THE STORY OF MASSAGE
Gender Separation
in the 20th Century
By Patricia J. Benjamin
Swedish masseuses and masseurs predominantly lived in different
worlds. Massaging someone of the opposite sex was not considered
respectable—unless it was in a medical setting—until the 1980s. Social
mores in the mid-20th century frowned on such intimate contact
outside of family, and local laws trying to curb prostitution often
forbade it. Professional ethics espoused early on by the Incorporated
Society of Trained Masseuses prohibited opposite-sex massage except
for medical treatment and never for general massage. That ethical
standard remained the norm for most of the 20th century.
Excerpted from The Emergence of the Massage Therapy Profession in North America
(Curties-Overzet, 2015) by Patricia J. Benjamin. Find it at www.curties-overzet.com.
Gender segregated classes were the norm at
the College of Swedish Massage in 1939.
