I didn’t know this existed, but am not surprised by it, the Penile plethysmograph. It apparently is a device which is used to measure whether or not you get an erection or partial sexual arousal from various stimulus.
- The original air device was developed by researcher Kurt Freund in Czechoslovakia during the 1950s. The motivation for its development was to prevent draft dodgers from claiming that they were homosexual in order to avoid military service.
Good god! Apparently the results are not admissible in court though. Which makes sense to me. Cause I mean, shit, the penis is not exactly the world’s most precise instrument. That thing can go off at the drop of a hat, or else not at all, depending.
Damn, according to the skepdic entry on this, the device has also been used in some child-custody cases to “ensure” that a father would not abuse the child. That’s fucking crazy. It’s also been used in “scientific” studies to determine whether or not homophobic males are indeed latent homosexuals themselves. The results were inconclusive. One non-fucked up use of this device though, apparently is in figuring causes of male impotence.
Also related to this was the so-called “fruit-machine“, which the Canadian government used to purge its civil service positions of homosexuals in the 1950’s & 60’s. It measured pupil dilation, perspiration and pulse. There is also a roughly corresponding procedure for women, called Vaginal photoplethysmography, which measures bloodflow to the vagine.
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