Certain modalities of enjoyment seem to be changing.
Subject to debates and controversies in the history of sexuality, the orgasm stirs up and tirelessly cultivates its enigmas. Following the advent of research in the human sciences in the 19th century , neuroscience plunged the 20th and 21st centuries into a quest for a psychocorporal understanding of human enjoyment. Since the last century, sexuality has been studied, measured and evaluated. On the historical side, Freud, first of all, put sexuality on the front of the stage as a science of the living. There were then great successors such as Reich, Marcuse, Foucault and Lacan, before the arrival of the first researchers in sexology such as Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, John Monney or even Shere Hite.
The contribution of sexology was to put the body back at the center of the sexual question. The concept of “sexual health” was recently recognized by the WHO and it is now established that orgasm corresponds to a complex neuro-physio-psychological process marking the paroxysm of the sexual response. Linked to a pleasure with similarities between the two sexes, it is characterized by rhythmic contractions of the pelviperineal muscles, accompanied by activation of the nervous system and generalized muscle tension. Orgasm is also a paradoxical phenomenon since it requires both relaxation and tension.
Despite all these advances, misunderstandings persist regarding the knowledge of the female orgasm, the male orgasm and the orgasm in the life of couples in general. As proof, the recent updates of the anatomy of the clitoris in 3D have changed the game of representations of female pleasure. Similarly, new practices encourage a complete rethinking of male pleasure. Despite the scientific advances relating to the definition and overall understanding of the sexual response, the question of orgasm still raises many imaginations and questions.
To put it simply: the mystery of orgasm remains. A mystery that literature regularly tries to probe beyond scientific expertise, according to cultural scenes and museums which, in this area, still have many things to (de)show. It must be said that the theme of orgasm lends itself wonderfully to study. On the one hand because it is universal, on the other hand because it is lived in intimacy. Universal and particular, two major themes in the sciences and humanities where systemic approaches rub shoulders with questions of identity. Moreover, orgasm is to the human what ecstasy is to the divine. The latter results in a transport. This is the great capsizing. The orgasm figures and disfigures beings. He moves them.
But at the start of the 21st century , are we still sure that we want to adhere to certain beliefs about the orgasm, when in recent years, as we know, the “functions of the orgasm” have changed? Are we sure we want to stay the course, even the “gap” (orgasmic gap relayed by many media) when today, orgasm has become for many synonymous with injunctions, frustrations, simulations and sometimes addictions? “I enjoy therefore I am” , proclaims society at all costs. Even if it means creating guilt, complexes or performance anxiety until the progressive asphyxiation of pleasure. However, certain modalities of enjoyment seem to be changing.
Neither vaginal nor clitoral, the female orgasm is global
Indeed, since the discoveries by medical ultrasound in 2009 by Dr Odile Buisson and Pierre Foldès, it has been established that the dual distinction between “clitoral orgasm” and “vaginal orgasm” is no longer relevant. The representation of these two split zones now gives way to a globality integrating different erogenous zones of a whole dedicated to pleasure in general (internal or external). On the women’s … Read the rest