I know many will say no, but what if the female orgasm is more than just a “side effect” and it’s true purpose is to keep the woman coming back for more babies (or something else)? Does anyone know if there are any books/theories on this or care to share any personal beliefs?
I think I saw a program on TLC, or Discovery channel a while back that stated that upon insertion of a small camer to view it from the inside, they could see that certain musle contractions inside the vagina hepl move the semen along, thus increasing the chances of conception.
I might be mistaken, someone with more knowledge should stop on by.
Yes, I saw that same show…I guess that could explain why it takes a woman <i>longer</i> (on average) to orgasm than men. (If she did it first it wouldn’t increase chances of conception.)
If sex wasn’t pleasurable, would people do it?
Right, but there must be a reason why women are designed to just randomly orgasm (unlike our male counterparts who are designed to orgasm every time). Most women orgasm from the clitoris, yet plain vanilla intercourse doesn’t provide the stimulation it needs to get there. Puzzling.
Women orgasm only randomly?
Not MY women!
“With the screaming, and the yelling and the KLAVEN!”
Hmm. I’ve heard that one before 
Anyhoo, with just plain ol’ vanilla intercourse it’s unlikely for women to orgasm every time. I always hear men speak of internal “g-spots” and whatnot but I’m a lady and ladies talk to other ladies and I’ve never heard of such a thing. Not that it doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t seem to be very common.
This question needs empirical research!
Your a woman and you have never heard of a g-spot?
I’m baffled…You should probably go talk to your doctor for guidance on this one…
LOL…“it’s for research, Honey.”
Truly random orgasms are discussed here:
Can some people have orgasms without genital stimulation?
And here’s an article on the G-Spot:
Steven J. Gould argued (Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples) that female orgasm has not in itself been selected for, rather that females have a clitoris because males have a penis – much the same way that males have nipples because females do. This has a name which I can’t remember right now. E.g. male orgasm has been selected for, female orgasm is a simply a by-product of common ancestry at the embryo stage. Who said nature gives no free lunch clearly hadn’t heard about that theory.
Also I don’t think I agree, but I’m not such a big hotshot as Gould so whadd’ya gonna do?
- Rune
I have heard of Gould’s argument before. So, if we decide for a second that the “g-spot” does exist, it must not serve and evolutionary purpose since it’s so hard to find. Also, the percentage of women that claim to have found their “g-spots” seems to be low, which doesn’t mesh with why do many men claim that all the women they’ve been with are orgasming like mad.
I also wonder how much of it has to do with a woman’s particluar anatomy. The female reproductive organs are not a cookie cutter system, same for everyone. I’ve been told that I am “special” because of the way my uterus and cervix are positioned and the idea of any rough internal stimulation (looking for the “g-spot”) makes me go “ouch”. I’ve also read and heard similar sentiments about the same thing from other women.
I tend to agree heavily with Gould on this one. The idea of female orgasm being linked to fertility is is full of holes that it’s unworkable. The first problem is that other female mammals can be induced to orgasm through manual simulation, and yet almost none ever achieve orgasm during normal intercourse. Evolution isn’t going to produce and hold onto a redundant system just on the off chance that primates evove at some point on the future that can use it.
The next probelm is that most women experience orgasm either during foreplay or coitus, before any semen is present. While research has shown a slight increase in sperm counts in the uterus if orgasm occurs after ejaculation it shows a marked decline in sperm counts if orgasm occurs prior to ejacualtion. Oragsm during coitus or forplay drags alkaline material into the uterus and reduces the chance of conception. That’s some system for improving fertility whenin most women it decreases the spem count.
This has led some scientists and quite a few feminsists to theorise that women are predisposed to masturbation after sex and in this way they can have sex with multiple partners but select the one they want to get pregnanat too. Not very convincing when most women report that they are more likely to orgasm with a partner they are highly attracted to and feel comfortable with. The system actually selects against the preferred partner. This is countered by the highly spurious and totally baseless hypothesis that women are driven to subconsciously select for the best father and are subconsciously driven to masturbate after sex with that partner. Aside from being baseless htis requires the rather complicated and redundant system of genetically programming a woman to select desirable features in mates and then superimpose another and entirely subconscipus set of features that select for post coital masturbation potential.
In reality, although their are differences in sperm numbers associated with orgasm, the sperm production in the human male is so over the top, probabaly because of our upright posture, that it has no discernable effect in fertility. Most sperm drain out of the reproductive canal in humans anyway, so a few more lost to orgasm is of little difference. Instead of a few thousand sperm making it to the ova you only get 1500. Since half a dozen is more than enough it’s overkill either way.
