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EurekAlert have just published an article: Yale researchers shed light on evolutionary mystery: Origins of the female orgasm
The role of female orgasm, which plays no obvious role in human reproduction, has intrigued scholars as far back as Aristotle. Numerous theories have tried to explain the origins of the trait, but most have concentrated on its role in human and primate biology.
[...] Since there is no apparent association between orgasm and number of offspring or successful reproduction in humans, the scientists focused on a specific physiological trait that accompanies human female orgasm -- the neuro-endocrine discharge of prolactin and oxytocin -- and looked for this activity in other placental mammals. They found that in many mammals this reflex plays a role in ovulation.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @07:43PM
...or fake?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @08:01PM
It's a means to keep attention squarely focused on females, especially by relating it to sexuality.
You could have just as easily researched why so many males enjoy blowjobs and anal sex even though neither of these lead to reproduction.
But hey, let's further perpetuate the feminine mystique by ignorantly conjecturing about female orgasm, even though, according to Masters and Johnson, a large percentage of women weren't even aware that they were orgasming.
Hard to speculate about a phenomena when people aren't even aware that it is happening.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 01 2016, @08:55PM
Maybe the ones who aren't aware of what's going on were never taught about it or have some kind of psychological issues?
Sex for women seems a lot more tied to emotions than for men. I certainly could never do it casually, for example. It seems like men can just get up and go pretty much any time, and given the choice, would. Which, if we're talking evo-psych (ick...) kind of makes sense: men would want as many offspring as possible, women would want their offspring well-cared-for.
Female orgasm is very definitely real, though. It's just not the kind of explosive show-stopper male orgasm is. It's like a long, slow wave with some heavy crashes in it, and it gets your whole body involved. I've been wondering what it feels like for guys...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday August 01 2016, @11:49PM
>> It's like a long, slow wave with some heavy crashes in it, and it gets your whole body involved. I've been wondering what it feels like for guys...
If it is done properly, very similar to the above actually. We generally can only ejaculate in one "session", that being the explosive ending. At least until we get enough fluid for round two. However the feelings of orgasm can last for a long time before the final explosion, and if the partner does it right it can result in a long period of orgasmic pleasure.
Then again I could never do it casually due to the emotional bonds involved, so maybe I am an outlier as far as men and sex are concerned. Also will say that it is very much cultural, how men perceive sex and interact with it. It kind of makes sense, seeing as it is one of the most complex, intricate and wide ranging of social behaviours that the human race has
(Score: 1) by crb3 on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:16AM
> We generally can only ejaculate in one "session", that being the explosive ending. At least until we get enough fluid for round two.
Apparently also until the hardwired follow-on alpha-state jolt lifts or we get around it (my own anecdotal data being that practice in manipulating one's own brain state with meditation, biofeedback, hemisync, etc., seems to help in restoring/keeping at least erection if not sensitivity).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @12:51AM
The interesting bit is how the data has been interpreted through the various decades.
During the 50s it was that female orgasm was a myth, or at least wasn't a physiological response.
During the 60s it was lack of stimulation of the clitoris with female ejaculation being questioned.
During the 70s it was multi-orgasmic females and whether an inability to orgasm through penetrative intercourse was a dysfunction.
During the 80s it was the rise of the G-spot, more questions about female ejaculation, and psychological interpretations.
During the 90s it was sexual response is a learned behavior and multiple types of orgasm.
During the 00s it was female ejaculation being distinct from orgasm (and identifying the glands involved).
And now here we are with orgasm attempting to be tied to evolutionary arguments.
In that same time-frame, there have been four new observations about male orgasm: 1. Some men fake it when they rather not perform. 2. Erection/ejaculation is not tied to orgasm. 3. The existence of prostate orgasms. 4. The existence of multi-orgasmic males.
(Score: 2, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:52AM
I've been wondering what it feels like for guys...
I may be able to help out here, having both perspectives, or at least one perspective and half of the other.
For guys, it's very straight forward. It must be built. Combine with drive. Drive, drive, DRILL BABY DRILL! (something like that). Hammer, hammer, jackhammer, work, work. Smash, smash, shove, shove. Then it explodes. Imma firin mah lazer! And then… nothing. Crickets. It's done. All spent. Go home.
A rather boring exercise imo. You're not missing anything. Bunch of work and no fun along the way, total focus and once the goal's achieved, meh. It's nothing compared to girlgasm.
