Sex

Sex, Fu\king, And The Female Orgasm

by Ann Regentin
(12/07/05)

There are a lot of theories out these days about why women orgasm. Some say that women are more likely to orgasm at certain times of the month and that it increases the intake of sperm into the uterus, making it a sort of fertility enhancer. Others believe that women are more likely to orgasm with certain partners, that their orgasms are a mate selection device. Newer research indicates that the ability to orgasm easily may be genetic. In any case, it seems that the female orgasm, now that it's clearly understood to exist, has gone under the microscope, and the primary line of inquiry is into why it is so elusive.

There's only one problem. Women's orgasms are not elusive.

Men and women, when they masturbate, both take the same amount of time to go from zero to one-fifty: about six minutes. Even better, women have a shorter recoil time, making it possible for them to have a second orgasm much sooner, never mind a third or fourth, and their orgasms last a lot longer. Freed from guilt over masturbation and barring serious problems, women can orgasm until their fingers get tired or their batteries run dry. By comparison, it's the male orgasm that's elusive.

The only reason why the female orgasm is said to be elusive is because most women cannot come during intercourse. The thrusting of a penis in a vagina usually doesn't do it, and even when it does, it rarely does it all of the time. The exact number of women who can come consistently through intercourse alone, without any additional clitoral stimulation, varies depending on the study, but it could be as low as 6% . It's not a question of masculine endurance or technique, just a physical quirk so rare that it could be said to be abnormal.

This is the real cause of the angst, though, and the primary definition of female sexual dysfunction. It's not that women can't come; it's that they don't come when or how men want them to. Millions of men have agonized over their performance and millions of women have berated their lovers or themselves all because of something that no technique or duration of penetration can change. The female body is just not made to come when fucked.

Men have long considered this a design flaw and this might be the case if the vagina was intended only for sex, but it's not. It's also known, at least in obstetrical circles, as the birth canal. In this light, the design of the female genitalia, especially the placement of the clitoris and the relative insensitivity of the vagina, makes a good deal of sense. Women have the capacity for orgasm, but the route thereto is kept well clear of childbirth.

Orgasm, for men, is clearly a reproductive function. Although pre-come makes it possible for a man to become a father without ejaculating, the odds are much more in his favor if he does and orgasm is how he does it. Therefore, the reasoning goes, if orgasm is a reproductive necessity for men, then it must in some way be a reproductive necessity for women and since it rarely happens during intercourse, then that lack must be a critical evolutionary feature.

The absurdity of this is plain to anyone who has contended one way or another with the capriciousness of human fertility. Women get pregnant even when they don't want sex, never mind whether or not they have orgasms, or they don't get pregnant no matter how much they want to or how many orgasms they have. However, theory after theory clings to the notion that orgasm must, one way or another, play a critical role in reproduction and the result is pretty much what you'd expect: an abundance of speculation that has stronger roots in ideology than biology. It would take an entire book to pick them all apart and, luckily for me, someone else has already done it. In The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution, Elisabeth A. Lloyd carefully and metic