by Fat Lady Singing » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:02 am
From HMW's cited article:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>This suggests that for men, the physical aspects of sex play a much more significant part in arousal than they do for women, for whom ambience, mood and relaxation are at least as important.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Please forgive my female impudence, but that's a bunch of baloney. Note this next part:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>In the study, a team at the University of Groningen led by Gert Holstege scanned the brains of <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>13 women and 11 men</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> using a technique called positron emission tomography (PET)<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Thirteen women were tested. Wow, great sample there, eh? I rather imagine, though we're not told, that these women were all from the same--European--culture. One in which women have been told for generations that <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>"Men find it more important to be stimulated on the penis than women find it to be stimulated on the clitoris," Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Copenhagen today. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>This is all just another way for men to justify not stimulating women's clitori (hm, I guess that's the plural), if you ask me. Once again, women's physical pleasure gets short shrift. If Gert's a woman, she's a traitor.<br><br>Then, how did they conduct the study? The women were<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>manually stimulated to orgasm by their partners.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Hm, in a laboratory situation, stimulated to orgasm by their partners...did their partners light candles, play soft music, massage their feet? Maybe, but I'd have to guess that the partners stimulated the women's clitori, as well. Sheesh, there's been so much *other* research showing that women need to be physically stimulated, and that a vast majority can only achieve orgasm through clitoral (as opposed to solely vaginal) stimulation, that this particular study seems to be grasping at straws.<br><br>OK, fine, maybe the brain behaves differently in women during orgasm, like this:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The scans show that during sexual activity, the parts of the female brain responsible for processing fear, anxiety and emotion start to relax and reduce in activity. This reaches a peak at orgasm, when the female brain’s emotion centres are effectively closed down to produce an almost trance-like state.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Shutting down emotions into a trance-like state--how does that then logically lead to the conclusion that women need less physical stimulation? Does anyone else see the problem with this line of reasoning?<br><br>The clitoris is the only organ devoted to the sole function of producing pleasure. It serves no other purpose, that we're aware of. Scientists are only just now learning how it works and only recently have begun to fully map its anatomy (I mean, like, just last week I saw an article detailing the discovery of a previously unknown type of tissue and cell structure in the clitoris). It has approximately the same number of nerve endings as the penis, as I recall, so, given what we *do* know about the clitoris, one might easily come to the conclusion that its physical stimulation is important--as important as the stimulation of the penis is for a man.<br><br>By the way, I just saw a study on the-clitoris.com that said that women are most likely to achieve orgasm through masturbation. Perhaps the women in Gert's study, who were brought to orgasm by their partners, might have had a different physiological outcome than women who masturbate to orgasm.<br><br>I'm sorry, I know this is off topic somewhat, but this is the kind of study that can lead straight back into the sexual Dark Ages for women. It also perpetuates the virgin/whore thing--if a woman asks for physical stimulation and defines it as important in her sex life, then she must surely be a whore, because, after all, SCIENCE shows women don't need as much stimulation as men. The good women, the ones who value ambiance more, find themselves in somehow physically transcendent trance states probably not unlike the ecstacy of St. Theresa. GRRR!<br><br>OK, thanks for bearing with me. Now, back to your regularly scheduled flamewar... <p></p><i></i>
