# What purpose do labia minora serve? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2006, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212 "2006-07-27T03:41:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/21 "2006-08-01T02:50:14Z")
This is as good a time as any to mention Venice’s [Palazzo Labia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Labia). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/22 "2006-08-01T09:46:03Z")
> [@Telperien](#): > > Haven’t had a girlfriend in a while, have you? That’s just asking for a _tu quoque_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Rumpleforskin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5e9695/32.png) [@Rumpleforskin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumpleforskin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/23 "2006-08-01T10:01:07Z")
is there even a cunt hair’s difference between the two? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/24 "2006-08-01T13:45:08Z")
> [@CC](#): > > I say someone should pony up rhiannon’s entry fee, and we open the gates. Anyone who can stand up against the silly and ick of the first few posts and still post such an informative and worthwhile response deserves a spot amongst the teeming millions. And failing that, she ought to pay her own way and join us anyway. Welcome, toots. I was going to, but then I realized that she misspelled “valuable”, so instead I shall have to pit her. Pity, that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/25 "2006-08-01T14:13:15Z")
> [@Sunrazor](#): > > Oh, yeah, and when somebody offers pie? It ain’t real pie! No, no, no, you have that all wrong. We don’t offer pie, we tell you to bring pie…when come back. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/26 "2006-08-01T14:19:07Z")
Rysdad: > [@](#): > > What does drawing a little image of Fidel Castro with funny lips using a Magic Marker on a woman’s groin have to do with evolution? Commie bastard! A REAL American would have said Willie Nelson! ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/27 "2006-08-01T16:02:35Z")
> [@rhiannon777](#): > > Also, many (or most, according to Masters & Johnson) women who orgasm through sexual intercourse alone (as opposed to clitoral stimulation) are orgasming because the folds of the labia minora meet over the head of the clitoris…during penetration, the labia minora are rubbed back and forth and can stimulate the clitoris, resulting in orgasm. There is a theory that the female orgasm is evolutionarily valuable because it keeps a woman from getting up and walking away right after sex. In other apes that’s not a big deal, but because we stand upright, the vagina is pointed straight down and the semen can leak out. So this function might be important. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/28 "2006-08-01T16:29:01Z")
They don’t get up and walk away? :dubious: Have I been hanging around with the wrong crowd again? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/29 "2006-08-01T17:51:33Z")
> [@](#): > > There is a theory that the female orgasm is evolutionarily valuable because it keeps a woman from getting up and walking away right after sex. There’s also a theory that it’s valuable because women who like having sex will do so more often. I know which theory I consider simpler. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/30 "2006-08-01T18:30:48Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > That’s just asking for a _tu quoque_. 😛 Well, I admit I’ve not had a girlfriend in a while, either. Or a boyfriend. grumble ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/31 "2006-08-01T18:46:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s also a theory that it’s valuable because women who like having sex will do so more often. I know which theory I consider simpler. They’re not really competing theories, though. And a single adaptation that makes an organism mate more often and be more likely to be made pregnant as a result of that mating is a big win from an evolutionary standpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/32 "2006-08-01T19:30:58Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > But as an unintended side effect, it also keeps the centipedes in. :: becomes gayer :: ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/33 "2006-08-01T19:58:02Z")
> [@Joey P](#): > > No, no, no, you have that all wrong. We don’t offer pie, we tell you to bring pie…when come back. 😃 Yeah, well, either way, I haven’t gotten any damn pie, but it’s sure been talked about a lot. I’m just sayin’ – I’ve had a lot of stuff e-mailed to me by fellow Dopers, but nothin’ I could enjoy with a cup of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/34 "2006-08-02T00:09:36Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > A REAL American would have said Willie Nelson! Depends a lot on the ‘foliage’. Carrot Top? Tommy Chong? Jerry Garcia? [This guy?](http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0%2C1518%2Cgrossbild-421872-335660%2C00.html) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/35 "2006-08-02T01:29:23Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > There is a theory that the female orgasm is evolutionarily valuable because it keeps a woman from getting up and walking away right after sex. In other apes that’s not a big deal, but because we stand upright, the vagina is pointed straight down and the semen can leak out. So this function might be important. Except it doesn’t. Go straight down, I mean. It’s tilted anteriorally (illy?) at the cervix, creating a little swimming pool when you stand up. You can see it in this very simply drawn schematic, which I think is safe for work: [here.](http://www.menstruation.com.au/pubertyplace/images/insert.jpg) Plus, when fertile, a woman’s cervix is a few millimeters lower than in that picture, dipping down into the “pool”. When a woman orgasms, her cervix actually sucks semen up into the uterus if it’s a fertile day. When a woman’s not fertile, the cervix is high and firm, like that picture, and it doesn’t matter if the woman stands on her head - no amount of semen in the uterus will get her pregnant. So the female orgasm may be reproductively useful for the sucking of semen. But even if she stands up, most of the semen will stay inside her. (Some does drip out, but most stays in.) ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/36 "2006-08-18T14:39:59Z")
I think some field testing is in order. :: Rings up Mrs. Spiff :: “But Honey, who are you to stand in the way of scientific advancement?” ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/37 "2006-08-18T15:10:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s also a theory that it’s valuable because women who like having sex will do so more often. I know which theory I consider simpler. Oh SURRRRRRRE. Bring that damned Rasor into play… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/38 "2006-08-18T15:14:23Z")
Slight hijack…I just wanna know why women always go into the bathroom before having sex? It doesn’t always taste like they are cleaning up the equipment especially ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/39 "2006-08-18T15:32:38Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > They don’t get up and walk away? :dubious: Have I been hanging around with the wrong crowd again? :smack: Or they have. :dubious: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212/40 "2006-08-18T16:09:30Z")
[QUOTE=rhiannon777] women have them because men need that tissue to do something evolutionarily valuble. QUOTE] I just Knew they were there as ‘tongue-ticklers’ to increase our pleasure. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-labia-minora-serve/366212.md?page=3)