1. History of the female orgasm
This is a great topic to begin a discussion on the female orgasm. Though there is a lot of science on the topic, very little of it has been published in peer-reviewed journals, so it’s difficult to find reliable information.
The first widely accepted definition of female orgasm was developed by William Masters and Virginia Johnson in 1972. The definition includes five basic elements:
Sensation of perineum (touching or stroking the perineum)
Sensation of anus and/or vagina (touching or stroking the anus and/or vagina)
Exhibition of genitalia (receiving an orgasm)
Consent of partners (not making them do anything they don’t want to do)
In 2003, Masters and Johnson revised their definition to include two additional elements: Arousal, which they defined as “…the physical experience resulting from sexual stimulation that results in physiological changes in the body.” And “Orgasm”, which they defined as “…the emotional experience associated with orgasm.” This latter definition is also used today. It’s interesting that this revision did not change much as compared to earlier definitions. The fact that most researchers now use the translations from Masters & Johnson suggests that it doesn’t matter too much what is actually being described or experienced by the subjects when doing research on this topic. Here’s another fascinating quote from Masters & Johnson: “It has been long recognized that female orgasms are triggered by sexual stimulation…women respond differently to vaginal intercourse than men” . They went on to say “There are probably two types of women who orgasm during intercourse: those who feel no urge for male genital stimulation, and those who experience pleasurable sexual arousal from being penetrated vaginally”. This is an important distinction because even though men can be aroused by other things besides penetration, women cannot be aroused by penetration alone , but need sexual stimulation in addition to penetration.
So what does this all have to do with sex toys? Well I’ll tell you! 🙂 In 1979, Masters & Johnson showed me what their thesis had been trying so hard to explain all these years: if a man can get his penis into a woman’s vagina without any help from her hands or mouth, he can also stimulate her clitoris without any help at all. That being said, if a woman can stimulate her clitoris without any help at all, she will also stimulate her vagina
2. Female and male anatomy
The science of female orgasm
While the male orgasm is known to be extremely pleasurable, it has been found that the female orgasm is a completely different experience. Women have been reported to have orgasms from both internal and external sources, with some women claiming that they experience “gratification” from their partners (in contrast to men’s claim of “pleasure”).
When it comes to female orgasm, scientists have found that women are able to reach climax through a diverse array of different mechanisms, including vaginal contractions and pelvic floor muscles. The majority of studies focus on the pelvic floor muscle, which is composed of many different types of muscles around the pelvis, including muscles in and around the vagina. These muscles can be described as being part of the pelvic floor because they allow women to control how much pressure they exert during intercourse.
The most important thing that makes a woman able to reach climax is actually the vaginal opening itself. This opening serves as a structure within which all other parts become active. As such, it has been found that there are two distinct types of vaginal openings: those which are wide open (like an orifice) and those which are very tightly closed (like a fist).
A wide opened vaginal opening allows for more fluid flow into the vagina when performing sexual intercourse. A tight closed vaginal opening prevents this flow from happening by acting like a lock on the vagina’s opening. With this in mind, a woman who practices safe sex techniques has been found to have better orgasms when she is wider open rather than very tight.
3. The female orgasm’s mythological origins and its role in reproduction
I am a scientist and a writer. For more than fifteen years, I have written about female orgasm. In the process, I have come to believe that it is not just a myth: it is an actual biological event. I grew up in what was then the Soviet Union, and was taught that women are born with an unerring ability to orgasm. I believed it—and still do.
But then I watched one of my patients somewhere else in the world tell me that she had never had an orgasm before she was thirty-five years old. The scientific evidence tells me that this is not just myth; this is not just fantasy, either. And there are many other examples of women who were born with this uncanny ability to orgasm—many women who never heard of it until they were told by their doctors or gynecologists that they could never have an orgasm because “that’s impossible!”
This research has been conducted by some of the leading researchers in the field, including psychiatrist Robert Bannister (now at Wellesley College), who has done extensive work on female sexual arousal and orgasm in men and women. He pointed out that if this ability does exist, it should be something we should all be very familiar with: it should be something we can learn about through science and mathematics rather than being handed down from our mothers or grandmothers or even from our mothers’ grandmothers… but we do have some natural ability to learn about this phenomenon…
But most of us don’t know what makes us sexually aroused—and how do we learn? One way is through sex, pornography or masturbation (or whatever you call it) but what if there is also something called “female sexual arousal?” What if there are different ways of learning how to become aroused? What if there are times when two people experience arousal together as partners rather than alone? What if arousal can be learned through many different places and activities other than sex? What if arousal has a biological basis as well as psychological?
