Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who fled Germany in 1938 as an orphan of the Holocaust, is very much a child of the twentieth century.  But why is she answering viewers’ questions about sex in the age of the coronavirus on CNN? How is she still relevant?

A Voice of the 1950s

Dr. Ruth has made her modern reputation giving sex advice, and sex advice from her is very much like getting dating advice from Doris Day.  She really is a voice of the 1950s — a very liberalized voice, to be sure, but one that has inexplicably come back to life.

Premarital sex is okay, Dr. Ruth tells us.  But extramarital sex?  Maybe you need counselling.

Everything Dr. Ruth advises us in her recent CNN “Full Circle” interview with Anderson Cooper revolves around “relationships,” not around hooking up sexually during COVID-19.  Thinking about doing it?  Make sure your relationship is okay.

And use a condom.  Thank god we had those back in the 1950s.

Her radio and TV shows, as well as her books, were revolutionary for their time. Dr. Ruth inspired average people to talk unabashedly about sexuality, and that was a positive development. However, this is no longer the twentieth century.

Clueless About Postmodern Sex Behaviour

There is a whole panoply of postmodern sex behaviour that Dr. Ruth doesn’t seem to have a clue about.  Roleplaying, domination-submission, and fetish?  These don’t really exist for her, unless they happen in a relationship.

Girl-boy-girl, as they say in the industry: what’s that?

Cross-dressing sissies, gender fluidity.  Better check first and make sure these people have “relationships.”

I’m trying to think to whom Dr Ruth could be speaking, aside from anyone over age 70.  Young people checking right or left on Grindr?  This is no more Dr. Ruth’s line of country than is animal-worship.

Why, Anderson Cooper? Why?

Anderson Cooper doesn’t seem totally out of it, so it’s a mystery as to why he would choose to interview Dr. Ruth.  Is CNN’s support sagging in the long-term care centers?

When I was a boy, I regularly read the advice column written by Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (better known as Ann Landers).  Dr. Ruth strikes me as in that same cohort.  I didn’t read her at the time — otherwise, I would have gotten myself a relationship quick.