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The question of types of orgasm has been the subject of
medical, scientific, psychoanalytic, sexological, and
feminist discourse for centuries. While there has been
little concern about the nature of the male’s orgasmic
experience which is used synonymously with ejaculation, the female orgasm has been
subject to the ongoing debate over the primacy and
validity of clitoral versus vaginal orgasm. Discoveries of the function of the Gräfenberg
spot and female ejaculation have added a new component
to the debate over female orgasm. The focus for males
has been on erectile function. The ability of the male
to ejaculate is assumed and the necessity of ejaculation
is not questioned in western societies. The clitoris and
the female orgasm, once framed in the pre-enlightenment
period as the center of female excitement and a
phenomenon necessary for procreation, have been
reconstructed over time depending on the prevailing
discourse.
While there may very well be different qualitative
experiences of orgasm, the question of superiority of
orgasm based on some yet undetermined notion of a “true”
orgasm is problematic and has resulted in injustice to
women, to men, and to people with disabilities like
spinal cord injury when their orgasm experience ran
counter to the medical literature.
The traditional definitions of orgasm are based on
empirical observations of non disabled people. These
definitions of orgasm have a tendency to focus on
contractions or spasms in the pelvic or genital region
and depend on an intact connection between the brain and
the genitals. They ignore the subjective experience of
orgasm people describe sometimes as euphoric in nature,
an altered state of consciousness, or a spiritual
experience.
Descriptions of orgasm by participants in a research
study of people with spinal cord injuries were not
dependent on muscular contractions or ejaculation. The
focus was on warmth, tingling, energy releasing and
energies merging. Contrary to belief expressed
implicitly or explicitly in the psychology and sexology
literature, the essence of the orgasm experience
survives even complete disconnection of the genitals
from the brain via the spinal cord for the essence is
not located in the genital contractions. |
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