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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
"Genes Play Role in Women's Orgasms"
(Quick joke: "Genes? As in Simmons and Autry?")
Got this research finding from Yahoo! News. You know this is going to influence pillow talk in the near future. Why blame your partner (or yourself) when you can blame DNA?
Of course, a genetic problem always engenders a search for a genetic cure. Would it be possible to splice ease-of-orgasm into one's genetic make-up? Is it even possible to trace the specific genetic code for orgasm? And I love the fact that the article consults an orgasm expert, Laura Berman, about these findings.
Althouse also has a blog entry about how researchers theorize that this genetic inability to orgasm may be a way to improve the species, an evolutionary development to weed out men less likely to nurture and please women. Funny that this wasn't mentioned in the Yahoo! article I found...
(Another quick joke: Related finding - horniness plays role in men's orgasms.)
It's always fun to see sex mixed in with science, if only because it de-mystifies sexuality with a good dose of measurement and causality. Recent findings on homosexuality are another example of this, perhaps the most obvious example of the "nature versus nurture" debate in our time.
Our culture likes to obscure sexuality into something that can't be discussed: sexuality avoids being articulated in polite society but is also reduced to sniggering allusions among immature people obsessed with titillation. If the unexamined life isn't worth living, then what about the unexamined sex life? By this I don't just mean intercourse but also one's desires, one's fantasies - the psychological as well as physical components of sexuality.
I am hoping this provides a renewed dialogue among people - couples, at least - who have issues with orgasms. That said, I sincerely hope that it doesn't become a catch-all excuse for those who have such problems.
Got this research finding from Yahoo! News. You know this is going to influence pillow talk in the near future. Why blame your partner (or yourself) when you can blame DNA?
Of course, a genetic problem always engenders a search for a genetic cure. Would it be possible to splice ease-of-orgasm into one's genetic make-up? Is it even possible to trace the specific genetic code for orgasm? And I love the fact that the article consults an orgasm expert, Laura Berman, about these findings.
Althouse also has a blog entry about how researchers theorize that this genetic inability to orgasm may be a way to improve the species, an evolutionary development to weed out men less likely to nurture and please women. Funny that this wasn't mentioned in the Yahoo! article I found...
(Another quick joke: Related finding - horniness plays role in men's orgasms.)
It's always fun to see sex mixed in with science, if only because it de-mystifies sexuality with a good dose of measurement and causality. Recent findings on homosexuality are another example of this, perhaps the most obvious example of the "nature versus nurture" debate in our time.
Our culture likes to obscure sexuality into something that can't be discussed: sexuality avoids being articulated in polite society but is also reduced to sniggering allusions among immature people obsessed with titillation. If the unexamined life isn't worth living, then what about the unexamined sex life? By this I don't just mean intercourse but also one's desires, one's fantasies - the psychological as well as physical components of sexuality.
I am hoping this provides a renewed dialogue among people - couples, at least - who have issues with orgasms. That said, I sincerely hope that it doesn't become a catch-all excuse for those who have such problems.
