Survey finds 70% of women do not orgasm during sex

Posted on July 30, 2009
Filed Under England, Family Marriage Partners, Reseach | Comments Off

“Despite the continued emphasis on penetration … sexual intercourse is not really very well designed to give women a lot of pleasure … ”
(In the past) ” … Men found it very easy to perform with women when they were the inferior sex and it was a man’s right to abuse and get away with it but there is something very difficult about dealing with an independent woman. … “

The latest survey by Ann Summers found some 70% of female respondents claimed never to have climaxed during sex.

However, according to some sex therapists, reactions of shock and surprise serve to underline the widespread levels of ignorance and misunderstanding within society, precisely the same factors coming between us and fulfilling sex lives.

“The 70% figure is not wholly inconsistent with other research findings, and the explanations are reasonably simple,” says Phillip Hodson of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. “Contrary to assumptions, sexual intercourse is not really very well designed to give women a lot of pleasure, and you’re jolly lucky in a way if it does.”

Despite the continued emphasis on penetration, even to the extent of being enshrined in law (an unconsummated marriage is still grounds for annulment) and, of course, the stubborn myth that “size matters”, the simple truth is that most women are not anatomically disposed to derive much pleasure from “conventional” intercourse. In fact, for centuries many physicians did not believe the female orgasm even existed – and it can still remain pretty elusive.

According to research conducted by family planning specialist Dr David Delvin and psychotherapist Christine Webber, “most younger women do not manage to climax until some considerable time after they have started sexual activity”. Even then, fewer than one-third of women experience their first orgasm during intercourse.

“Every generation discovers the same problems. It’s very difficult,” says Hodson. “When you are a 17, 18 or 19-year-old woman on your first or second experience, and you’re shy and nervous and don’t quite know what you’re doing, it’s very difficult to say what you want.”

Beyond the physical hurdles, there are still considerable cultural and psychological barriers to sexual enjoyment today, particularly when youngsters have built up associations of guilt thought religious indoctrination or, in a tragic minority of cases, childhood sexual abuse. More than three decades after women’s liberation, the hangover from the Victorian era sensibilities which cast any woman enjoying sex as a “prostitute by definition” persists.

“I’m fond of saying this is the first generation of free women on the planet,” says Hodson. “I think it takes a long time to get that stuff out of your head and your family thread. They’re often a defence for male anxiety. Men found it very easy to perform with women when they were the inferior sex and it was a man’s right to abuse and get away with it but there is something very difficult about dealing with an independent woman.”

From a longer article at http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2522126.0.
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