Posted on 05/17/2005 8:12:54 AM PDT by JAWs
Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction.
But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant - doing their part for the perpetuation of the species - without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose?
Over the last four decades, scientists have come up with a variety of theories, arguing, for example, that orgasm encourages women to have sex and, therefore, reproduce or that it leads women to favor stronger and healthier men, maximizing their offspring's chances of survival.
But in a new book, Dr. Elisabeth A. Lloyd, a philosopher of science and professor of biology at Indiana University, takes on 20 leading theories and finds them wanting. The female orgasm, she argues in the book, "The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution," has no evolutionary function at all.
Rather, Dr. Lloyd says the most convincing theory is one put forward in 1979 by Dr. Donald Symons, an anthropologist.
That theory holds that female orgasms are simply artifacts - a byproduct of the parallel development of male and female embryos in the first eight or nine weeks of life.
In that early period, the nerve and tissue pathways are laid down for various reflexes, including the orgasm, Dr. Lloyd said. As development progresses, male hormones saturate the embryo, and sexuality is defined.
In boys, the penis develops, along with the potential to have orgasms and ejaculate, while "females get the nerve pathways for orgasm by initially having the same body plan."
Nipples in men are similarly vestigial, Dr. Lloyd pointed out.
While nipples in woman serve a purpose, male nipples appear to be simply left over from the initial stage of embryonic development.
The female orgasm, she said, "is for fun."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Dang! Well, I don't have a honey, and we don't want the confessional line getting any longer, do we? :^)
LOL...you know it had to be a woman that invented the shower massage. We can always find a way to work around a man if need be.
Sorry - I've been out of pocket for just over 24 hours. I'm back now and am amused by this story....
Did you hear, a woman's orgasm is just for fun!!!
I love the story about a man and woman discussing which person enjoys sex more. The woman says, "when your ear itches, and you stick your finger in it to scratch it - which feels better? Your ear or your finger?"
;-)
I'm baaaacck...
"Wimmen have orgasms?"
Apparently not with you....
;-)
Question: Why do women fake orgasms?
Answer: Because they think we care.
I don't suppose you can cite some sources for this, because frankly, I think you're either just wrong, or making it up.
Oxytocin is released in both sexes by nipple stim I believe.
I was waiting for someone to state the obvious. Sex is by design pleasurable for humans so it compells us to do it, and that furthers the species. Animals have instincts, that lead to copulation when the female is in heat, we don't. Instead of the instinct we get 24/7 sex drives.
Female orgasms strengthen the bond between the couple giving their children a better chance at a two-parent family. This is a significant adaptive advantage to the species and seems perfectly consistent with Darwinian theory.
Appendix, coccyx, those may be artifacts. Reproductive behavior is no place for artifacts to be found lounging about.
If a scholar is a library's way of creating another library, then a baby is an orgasm's way of producing another generation of orgasms.
If the feminists have their way, the penis will be added to the artififacts list. After all, they have turkey basters.
Thanks for sharing your dream journal with the rest of us :)
Their loss.
He he he!!!
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