Gould’s hypothesis that female orgasm is an atavism that may or may not play some role in pair bonding and encouraging mating is far more elegant, plausible and supported by evidence.
I tend to agree heavily with Gould on this one. The idea of female orgasm being linked to fertility is is full of holes that it’s unworkable. The first problem is that other female mammals can be induced to orgasm through manual simulation, and yet almost none ever achieve orgasm during normal intercourse. Evolution isn’t going to produce and hold onto a redundant system just on the off chance that primates evove at some point on the future that can use it.
The next probelm is that most women experience orgasm either during foreplay or coitus, before any semen is present. While research has shown a slight increase in sperm counts in the uterus if orgasm occurs after ejaculation it shows a marked decline in sperm counts if orgasm occurs prior to ejacualtion. Oragsm during coitus or forplay drags alkaline material into the uterus and reduces the chance of conception. That’s some system for improving fertility whenin most women it decreases the spem count.
This has led some scientists and quite a few feminsists to theorise that women are predisposed to masturbation after sex and in this way they can have sex with multiple partners but select the one they want to get pregnanat too. Not very convincing when most women report that they are more likely to orgasm with a partner they are highly attracted to and feel comfortable with. The system actually selects against the preferred partner. This is countered by the highly spurious and totally baseless hypothesis that women are driven to subconsciously select for the best father and are subconsciously driven to masturbate after sex with that partner. Aside from being baseless htis requires the rather complicated and redundant system of genetically programming a woman to select desirable features in mates and then superimpose another and entirely subconscipus set of features that select for post coital masturbation potential.
In reality, although their are differences in sperm numbers associated with orgasm, the sperm production in the human male is so over the top, probabaly because of our upright posture, that it has no discernable effect in fertility. Most sperm drain out of the reproductive canal in humans anyway, so a few more lost to orgasm is of little difference. Instead of a few thousand sperm making it to the ova you only get 1500. Since half a dozen is more than enough it’s overkill either way.
Gould’s hypothesis that female orgasm is an atavism that may or may not play some role in pair bonding and encouraging mating is far more elegant, plausible and supported by evidence.
I tend to agree heavily with Gould on this one. The idea of female orgasm being linked to fertility is is full of holes that it’s unworkable. The first problem is that other female mammals can be induced to orgasm through manual simulation, and yet almost none ever achieve orgasm during normal intercourse. Evolution isn’t going to produce and hold onto a redundant system just on the off chance that primates evove at some point on the future that can use it.
The next probelm is that most women experience orgasm either during foreplay or coitus, before any semen is present. While research has shown a slight increase in sperm counts in the uterus if orgasm occurs after ejaculation it shows a marked decline in sperm counts if orgasm occurs prior to ejacualtion. Oragsm during coitus or forplay drags alkaline material into the uterus and reduces the chance of conception. That’s some system for improving fertility whenin most women it decreases the spem count.
This has led some scientists and quite a few feminsists to theorise that women are predisposed to masturbation after sex and in this way they can have sex with multiple partners but select the one they want to get pregnanat too. Not very convincing when most women report that they are more likely to orgasm with a partner they are highly attracted to and feel comfortable with. The system actually selects against the preferred partner. This is countered by the highly spurious and totally baseless hypothesis that women are driven to subconsciously select for the best father and are subconsciously driven to masturbate after sex with that partner. Aside from being baseless htis requires the rather complicated and redundant system of genetically programming a woman to select desirable features in mates and then superimpose another and entirely subconscipus set of features that select for post coital masturbation potential.
In reality, although their are differences in sperm numbers associated with orgasm, the sperm production in the human male is so over the top, probabaly because of our upright posture, that it has no discernable effect in fertility. Most sperm drain out of the reproductive canal in humans anyway, so a few more lost to orgasm is of little difference. Instead of a few thousand sperm making it to the ova you only get 1500. Since half a dozen is more than enough it’s overkill either way.
Gould’s hypothesis that female orgasm is an atavism that may or may not play some role in pair bonding and encouraging mating is far more elegant, plausible and supported by evidence.
Sorry for the multiple posts. The were timing out, and every time I hit refresh on the GQ front page it showed no new resposnse, so i assumed it had failed to go through. I notice that now 5 hours later it still doesn’t show my reply as the last post in this thread.
Wierd.
who did that research and how did they get funding for it???
IMHO females have it harder so that they might be more selective over who they mate with. males have it easier so that they might sow their seeds more often.
When it’s done by amateurs, perhaps. There’s nothing random about the orgasm anyway.
By the way, Sarah23 and I are not related.