The answer to these questions may surprise you: yes, there does seem to be a biological basis for becoming aroused during sexual intercourse between a man and woman even though both partners experience it as purely psychological (or perhaps even physiological?) . . .
4. Female orgasms in literature
I’m sure you’re aware that women are far from the only ones who experience sexual arousal when they see a particular female form. Men, of course, are fully capable of having sexual arousal when they see a female form. And, as any sex therapist would tell you, any woman who is sexually aroused by a male form is doing so because she is sexually attracted to that male form. As such, we do not yet know how the female brain processes this information, but we do know what kind of things trigger it.
We know that there are two basic types of stimuli that can make women sexually aroused:
(1) Images: In one experiment, women were shown images of their own bodies and clothed men — both in natural light and with halogen lights shone where appropriate (to simulate the lighting conditions in their home). The images varied in size and shape, but were always shown for about 3 seconds each (3 x 3 = 12 seconds). After seeing the images repeatedly for around 2 minutes — with no breaks between them — the women reported being sexually aroused by pictures showing their own body parts and clothed men.
(2) Sounds: Women have been shown to react sexually to sounds associated with sexual arousal (such as cat calls) even when those sounds are made by individuals other than men whose genitals or genitals-related characteristics could be seen or heard (e.g., a woman hearing sounds made by her vibrator makes her sexually aroused).
The important thing here is that these two types of stimuli can trigger sexual arousal even when they are not directly related to sexuality. This means that while it is possible to identify which stimuli will reliably lead to a woman being sexually aroused without associating it with sexuality (e.g., an image showing one’s own naked body), it is also possible to identify which stimuli will reliably lead to a woman being sexually aroused without any direct association with sexuality at all (e.g., an image showing one’s own hand touching someone else’s genitalia). It seems reasonable then to conclude that we should look for associations between these two types of stimuli and find them before seeking direct associations between them and sexuality…
So what does this have to do with orgasms? Well, as I said at the beginning of this post, female orgasms have been known for hundreds of years through literary works like Euripides’ Bacchae . The problem was that many writers felt it was only natural for
5. Why the female orgasm has been ignored by science
orgasm, the female orgasm, female orgasms
This is a link to a YouTube video that explains the science of female orgasm. It’s not a thorough explanation, but it does bring up some interesting points and has one of the most common misconceptions regarding female sexual pleasure.
6. The rise of the scientific study of the female orgasm and its importance to women’s health
In 1867, the French physician and founder of sexology, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), published a paper in which he claimed that women had an orgasm only when their clitoris was stimulated by an external source.
In 1877, Charcot published a second paper in which he claimed that both men and women have an orgasm; however, in spite of the fact that these claims were based on very limited data, some researchers would continue to claim that women have only an orgasm when their clitoris is stimulated.
Charcot was followed by many other researchers who claimed that female orgasms are caused by the stimulation of the vagina.
In the 20th century, a steady flow of evidence began to emerge from studies in anatomical anatomy, physiology and psychology (i.e., what happens during sexual arousal). Despite this evidence which has now been thoroughly reviewed (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_studies_on_female_orgasm) , there remains no consensus as to whether women have orgasms or not: some scientists feel they do; others feel they do not; others still feel that they can reduce their chances of having an orgasm if they sleep with a man who has never had an orgasm before (or if his partner has experienced one). It should be noted that these effects vary from person to person and can be both short-term and long-term.
There is a great deal of controversy surrounding this issue but unfortunately we cannot avoid addressing it here as it pertains to our audience’s interest and curiosity towards scientific research into female sexual function.
Women are not born with or without orgasms — we get ours through natural selection — so while it is true that people like talking about female orgasms, it is equally true that people like talking about women’s bodies generally: they’re fascinating! Moreover, while we all want our daughters to know what “the vagina” feels like when aroused, we also want them to know what “the penis” feels like when aroused — because male bodies are shaped differently than female bodies are shaped differently than other body shapes…
