, author of the play, had read Maines’ book. (http://lct.org/showBlog.htm?id=189&blogEntryId=138)
Yes, I have heard of the Ruhl play…Intersting stuff. I hope it gets produced in more places.