Women, Sex and Orgasm
The Clitoral-Vaginal ControversyRarely have there been so many opinionated assertions based on absolutely no evidence as one finds in the literature dealing with clitoral versus vaginal arousal. It was largely within psychoanalytic circles, at Freud's behest, that the myth evolved that enjoyment of vaginal stimulation by a woman is more mature or healthy than is enjoyment of direct (manual or oral) clitoral arousal. The clitoris was considered to be a phallic like organ, and preference for direct clitoral stimulation was labeled as unfeminine. Even Masters and Johnson report that a major part of the arousal produced by movements of the penis in the vagina is achieved indirectly through clitoral stimulation did not do much to discourage the view that "clitoral" orgasm is somehow inferior. Masters and Johnson (along with Kinsey, et al.) went so far as to propose that vaginal stimulation, as such, adds little to the total arousal elicited by intercourse. They pointed out that sensory receptors are almost absent from the vaginal wall and therefore discounted the role of sensations from the vagina in building up the orgasmic excitement. This extreme position does not appear to be justified. Women can distinguish the patterns of sensations they experience from direct vaginal versus direct clitoral stimulation, and they often have strong preferences for one or the other. It's also questionable that the vaginal wall has few sensory receptors, and there is no doubt that the kinesthetic sensations produced by penile thrusting can be perceived and have highly erotic significance. There is major, sexually arousing, significance for many women in the mere fact of being vaginally penetrated. Women differ considerably in the degree to which they prefer direct clitoral versus vaginal stimulation during intercourse. Some prefer only direct vaginal stimulation and even find direct clitoral arousal to be unpleasant. Others get "nothing" out of penile intromission and extract all of their sexual excitement from direct manual manipulation of the clitoris. However, the information did indicate that the average woman tends to rate manual clitoral manipulation as a particularly important component of the arousal sequence and 19 percent consider it absolutely essential for reaching orgasm. When asked to choose between having either clitoral or vaginal stimulation, 64 percent gave their vote to clitoral. Thirty percent of women in one sample indicated that even while penile intromission is occurring they require the final assistance of direct clitoral manipulation in order to reach their orgasm threshold. There is no question that the average woman finds direct manual clitoral manipulation a sizable component of the stimulation needed to reach orgasm. The woman who prefers manual clitoral stimulation does not differ in her orgasm consistency from the one preferring vaginal modes of arousal. Either form of stimulation is just as effective as the other when judged in terms of how to have an orgasm during sexual intercourse. It is also extremely important to add that no correlations were found to suggest vaginally focused stimulation produces a "better" orgasm than clitoral stimulation. Actually, if there is a "better" species of orgasm linked with one or the other mode of stimulation, the findings favor the direct clitoral species. There's a trend across multiple pieces of research to suggest that the greater a woman's clitoral preference the more she describes her orgasms as having "ecstatic" qualities; whereas the greater her vaginal preference the more she tends to choose the word "happy" as descriptive of her feelings during orgasm. Apparently, the clitorally oriented woman experiences a higher charge of whatever is encompassed by the term "ecstatic" than does the vaginally oriented woman. There might be a basic difference in the clitorally versus vaginally oriented women with respect to the way they modulate arousal or excitement. An important differentiation between the clitorally and vaginally oriented women is that the greater a woman's vaginal orientation the more likely she is to report (when responding to the Body Distortion Questionnaire) that her body feels "distant ... .. not mine," and diminished in sensitivity. The more vaginally oriented woman seemed to perceive her body as lacking vitality, sensitivity, and the quality of vividness or aliveness that one's own body customarily has. Analogous to this finding, other results indicated that the more vaginally oriented woman is inclined to "dampen" excitement- and to minimize the potentially arousing aspects of what she perceives. When constructing imaginative stories she minimizes and mutes tension or crisis. Problems within her stories are resolved in a "they lived happily ever after" fashion. The vaginally oriented woman may be inclined to mute experience because she is more anxious than the clitorally oriented. As defined by several different measures, amount of anxiety was observed to be positively linked with strength of vaginal preference. This suggested that the muting of both body and non body stimuli by the vaginally oriented women might be a defense against anxiety. They might learn to dampen the intensity of what they experience in an attempt to evade the chronic unpleasant sensations associated with anxiety. Although the
vaginally oriented have been described as more anxious than the clitorally
oriented, this in no way is meant to imply that they are less emotionally
"healthy". The women with these differing orientations may simply differ
in how their tension shows itself when they run into difficulties. For
example, those with a clitoral preference may channel their disturbance
into preoccupation with minor body complaints or defensive compulsiveness
