November 13, 2013

The latest Gap

I presume that universal pre-K schooling can solve this. (This is covered in the Common Core, right?)

From Slate:
This week, the New York Times parsed two recent studies of orgasm rates for men and women in casual hookups and found that men get off a lot more in those situations than women do. One study of 24,000 students at 21 colleges found that only "40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup involving intercourse, while 80 percent of men did." ... Gay men and lesbians weren't mentioned at all. I asked Indiana University sex researcher Dr. Debby Herbenick, quoted in the Times piece, to help fill in some of the gaps on the orgasm gap. ... 
Slate: The New York Times story focuses on why women might not reliably have orgasms during casual hookups. But what about the men they’re hooking up with? Why are they so good at it?

You can read the whole thing there, because I can't.

44 comments:

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

Mysteries of the universe

Anonymous said...

Oh, you! Someone at the NYT's been a bit naughty.

Quick: Where's Malcolm Gladwell when you need him? Maybe he could write an in depth article attesting from personal experience as to why the hook ups don't...experience the big O enough.

I'm thinking Gladwell needs to get on the case, ASAP.

Title: "Sex. The lack of true fulfillment among women during casual hookups."

Could be the next big thing or at least an idea for yet another teen angst filled film.

Anonymous said...

Let's not leave out the hermaphrodites.

Anonymous said...

"40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup involving intercourse, while 80 percent of men did."

well duh. It's easier for a man than for a woman to get it. I thought everyone knew this.

Another thing. If the woman has it first, the guy can keep going until he has it too.
But if the guy has it first, it's difficult to him to keep going so the woman can have it too.

heartiste said...

10,000 hours of practice should bring women right in line with men.

Porter said...

So 20% of the men didn't have an orgasm. Do they just stop? Five minutes to Wapner? Have an appointment? Grow bored with the whole enterprise?

Or perhaps this cohort was interviewed in flagrante delicto. That's a bit intrusive. Though it would more logically imply that 1 in 5 college men having sex haven't had an orgasm yet.

heartiste said...

So 20% of the men didn't have an orgasm. Do they just stop?

i wouldn't be surprised if more men are faking completion because of the staggering obesity epidemic ruining the figures of women. It's one thing to come prepared for gauzy love in mood lighting, it's quite another to finish the job when the horrors of the unclothed battlefield are revealed.

of course, you'll never get a study funded to examine that possibility. too close to the bone, so to speak.

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

What would be the effect on GDP of such a 10k feminine regimen

Anonymous said...

http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2013/11/are-sex-toys-girls-best-friend.html

It's the slut pride pornization of the news in the land of Hedonia.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jody said...

do homosexual women even have casual sex?

Anonymous said...

http://qz.com/146939/one-of-jeff-koons-balloon-dogs-just-fetched-a-record-price-but-who-owns-the-rest-of-the-litter/

This is to expected in a culture where THIS is called art.

Porter said...

Faking completion... and...it's quite another to finish the job when the horrors of the unclothed battlefield are revealed.

That would indicate exceedingly poor reconnoitering of the LZ. Though one presumes the assault was "mounted" prior to the onset of detumescence. Which would result in a humorous MacArthuresque advance in the opposite direction: Baby are you getting soft? No, I'm cumming!

anony-mouse said...

I wonder if anyone gets off reading Slate.

Now that would be sick.

Anonymous said...

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/dan-savage-gets-24k-from-oregon-university-to-talk-to-students-about-gay-se

Anonymous said...

Well, I am a male, and I have faked orgasms.

Usually, the partner is a one-nighter, not all that attractive, and with whom I have little emotional connection. After a while, not wanting to be impolite, I just faked it and said goodnight.

Anonymous said...

Ms Hess' neo-creationist analysis brought to mind the character in Jurassic Park who says:

"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, uh... staggers me."

Perhaps cavemen dragged cavechicks into their dens so they could etch dirty pictures on the rocks to show off to their cavebuddies?

What are these people thinking? Have we always been culturally motivated cyborgs, or did we finally transcend nature sometime in 1972 and some of us missed the memo?

Gilbert P.

Sgt. Joe Friday said...

Maybe that 20% were drunk? That's been known to have an anesthetizing effect.

Anonymous said...

This gap is even more mysterious than The Gap!

