Who gets the most pleasure out of sex–the man or the woman? According to Tiresias, a prophet in Greek mythology, the woman gets nine times more pleasure than the man. Please, say it ain’t so! –Sean Sherman, Montreal, Quebec
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I’ve got some good news and some bad news, Sean buddy. But first one ground rule: we’re going to confine this discussion to the physiological experience of orgasm. The more subjective aspects of sex, important though they may be, are too difficult for us scientists to quantify. Now for the good news: your basic run-of-the-mill male and female orgasms are pretty similar. Kinsey (1953) in particular took pains to emphasize that “the anatomic structures which are most essential to sexual response and orgasm are nearly identical in the human female and male,” and that “orgasm in the female matches orgasm of the male in every physiologic detail except for the fact that it occurs without ejaculation.” I would venture to say this jibes with most folks’ everyday experience.
Depressed? Hey, it gets worse. Status orgasmus is usually the result of self-stimulation, but a woman can also experience it at the hands (or whatever) of a suitably skilled lover. Which means that not only can’t you have the ultimate O, if she doesn’t have one, it’s your damn fault. You want to give up and join the monastery, Cecil will understand.
The dogs had no difficulty distinguishing colors at the opposite ends of the visible spectrum, such as red and blue, and they proved to be demons with blues in general, quickly learning to differentiate blue from violet. But they bombed at other colors, confusing greenish-yellow, orange, and red.