rather than anxious distress. 1. Vaginal stimulation may generally produce less intense excitement than manual clitoral stimulation and therefore be less threatening to a woman who wants to keep her experiences muted or subdued. 2. The vaginally oriented woman's depersonalized way of experiencing her body might make her relatively unresponsive to sexual stimulation unless it was delivered in a way that had unusually intense psychological connotations. The specific act of intercourse, with its special significance of intimacy, might be necessary to get through the coldness or unresponsiveness possibly associated with a depersonalized set. Perhaps direct clitoral stimulation lacks the personalized psychological intensity produced by penile penetration and cannot overcome a depersonalized body set. 3. Another possibility is that the vaginally oriented woman who has a tendency to recall her father as not having been willing to respond positively to her, needs an extra commitment from a man, in the form of penile penetration, before she is willing to respond to him. 4. Finally, the vaginally oriented woman, because of her depersonalized way of experiencing her body, may have an unusually hazy concept of her genital area and so require the active articulation of the vaginal space by the penis in order to be able to "tune in" on sensation in the genital region in a focused fashion. The vaginally oriented women indicated with fair consistency that they felt estranged and distant from their bodies, as if they did not belong to them personally. The possible utility of such depersonalization in defending against anxiety has already been discussed. Some other possible implications also came to mind. A depersonalized feeling about one's body might be a way of denying responsibility for what happens to, or is experienced via, the body. It could be a means of denying responsibility for the general realm of body events. In other words, depersonalization might represent a rejection of the somatic dimensions of self. What might motivate a woman to do this? One possibility would be that she grew up in a highly puritanical family in which the body was portrayed as a bad object, a source of evil. Depersonalization would be a way of denying ownership of the bad object. However, this does not seem to be a likely explanation in view of the fact that clitoral-vaginal preference was found to be uncorrelated with any of the measures of religiosity and formal church behavior that were employed and that one would expect to be linked with puritanical socialization. Another alternative is that the depersonalized attitude might be a way of steeling self against anticipated attack upon, or exploitation of, one's body. A woman who expects that her body will be the target of great hostility or that it will be misused in some way might want to disown it, not as a bad object but rather as one that will incur unpleasantness. It is as if she felt, "I am certain my body is going to get hurt or be exploited, so I want to be as little associated with it as possible." Such an attitude might possibly be instilled by having to endure long periods of illness in oneself or in some important family member. It could derive too from a sadomasochistic concept of femininity, especially its sexual aspects. There might be a vivid belief that sexual intercourse is painful and involves potential body damage and danger. The male sex partner would be visualized as destructive and exploiting. There is little in the way of empirical data either to affirm or reject this possibility. If it were to turn out to be reasonable, it might have implications for the vaginal versus clitoral preference. Perhaps a woman who visualizes sexual stimulation as being inextricably linked with a situation in which a man aggresses against her by literally penetrating her body cannot build up sexual excitement unless the act of penetration occurs. It may be necessary for her to know that she is penetrated and thus to give the sex partner's approach to her some potential meaning of "forcible entry" or body exploitation before she can assimilate stimulation as being really sexual. To seek additional clarification, consider in more detail the exact nature of what clitoral and vaginal stimulation mean. If one accepts the observations of Kinsey and Masters and Johnson, penile intromission delivers a large amount of stimulation to the clitoris. The vaginally oriented woman does receive a substantial quantity of clitoral stimulation. However, this occurs indirectly. The stimulation is delivered by the penis (by traction exerted on the wings of the clitoral hood) rather than by direct manual manipulation. Relatedly, direct manual arousal of the clitoris produces vaginal excitation and pulsation and, as excitement builds up, a variety of kinesthetic sensations in the pelvic musculature that may be analogous to some of the sensations induced by penile penetration. Clearly, there are common elements in the two forms of sexual stimulation. The vaginally oriented woman experiences many of the arousal elements that are basic to the clitoral orientation and likewise the clitorally oriented woman builds her excitement on sensations and cues that are not dissimilar from those utilized by the vaginally oriented woman. Whether a woman is clitoral or vaginal in preference, she does receive stimulation of the clitoris, does experience vaginal changes and pulsations, and does become aware of a muscle tension build-up, with accompanying intense kinesthetic sensations. One should add that the overlap between the clitoral and vaginal orientations is further fostered by the fact that a majority of persons engaging in sexual relationships use both direct clitoral and vaginal stimulation successively and simultaneously, resulting in a complex blend of the two. Even psychologically the clitorally and vaginally oriented women experience much in common. In both instances, there is typically an interaction with a man who is sexually aroused and who is interested in eliciting as much excitement or response as possible. What, then, is the nature of the experiential distinction that the clitoral as compared to the vaginal oriented woman is reacting to during sexual interaction? Obviously, this distinction relates primarily to the fact that in one case the stimulation that is most preferred is delivered by the penis while it is inserted in the vagina, and in the other case the preferred stimulation is manually (orally) delivered to the clitoral region. Penile intromission is particularly valued in the one instance, whereas manual stroking of the clitoris seems primary in the other instance. The problem of explaining vaginal versus clitoral orientation becomes one of clarifying the differential significance of the male sex partner inserting his penis into the vagina as compared to his using his hand to stimulate the clitoris.
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