Only decades of research by America's incisive social scientists will solve this enigma.

Anonymous said...

All cats are grey in the dark. I imagine drugs and alcohol might prevent the last 20% from filling the 'gap'.


Anonymous said...

After 12 Bud Lights there will be no end to the lovemaking for some men and their lucky gals.

After 20 to 30 minutes you have to shut it down and finish when you wake up the next morning. This will be brief but satisfying for the man.

We are the 20%.

Modern Romance.

Handle said...

We've gone from 'Penis Envy' to 'Penis Gap'. Congratulation Dr. Freud. I think...

Anonymous said...

The elites have been so good at steering the economy forward that chimney sweeps are coming back:

"Chimney sweeps enjoy a boom as Britons return to the traditional wood fire amid soaring energy bills"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-of-business/10436774/Chim-Chim-Kerching-The-return-of-the-chimney-sweep.html

Maybe we'll start seeing child chimney sweeps again soon.

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

The link by Anon 2:59 reminds me of New York Times ads I once would see on TV. In these subscription/800-number ads the pitch would go, "Catch up on the latest developments in science... politics... technology... intimacy"--and I thought, wait, there have been "developments" in intimacy? Since 5000 years ago you mean?

Either the ad copy was merely SWPL code for what the local alterna-weekly would call "Smutty Str8/Gay/Bi Info-stories," which the haute-bourgeois liberal can't openly admit to seeking out; or there really is an audience segment who believe there are daily news updates on the subject. And they're called New York Times subscribers.

Chief Seattle said...

Time to fix the orgasm gap. They should make a law.

Steely SWPL said...

From NY Magazine's sexual-wellness-device beat: Etsy pleasure craftsmanship [note: link is worksafe but not necessarily dignity-safe]

Anonymous said...

One study of 24,000 students at 21 colleges found that only 40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup involving intercourse, while 80 percent of men did.

We were arguing about something similar at Chateau Heartiste the other day - I was talking about how much tedious, grueling, backbreaking work can be required to bring these chicks to climax* - and some internet tough guy idiots were trying to say that "the average woman orgasms within 4 minutes" or similar nonsense.

Maybe they were being facetious? I dunno.

But one thing dawned on me at the time - and although I didn't mention it over there at Heartiste, it might be applicable here: To the best of my recollection, I have never gotten nekkid with a chick who didn't have [or wasn't working on] at least a Bachelor's.

And it might even be true that every chick I've ever been nekkid with has gone on to get at least a Master's.

Now could it be that smart chicks have much higher testosterone levels than the "working class" chicks, and maybe it really is much more difficult to bring a smart chick to orgasm?

Has anyone ever seen any studies on that sort of thing - maybe a correlation between the chick's IQ and the length of time that it takes for her to orgasm?

Or between the chick's IQ and the incidence of outright frigidity?

*Heartiste had implied that, for the woman, sex with an Alpha was always better than sex with any beta, but I had thought of an "Alpha" sociopath, like Bill Clinton, who [according to the Starr transcripts] had refused Monica's desperate pleadings to give her relief, and instead was perfectly content merely to shoot his wad on her little blue dress and then be done with her.

Of course, that could also be an explanation for the "Gap" in this particular instance - that chicks are much more likely to "hook up" with bad boy sociopath types who don't give a damn whether or not their women achieve orgasm.

Mountain Maven said...

There's a big government grant about to be landed to solve this brow furrowing gap

kudzu bob said...

What nonsense. Girls always have completely mind-blowing orgasms each and every time they make love. At least that's been my experience with them.

sunbeam said...

Human sexuality isn't the most interesting thing in the world to me.

But I'd be curious to know orgasm rates for women in lesbian relationships, as opposed to those in heterosexual relationships.

Just can't imagine Ellen Degeneres having an orgasm.

Of course this line of inquiry would be laden with identity politics.

Darn it I've posed a question I'd like answered, and don't feel like dealing with people and their petty concerns, whether pro or anti gay.

Thankfully this question won't keep me awake at night thinking about it, but I'd like to know the answer.

Anonymous said...

"Herbenick: In general, what we do see in a lot of the hookup research is that people aren’t even engaging in behaviors you might expect to result in orgasm, so it’s not surprising that people don’t have them."

