Vagina sizes in (human) populations

[PosterChild]

A Chinese friend of mine (with an admittedly limited sample size) was saying how she had a more difficult time accomodating her white ex-boyfriend's penis than her Korean boyfriend's. Which got me wondering.

Uncle Cecil did a column (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_193.html) about penis sizes. He mentions that blacks and whites have about the same "working" size, but that Japanese condoms are produced in a smaller size than American. If that means that there are ethnicity differences in penis sizes, does that mean that there are ethnicity differences in vagina, um, accomodations?

PC

[Tsubaki]

I don't know...there shouldn't be in width, since the vaginal walls are just muscle anyway which can stretch. Those women who have vaginismus (sp? anyway, its a syndrome where they are very "tight") are an exception, and I don't know if its prevalent in one race over another.

Length could be another matter. However, I don't know of any studies...maybe you should Google?

[ultrafilter]

Presumably, vagina size correlates pretty well with height. If the average oriental person is shorter than the average weight person (as seems to be popularly believed, at least in my experience), then there might be a difference.

[Wikkit]

Originally posted by ultrafilter
Presumably, vagina size correlates pretty well with height. If the average oriental person is shorter than the average weight person (as seems to be popularly believed, at least in my experience), then there might be a difference. Why is that presumable? The same could be said about penis size, which isn't true.

[Wikkit]

Originally posted by ultrafilter
Presumably, vagina size correlates pretty well with height. If the average oriental person is shorter than the average weight person (as seems to be popularly believed, at least in my experience), then there might be a difference. Why is that presumable? The same could be said about penis size, which isn't true.

[choosybeggar]

I believe there is a strong positive correlation between height and penis size. Let me tell you, I'm tall, very tall.

But seriously, PC, don't take a quote from some guy that visits condom factories as the final word on average length. Ask your "friend" to begin researching the matter in earnest.

[PosterChild]

Well it does seem that pretty much all normal vaginas should be able to handle penile girth since they can handle things that are larger (speculums, babies, etc) but maybe not with equal facility.

Wikkit that's sort of the process our discussion went also. Penis size doesn't seem to depend on on body size (nudge nudge Choosy), so it seemed likely vagina size wouldn't, except that, being internal, vaginas may be more dependent on abdomnial cavity size (otherwise a short women would have her uterus where her stomach should be to match a very tall woman's).

PC

Choosy if I can't get more info here, I guess I'll have to take to personal research again. :)

[Lamia]

Originally posted by PosterChild
A Chinese friend of mine (with an admittedly limited sample size) was saying how she had a more difficult time accomodating her white ex-boyfriend's penis than her Korean boyfriend's.

The vagina is quite stretchy. If it can hold a baby's head, it should be able to hold any human-sized penis. Your friend's discomfort was probably due to not being properly aroused, although she may have been suffering from a medical condition that makes intercourse painful.

[Cliffy]

I guess that's just what happens when you try to mingle the races.

[Happy Lendervedder]

Originally posted by Cliffy
I guess that's just what happens when you try to mingle the races.

WTF?

I hope you're kidding Cliffy...


stv

[Mangetout]

Can we just have the obligatory post to the effect that there is no such thing as race?

[PosterChild]

Originally posted by Lamia
The vagina is quite stretchy. If it can hold a baby's head, it should be able to hold any human-sized penis. Your friend's discomfort was probably due to not being properly aroused, although she may have been suffering from a medical condition that makes intercourse painful.
Even though I mentioned it, my friend reminded me that a baby doesn't actually pass through the vagina until the connective tissue has had a chance to "loosen" so that's not a normal sexual situation. I wish this were a topic I could broach with more women I know, because I'd be curious what experiences women may have had with this. It could be arousal, but it could just as easily be variablility in size. I'd imagine the vagina would adapt with practice.

PC

P.S.- There is no such thing as race. (I'm guessing Cliffy was making a poor joke.)

[Cliffy]

Originally posted by stv
I hope you're kidding Cliffy...

Of course I was.

--Cliffy

[handy]

Every book I read said the vagina is 4" long. I guess there isn't much variation.

[Rubicon]

I'm not sure every woman's vagina can handle a baby's head--don't petite women have more C-sections for that reason? Does anybody know if there are anthropological studies on this--it would seem that really tiny women/vaginas (and no, I am not implying those are interchangable) would have generally been selected out of the gene pool since in pre-medical times their offspring would have significantly higher mortality rates during birth.

And, since I have nowhere else to post this, my pregnant wife yesterday informed me that one of her friends is on bedrest for the last seven months of her pregnancy due to "an incompetent cervix". I thanked her for the update, but told her not to be so judgmental. She did not find that amusing, but then again, making new humans seems to drain her of her sense of humor.

[username for rent]

Well, my experience in the field tells me that size does make a difference. I'm sure this is not in all cases but petite women do tend to be "tighter".

