this little-understood topic. She proposed the idea to Ramparts male editorial board, including Robert Scheer, who all laughed at her. She cried in the face of their ridicule, but persisted with her vision, writing the essay "Understanding Orgasm", which editor Peter Collier changed to "The Politics of Orgasm", published by Ramparts in 1970. Scheer buried the article in the back pages, but this failed to hide it. Scheer later said it turned out to be "one of our great articles". "The Politics of Orgasm" brought the subject of fake orgasm into the mainstream. A few earlier writers had uncovered the topic: based on the Kinsey Reports and the studies of Masters and Johnson, psychiatrist Mary Jane Sherfey had challenged Sigmund Freud's ideas in 1967, saying he was wrong about a distinct "vaginal orgasm", separate from clitoral orgasm, with the vaginal sort somehow superior. In 1968, Shulamith Firestone wrote the revealing "Women Rap About Sex" for the group New York Radical Women. Anne Koedt published "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm" in the same issue of Notes from the First Year, which was seen by a limited circle of feminists. But Lydon's article prompted a much wider discussion of the prevalence of the fake orgasm, how a majority of women were unsatisfied in sex, frustrated by Freud's disproved assertion about vaginal orgasm. Lydon called upon women to stop creating and perpetuating problems by faking so many orgasms: "With their men, they often fake orgasm to appear 'good in bed' and thus place an intolerable physical burden on themselves and a psychological burden on the men unlucky enough to see through the ruse." Newspapers and radio talk shows debated her work. Women began to demand equal rights in bed, insisting that their pleasure was its own goal. UK feminist Alison Garthwaite said that Lydon's paper electrified the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group, opening the topic of women's sexuality. Lydon divorced in 1971. She freelanced in rock journalism and took a series of lovers. She lived in Marin County with drummer Dave Getz, ex–Big Brother and the Holding Company, and wrote a piece about Janis Joplin. She tried heroin and became addicted. She interviewed Helen Reddy for Ms. magazine, Dr. John for the Daily News, Mark Spitz for The New York Times Magazine, as well as Debbie Harry, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. While in Marin, Getz contracted hepatitis, and Lydon soon acquired it,