So guys are just blowing their loads randomly from all sorts of contact while women aren't? Should this change anybody's opinion about the difference between men and women? Nah. As a side note, I like blow jobs on the first date with no reciprocation being considered normal.

Anonymous said...

Just can't imagine Ellen Degeneres having an orgasm.

She could be that woman in LIQUID SKY.

Auntie Analogue said...


Gee, Anonymous 7:48, do the chicks with whom you have your assignations need to have a bachelor's degree to learn to misspell naked as "nekkid"?

As far as the hand-wringing (well, let's just pretend it's hands-wringing and not something else) Slate piece goes, I suppose we girls will just have to get huge Day-Glo Arrow Tattoos directing men to our G-spots so that we can catch up in the vital National Project to Land A Woman On More Orgasms Before The Decade Is Out And Bring Her Safely Back To Earth.

Anonymous said...

The real story here isn't to compare the rates for men and women, but to compare the rates for women having casual sex and those having sex in long-term committed relationships. Even though the study is presented as a "problem," I suspect the rate for committed relationship sex is lower.

do homosexual women even have casual sex?

only on film; otherwise, never

Sword said...

Solution:

Obamaphone version2.0

It comes with waterproofing, and a greatly strengthened vibrator function.

Anonymous said...

Gee, Anonymous 7:48, do the chicks with whom you have your assignations need to have a bachelor's degree to learn to misspell naked as "nekkid"?

Nah, chick'll need a PhD in Ethnostudies to be down wit da smack.

Beyond that, AA, Steve is way too much of a gentleman to allow this conversation to proceed any further at his site, but c'mon over to The Chateau, and we'll be more than happy to explore this topic more, ah, "deeply".

Anonymous said...

"Now could it be that smart chicks have much higher testosterone levels than the "working class" chicks, and maybe it really is much more difficult to bring a smart chick to orgasm?"

I doubt it. This NYT article suggests that women are more likely to experience orgasm in committed relationships: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/women-find-orgasms-elusive-in-hookups/?_r=1&

I've also seen studies suggesting that the women (but not men) who achieve the most sexual pleasure are married conservative Christians. No doubt there are a number of different factors involved here -- intimacy of relationship, knowledge of partner's needs, gender roles, etc. But I think these other factors explain your experience better than an IQ gap.

Also, purely anecdotal, but my wife is pursuing her Ph.D. and averages two orgasms when we have sex.

Mr. Anon said...

"heartiste said...

""So 20% of the men didn't have an orgasm. Do they just stop?""

i wouldn't be surprised if more men are faking completion because of the staggering obesity epidemic ruining the figures of women."

Maybe it's because of the tattoo epidemic.

Pat Boyle said...

These statistics - if they are not just manufactured out of thin air - are presented so as to make it seem as if women are being cheated. But the reality is quite different.

Before I was about 65 I don't think I ever didn't have an orgasm during sex. In old age I have slowed down. But I almost always had only one orgasm a night.

But a large proportion of women are multi-orgasmic. Some women have twenty or more orgasms in one session. So if you were to measure total number of orgasms you would find that women were having more than men.

Not all women have orgasms of course but a significant fraction of women can be made to orgasm over and over for hours. It doesn't seem fair.

Albertosaurus

Truth said...

"What nonsense. Girls always have completely mind-blowing orgasms each and every time they make love. At least that's been my experience with them."

Kylie's just built that way.

Anonymous said...

Stories about people getting laid don't go well with the isteve comment crowd.

Marc B said...

"Now could it be that smart chicks have much higher testosterone levels than the "working class" chicks, and maybe it really is much more difficult to bring a smart chick to orgasm"?

I noticed differences between townies and college girls. Townies were not into the weird stuff nearly as much as the college girls were, and took more courting despite their reputation for being easy. College girls gave it up without so much as a proper date, and were fine with FWB arrangements.

kudzu bob said...

@Twoof:

Trying unsuccessfully to close the achievement gap in humor again, I see. Stereotype threat's a bitch.

Jen said...

Studies show that women who form an emotional bond with a man and obtain commitment from him are much more likely to have orgasms during sex and much less likely to be "pumped and dumped" -sorry, but that is the term.

O.K. No study; just common sense.

Interesting that the men do not seem to enjoy these casual encounters much, either....