Let's Talk About Sex (page 9)

DeWandelaar

If I was NOT a witness I would be a pornstar...

If I were not a human I would be a Bonobo

HAHAHAHA!!! EPIC!

Good to see I was successful in stirring up debate and controversy. I don't think either the evolutionary necessity or the lucky evolutionary by-product arguments have decisively been proven correct but both sides have put forward good evidence in support of their claims and I am genuinely torn as to which is more persuasive but it has been enertaining. Interesting that the ladies want to see it is an evolutionary necessity and the men a lucky by-product. Is this because men want to believe that only our orgasms are necessary?

Maybe we could get the JWN community to volunteer to do a controlled experiment - for those of you who have children - how many reckon that you (if you are the mother) or your partner (if you are the father) had an orgasm at the point of conception. Obviously this may be difficult to respond to exactly but it would be possible to guess based on how frequently you achieved simultaneous orgasms during the time you were convceiving. Mothers will have to own up to faking orgasms though. Based on Kate's comments about pigs it would be useful to identify multiple births (twins, triplets etc.) to see if this increases with orgasms. Of course the sample size and lack of controls makes it completely unscientific but interesting anecdotally. I would guess that I am 2/2 orgasms/birth with both births being singles. But is my response reliable? Now I realize what is wrong with my suggested experiment - men will not want to admit that they don't think their partners had orgasms when they conceived. So there will be a bias in teh results towards orgasms. Oh crap - that is why I am not a scientist.

KateWild

Interesting that the ladies want to see it is an evolutionary necessity and the men a lucky by-product. Is this because men want to believe that only our orgasms are necessary?-F. UBM

Thanks for remaining undecided. I like it that you are not taking the boys side and you are keeping an open mind. Thanks for looking at the pig experiement. Yes there are too many variables to do a JWN experiement. I am no longer anon, so I am not giving my data on a public board either.

I enjoyed the challenge in your post and reading your conclusions. Thanks Kate xx

cofty

Actually the hypothesis that it is a developmental byproduct was championed by a woman Dr Elisabeth Loyd.

In fact, it was Lloyd who had initially given Gould his lead on Symons’s thinking on the subject and who would later write a book strongly endorsing the by-product hypothesis called The Case of the Female Orgasm (Harvard University Press, 2005). Lloyd’s book was roasted by many evolutionary thinkers because of the not-so-subtle feminist undertones in her writing—basically she argues that female carnal bliss has been liberated from the ugly realities of reproductive biology. Her position? Ladies, go out—or stay home alone, your choice—and enjoy yourselves, your sexuality is about more than just baby-making...

KateWild

Well done for finding some confirmation bias cofty. How about commenting on the pig experiment from my post number 1444?

Kate xx

Vidiot

LisaRose - "And then religion got invented to make people feel guilty about it."

I've been giving this some thought, lately, and I've come to suspect that religion wasn't "invented" per se...

...but is, in fact, a type of evolutionary adaptation.

And what's more, it evolved because (as counterintuitive as this may initially seem) like virtually every other adaptative trait, it provided reproductive advantages.

Even in the context of religions that, at first glance, are sexually repressive.

Frazzled UBM

Vdiot - I think you are on to something - certainly the Bible and Christianity in general are full of plagiarism or at least taking soemthing from another religious tradition and adapting it - rather than identifying those elements of Christianity that have pagan roots it would be easier to identify those that don't as they would be far fewer

Frazzled UBM

BTW cofty - nice work in turning my suggestion of male bias on its head - I stand corrected.

cofty

I've come to suspect that religion wasn't "invented" per se......but is, in fact, a type of evolutionary adaptation. - Vidiot

Chapter 15 of Susan Blackmore's book "The Meme Machine", is titled "Religions as memeplexes".

KateWild

cofty,

How about commenting on the pig experiment from my post number 1444?

Kate xx

Let's Talk About Sex

Share this