Sunday, February 24, 2008

Memo: The G-Spot

From the Desk of Megan Butcher

Dear Scientists and Journalists,

It has come to my attention that certain of you believe the urethral sponge (also known as the G-, or Graefenberg, Spot) is a matter still up for debate.

Rest assured, it is not.

To intimate otherwise is to sensationalize a topic that requires no such treatment. It is also to create controversy where none exists, for the only debate on said spot exists in news articles asserting there is a debate.

Most other reasonable creatures agree that the urethral sponge exists. Debates do ensue over how it works, where exactly it is located, if it is indeed a separate anatomical entity, why it may exist, and, if every woman does have it, whether all enjoy its stimulation to the same degree. But only spurious and uncited "experts" disagree that it exists at all.

Thus, Journalists, you are hereby politely requested to frame your articles along these lines, and relay information on the former debate regarding said spot in the past tense. To this end, I provide you with a sample sentence: "The mid- to late-twentieth century was a veritable vaginal dark age, with many otherwise intelligent people debating the anatomical reality of the g-spot."

Also, women don't "say" or "claim" they have vaginal orgasms; quite simply, they have them. This is not a fact that needs to be verified in a court of law before you can state it as such. Therefore, you may simply write "Jannini studied nine women who have vaginal orgasms and 11 women who do not..."

Lastly, I impolitely demand that you hereby and immediately desist describing this "debate" with cleverly punning words such as "climax" and "nails." G-spot orgasms are not your snide joke.

And now, Scientists, a word to you. Do not do a study of 20 women and feel that you have a definitive understanding how a certain part of their sexuality works. Rather, keep your hubris in check, and do not assert that "women without any visible evidence of a G spot cannot have a vaginal orgasm." Perhaps that is true of all 11 women in your study, but perhaps is not true of the other few billion women alive today.

Most importantly, you must call an immediate halt to the use of the word "normal." Your lab coat and clipboard do not give you the automatic moral authority to decide where this label should be placed. Clitoral orgasms are not the normal orgasm. They are simply the most usual. Women whose orgasms are, in the main, from non-clitoral stimulation are not abnormal, just unusual.

With this advice in mind, Everyone, please do continue your work. Your dedicated effort to increasing knowledge about this oft-misunderstood area is much applauded, and will be further celebrated once these issues have been resolved.

Yours truly,
M. Butcher


- Scientists' row over G spot nears a climax
- Ultrasound nails location of the elusive G spot
- Measurement of the Thickness of the Urethrovaginal Space in Women with or without Vaginal Orgasm

8 comments:

Amanda Earl said...

it used to be that clitoral orgasms were considered to be abnormal or substandard. funny turnaround.

coyote said...

Ya just know that the headlines you cite were written by some aging-yet-puerile male editor who claims he's clever. (Think Scott Anderson, John Robson, or anybody at the Stun) Anyway, I bet few of them have ever had vaginal or clitoral orgasms...

Ariel said...

Um, the g-spot is not that hard to find. I think it's hilarious that scientists are using all of this fancy equipment to find it.

Another service that lesbians have to offer the world ...

EK said...

Come on scientists. I'm a 17 year old girl and I know it exists. Granted, I am more secually aware than many 17 year olds, but still.
Men should stop thinking they know anything about vaginas. They like to think they know, but really, they don't.

Psychic Librarian said...

...maybe they should get out more and do some field research!

Asteroidea Press said...

Oh, I don't know, La Canadienne. I've definitely had the luck of meeting at least a few men who knew quite a bit about vaginas. They just didn't go around saying that they knew how "women" came.

It *is* kind of funny that they needed all sorts of fancy equipment. The New Scientist article had some good points about the way the study was carried out. But sadly, no one mentioned dykes. Underutilized, for sure!

Kerry said...

Why does a title with "nails" and "G spot" in it make me feel a little queasy?...looks around for nail clippers

Anonymous said...

In my formative years I managed to find my dad's stash of "naughty" mags of a mid to late 70's vintage in a box in the crawlspace... (of course I took interest in those magazine purely for the articles and not the pictorials! ;-) )

That said I did read a more than a few articles it seems about the G-spot, female orgasm, etc. Information that would serve me well in the future, it should be required reading for every guy!

For whatever reason it really seemed to be in vogue at that point in time. I see it as a progress to all the counterculture and free love of the hippies and perhaps the feminist movement that really started to gain momentum in the 70's but I digress.

One article in particular sticks out in my mind "Harnessing the Power of the Female Orgasm"... The title page was adroned with a Victorian-era drawing of man hooking up some electrodes from some Wellsian contraption under the ground-length skirts of a bonnet wearing "proper" looking woman... quite the picture and it gave me an idea of how limited science's knowledge of the sexual side of things really was! Given that and knowing what the vibrator was actually invented as a treatment for really makes you see how mysogynistic the science profession is!

Reading those recent articles you can see that not much progress has been made since the 70's! I'd figure with more women in the sciences now it would have changed. I guess not. Here's hoping for the future!