Notes about Sexuality and Religion

P22

An important theory of the evolution of female orgasm was advanced by Donald Symons in 1979. Instead of viewing female orgasm as an adaptation, Symons proposed that “human female orgasm is best regarded as a potential” (1979, p. 89).

Pre-pubescent boys, by definition, do not experience ejaculation, and some are capable of experiencing a sequence of orgasms in a row with little or no refractory (resting) period, in marked contrast to ejaculatory males (Kinsey et al. 1948, p. ___). Adult men engaging in Eastern sexual practices such as Tantric yoga are capable of disengaging orgasm from ejaculation, so that

P23

they, too, are capable of experiencing repeated orgasms with little or no refractory period (Fox 1993).

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Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, among others, has objected that seeing female sexual response as embryologically derived from male sexual response somehow denigrates females. She wants to claim that female orgasm has evolved as its own adaptation to female selection pressures…

P24

There is no study, per se, of how widespread the practice of assisting [ie: tickling clit] intercourse is, although the cross-cultural data seem to indicate that it is not widely practiced around the world, however widespread it might be in the US or Europe (Davenport 1977)

P25

The only copulatory position in which the clitoris can easily be directly stimulated is with the woman in the superior position. According to Masters and Johnson, this is the position in which most female orgasms with unassisted intercourse take place

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One implication of this belief is that women who do not have orgasm with unassisted intercourse are, in Masters and Johnson’s word, “dysfunctional.”

P32

when we consider the fact that in some cultures, women’s ability to have orgasms is highly developed, while in others, it is apparently not, we can see that the basic female human being could either be trained up to experience orgasm with the appropriate stimulation, or not; it seems to depend on her cultural context. This is what is meant by “plasticity.”

In her chapter and presentation, Lisa Lloyd has joined the debate on the biological understanding of the clitoral orgasm in female primates. In the 1980’s this issue became a focus for the critical charge of ”adaptationism” lead by Gould and Lewontin that suggested alternative histories and explanations might be more common than evolutionary biologists had allowed.