[Cat Fight]

I can't believe I'm writing this, but my friend has a very un-PC theory about international dating (e.g. Irish guys liking Chinese girls, English girls liking Haitian men). Like I said, it's very vague and quite graphic, much like my own theories about what cleavage and lip gloss represent. Personally, I'd have to agree that it's the person's height, weight and genes, not her nationality.

[KarlGrenze]

Originally posted by Rubicon
I'm not sure every woman's vagina can handle a baby's head--don't petite women have more C-sections for that reason?

I would suppose petite women tend to have small babies. And those babies' heads can become quite cone-shaped if that is what is needed to be born.

[choosybeggar]

Originally posted by Rubicon
I'm not sure every woman's vagina can handle a baby's head--don't petite women have more C-sections for that reason?

No sirree. The vagina is not the limiting factor in childbirth. The pelvic bones are. Think about it-the vagina is stretchy and supple. Bones are, well, bony. When a woman is said to have child-bearing hips, this is a comment on the diameter of her pelvic outlet, the bony ring through which the fetus's head must pass. Obstetricians classify the general contour of pelves into groups. A gynecoid pelvis, for example, is the afforementioned child-bearing hips. Women with an android (man-like) configuration of the pelvis have more trouble with vaginal deliveries and consequently are a higher risk for C-section.

[choosybeggar]

Originally posted by Rubicon
I'm not sure every woman's vagina can handle a baby's head--don't petite women have more C-sections for that reason?

No sirree. The vagina is not the limiting factor in childbirth. The pelvic bones are. Think about it-the vagina is stretchy and supple. Bones are, well, bony. When a woman is said to have child-bearing hips, this is a comment on the diameter of her pelvic outlet, the bony ring through which the fetus's head must pass.

Obstetricians classify the general contour of pelves into groups. A gynecoid pelvis, for example, is the afforementioned child-bearing hips. Women with an android (man-like) configuration of the pelvis have more trouble with vaginal deliveries and consequently are a higher risk for C-section.

[Lamia]

Originally posted by PosterChild

Even though I mentioned it, my friend reminded me that a baby doesn't actually pass through the vagina until the connective tissue has had a chance to "loosen" so that's not a normal sexual situation.


Well no, but accomodating something quite that big probably isn't a normal sexual situation either. :)

Actually, it just occured to me that you haven't been clear as to whether your friend thought her boyfriend's penis was uncomfortable wide or uncomfortably long. It does make a difference. I think that practically any grown woman, barring medical problems, when properly relaxed, aroused, and lubricated could stretch wide enough to accomodate practically any human-sized penis. However, the vaginal canal is only so deep. The cervix moves back when a woman is aroused (most women can actually feel this happening, although they may not realize what it is), and the more aroused she is the better, but there is a limit to how far it can go. A man with a particularly long penis may be unable to fully penetrate his partner without painfully bumping her cervix.

[The Flying Dutchman]

Originally posted by PosterChild
does that mean that there are ethnicity differences in vagina, um, accomodations?

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Exhibition.html

Saarjite Baartman, a young Khosian woman from Southern Africa whose body was the main attraction at public spectacles in both England and France for over five years, is perhaps the most infamous case of a Khosian body on display. Baartman, who became known as the Hottentot Venus, was brought to Europe from Cape Town in 1810 by an English ship's surgeon who wished to publicly exhibit the woman's steatopygia, her enlarged buttocks. Her physique, particularly her steatopygic appendage, became the object of popular fascination when Baartman was exhibited naked in a cage at Piccadilly, England.......

........The spectacle of Baartman's body, however, continued even after her death at the age of twenty-six. Pseudo-scientists interested in investigating "primitive sexuality" dissected and cast her genitals in wax. Baartman, as far as we know, was the first person of Khosian-descent to be dismembered and displayed in this manner. Anatomist Georges Curvier presented Baartman's dissected labia before the Academie Royale de Medecine, in order to allow them "to see the nature of the labia" (Gilman 235). Curvier and his contemporaries concluded that Baartman's oversized primitive genitalia was physical proof of the African women's "primitive sexual appetite." Baartman's genitalia continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l'Homme, the institution to which Curvier belonged, long after her death.

[PosterChild]

Originally posted by Lamia
Actually, it just occured to me that you haven't been clear as to whether your friend thought her boyfriend's penis was uncomfortably wide or uncomfortably long. It does make a difference. I think that practically any grown woman, barring medical problems, when properly relaxed, aroused, and lubricated could stretch wide enough to accomodate practically any human-sized penis. However, the vaginal canal is only so deep. The cervix moves back when a woman is aroused (most women can actually feel this happening, although they may not realize what it is), and the more aroused she is the better, but there is a limit to how far it can go. A man with a particularly long penis may be unable to fully penetrate his partner without painfully bumping her cervix. Actually both, but if the average penis 6.3 inches long (see Cecil's column) and the average vagina is 4 inches long, I guess a little cervical impact is normal if the guy's not careful. My friend said she feld "stretched" out because it was big around, but she was surprisingly happy to keep researching. ;)