Granted, when having sex with men, one must be cognizant of that process and engage it strategically. A guy who's good will know how to reciprocate and appreciate signals that one is not prepared to move the other closer to the goal quite yet. With proper practice, it's possible to time one's own orgasm with the guy's. Granted, I know you're not into that. I'm just weird.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday August 01 2016, @09:23PM
I'd never heard that before. But, it wouldn't be surprising if women's orgasms weren't as obvious as they are for men. And not just because when men orgasm they tend to shoot out a gush of semen at the same time. Men typically have a lot more testosterone than women do and testosterone depresses oxytocin levels. During orgasm the brain gets flooded with oxtyocin and that's where a lot of that feeling of orgasm comes from.
It wouldn't surprise me if because women generally have more of those chemicals in their brains to begin with, didn't realize that they were having one.
Then again, some women are just easier to please than others are for one reason or another.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @10:12PM
I'd never heard that before.
Wow! Amazing! Yet again something Francis never heard of! Twice in one thread! What are the odds? Does this have something to do with reproductive success ratios?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:39PM
It's nice to hear that there are ignorant assholes on the internet. I was afraid that the internet had grown up.
Why don't you go fuck yourself loser?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @08:29PM
When a headline says "Scientists Give Female Orgasm" it's obviously fake. "Pool Boys Give Female Orgasm" I could believe.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Monday August 01 2016, @10:18PM
They were probably Dutch scientists [auntminnieeurope.com], you insensitive clod!
WARNING: fascinating but probably NSFW article about the landmark Groningen MRI study.
(Score: 1) by crb3 on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:24AM
Is this another tall tale about Latvian women?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Monday August 01 2016, @09:31PM
This is probably going to be pretty controversial because its not anti-man progressive and makes women look kinda bad, but here goes anyway:
I propose that it's purpose is to teach women how to fake and lie and act and deceive well enough to trick men. I mean sometimes the guy will actually do it but some percentage of time it'll be all "Oh I haven't checked the stone age equivalent of facebook (compuserve, I guess) in a couple minutes better hurry this up and get it over with by putting on a good show."
I'm not making a value judgment about women lying; in an era where if a dude wanted it, he is stronger and faster therefore he's getting it, it only seems fair that women get a secret weapon, being able to lie. "Sure you're bigger and faster than me so you can do what you want right now, but my regular boyfriend is bigger and faster than you and when I tell him you're not respecting me, your butt will feel like a woolly mammoth tusk passed thru it." even when she knows darn well she doesn't even have a partner or he wouldn't care, the point is to deceive the dude into not having his way with her.
Or basically lying was invented by women as a weapon against horny men 500K yrs ago or whatever. And the resulting arms race gives us really smart people because until the "nerd" was invented in 1970 or so, being smarter meant more control over reproduction.
So that evolves women to be smarter than men to trick them better, and men to try and be smarter than women so they get some.
(Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 02 2016, @10:03AM
This is probably going to be pretty controversial because its not anti-man progressive and makes women look kinda bad, but here goes anyway:
Do we mod you down right away, or wait for you to make a complete ass of yourself before we do so?
(Score: 2, Touché) by VLM on Tuesday August 02 2016, @01:05PM
You could try something completely off the wall like a factual rebuttal? Nothing wrong with a little surprise?
I'm not going to defend the idea very strongly I only think its maybe 51% correct but its an interesting avenue to think about. Its definitely anti-establishment, thanks I know that already.
Surely the world is not all unicorns and party balloons and some evolutionary pressures must be involved in behaviors and traits that are considered "bad" so why not with women as relates to sex, at least as a thought experiment.
I fully admit upfront that "Could happen in a cable TV channel movie plot" is not enough to guarantee a significant level of evolutionary pressure. In fact if anything sex related encouraged women to lie, it probably sounded a lot more like "Uh, sure, of course that baby is yours, uh huh, now give us some meat for dinner" rather than "oh baby that was great"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 02 2016, @08:27PM
mod you down right away, or wait
So what you are saying is, both?
Shirley you see that claiming evolutionary pressures selected humans for deception is not necessarily wrong, but it is like saying "All lives matter!". If you start out by saying "I'm no misogynist, but . . .", then even if you actually are not, you are, and you are giving supports to the MRAs. Why do MRA types spend so much time be cuckolded?