GC: What do "-sexual" and "-sexuality" mean? If sex is about reproduction, why are "homosexuality" and "same sex" not contradictions in terms?

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[–]SnowAssMan 6 insightful - 6 fun6 insightful - 5 fun7 insightful - 6 fun -  (1 child)

The female oragsm contributes comparatively little if anything to reproduction when compared to the overall reproductive role the female body engages in, as you pointed out, all it does is ease the process of fertilisation, which has proven to be completely unnecessary in 100% of cases.

More intelligent animals have uses for orgasm outside of reproduction. Human being are one such animal. Obviously we can never totally separate orgasmic pleasure from reproduction, since the former is an outgrowth of the latter, so there will always be some blurred lines.

The two organs I was referring to were the clitoris for pleasure & the birth canal for reproduction. Conversely, men only have 1 organ. This whole time my use of the word 'reproduction' has been androcentric too, since, as you rightly pointed out, reproduction is more than just fertilisation. I've been centring fertilisation, which is why I was counting the birth canal as supposedly the only reproductive organ in the female body.

[–]MarkTwainiac 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for clarifying.

The female oragsm contributes comparatively little if anything to reproduction when compared to the overall reproductive role the female body engages in, as you pointed out, all it does is ease the process of fertilisation

Well, this has been the assumption, but we really don't know coz it's one of many areas that's not been studied. Remember, the conventional view of human sexuality is so androcentric that clitoral orgasm was denigrated or denied as a real thing for many, many years. Girls and women were told the lie that to orgasm in the "right way" we had to do it vaginally, and if we didn't orgasm vaginally we were "frigid" and deficient. That was still commonly taught and believed in the Western world until circa 1970:

https://wgs10016.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-myth-of-the-vaginal-orgasm-by-anne-koedt-1970/

What's more, the very little research that has been done on this topic has been conducted in weird ways. As in experiments where the possible connection between orgasm and cervical "tenting" and its effect on sperm was done not by studying what goes on when women have orgasms, but by studying what goes on when they're given hits of oxytocin. As if oxytocin = female orgasm.

I actually think that when more research is done on female bodies, a lot of surprising things will be discovered that will turn many assumptions long held sacred on their heads. For example, it's long been assumed that human fertilization is done by the sperm cell that reaches the egg and manages to pierce it first. But research published last year said that's not the case: the egg chooses which sperm it will let in.

The two organs I was referring to were the clitoris for pleasure & the birth canal for reproduction.

I am confused by your use of the term "birth canal." In the US where I live, and the UK where I've spent a lot of time, it's not customary to use the term "birth canal" as a matter of course in discussing female sex anatomy - "birth canal" is used only when discussing human childbirth specifically. I would find it strange and off-putting to hear or see someone use the term "birth canal" in any other context.

I'm also confused by your characterization of the birth canal as as one single organ, when the definition is:

the passage through which the young of mammals pass during birth, formed by the cervix, vagina, and vulva. (Merriam-Webster)

the passageway from the womb through the cervix, the vagina, and the vulva through which a fetus passes during birth. (Oxford)

the passageway from the uterus of a mammal through which a fetus is pushed during birth: it consists of the cervix, vagina, and vulva (Collins)

That's several separate organs. And again, fertilization can't occur in a human female body with the organs that constitute the birth canal alone. At least one functioning ovary and one intact Fallopian tube is also required. Fertilization occurs in the Fallopian tube, and only 3-4 days afterwards does the fertilized egg move down into the uterus to (try to) be implanted into the uterine lining.

Lots of women who have the organs that make up the birth canal can't get pregnant coz they have no ovaries due to oophorectomy and no Fallopian tubes due to salpingectomy - and also coz of various health conditions (diseases and therapies that cause ovarian failure, DSDs, etc). Similarly, lots of women who still have all the organs that constitute the birth canal and the rest of the female reproductive system intact still can't conceive coz they no longer ovulate due to menopause. Since the average age of menarche is 11 and menopause is 51, and the average lifespan of women in much of the world is 84 to near 90, most women who live a full lifespan nowadays will spend more of our lives naturally without the capacity to conceive than with it even with all our reproductive organs intact and in good health.

Similarly, it's not true that "men only have 1 organ" that's involved in fertilization. The penis delivers sperm into the female repro tract, but it doesn't make sperm. Sperm comes from the male gonads, the testes. And sperm doesn't go directly from the testes into and out penis in one fell swoop like a gum ball dropping from a gum ball machine. Other body parts have to contribute to making the seminal fluid that carries the sperm, and the precursor fluid that paves the way for the sperm to pass through the penis by changing the pH of the male urethra first.