The legendarily frank sex therapist and cultural icon Dr Ruth Westheimer, known simply as Dr Ruth, has died at the age of 96, according to her publicist.
Westheimer died on Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family.
Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behavior. Instead, she encouraged an open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was there was nothing to be ashamed of.
“I still hold old-fashioned values and I’m a bit of a square,” she told students at Michigan City high school in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”
Westheimer’s giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her 4ft 7in frame, made her an unlikely looking – and sounding – outlet for “sexual literacy”. The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.
But it was her extensive knowledge and training, coupled with her humorous, accepting manner, that catapulted her local radio program, Sexually Speaking, into the national spotlight in the early 1980s. She had a nonjudgmental approach to what two consenting adults did in the privacy of their home.