Human female sexuality - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity

Sexual identity

Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...

and sexual behavior, the physiological

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

, psychological

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, social

Interpersonal relationship

An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...

, cultural

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, political

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, and spiritual

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

or religious

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

aspects of sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

. Various aspects and dimensions of female sexuality, as a part of human sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

, have also been addressed by principles of ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

, morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

, and theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

. In almost any historical era and culture, the arts, including literary and visual arts, as well as popular culture, present a substantial portion of a given society's views on human sexuality, which also include implicitly or explicitly female sexuality.

In most societies and legal jurisdictions, there are legal

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

bounds on what sexual behavior is permitted. Sexuality varies across the cultures and regions of the world, and has continually changed throughout history, and this applies equally to female sexuality. Aspects of female sexuality include issues pertaining to biological sex, body image, self-esteem, personality, sexual orientation, values and attitudes, gender roles, relationships, activity options, and communication.

Orgasm

Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...

is thought to be the ultimate human sexual pleasure. However, it has been reported that women find it harder than men to experience orgasms due to the increased level and variety of stimulation needed to reach them. Even though most women need more than just one type of sexual stimulation

Sexual stimulation

Sexual stimulation is any stimulus that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to ejaculation and/or orgasm...

in order to achieve orgasms, the important parts of the body to take into consideration are the clitoris and the vagina. Most women experience orgasms due to intense clitoral stimulation. One of the reasons why orgasms are easier to achieve when the clitoris is stimulated is that the clitoris is extremely sensitive and placed exterior to the vagina. On the other hand, vaginal stimulation may be harder to achieve.

Multiple orgasms

Women are able to experience multiple orgasms, of one of two varieties. 'Multiple' means more than one orgasm, experienced one immediately after another, while 'sequential' means orgasms occur one after another but are separated by a few minutes. Even though multiple orgasms are very rarely experienced, they are not impossible. They are, in opinion, the ultimate climax women can achieve.

Women are able to achieve multiple orgasms due to the fact that they do not require any kind of refractory period

Refractory period (sex)

In sexuality, the refractory period is the recovery phase after orgasm during which it is physiologically impossible for an individual to have additional orgasms. Most men are unable to maintain or achieve an erection during this time, and many perceive a psychological feeling of "satiation" and...

as some men do after the first orgasm. Theoretically, if stimulation is not interrupted, most women should be able to achieve multiple orgasms. Achieving multiple orgasms is not as easy as it looks given that generally women reach orgasms with greater difficulty than men. People have a variety of erogenous zones that can be stimulated. For some women, the most sensitive area in the body is the G-spot

G-spot

The Gräfenberg Spot, often called the G-Spot, is a bean-shaped area of the vagina. Many women report that it is an erogenous zone which, when stimulated, can lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and female ejaculation...

, while for others, it is the Clitoris

Clitoris

The clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...

. If properly stimulated, the G-spot may cause very strong orgasms, some stronger than the ones reached after clitoral stimulation. The G-spot's existence is still under dispute, as its location and size varies from woman to woman, or appears to be nonexistent in some women.

During heterosexual intercourse, it is common that men stop the stimulation process in a woman (after experiencing orgasm themselves, and losing their erection), and this may be one of the reasons why many women do not actually achieve more than one orgasm. However, some women do not want to be pressured into another orgasm while others are eager for more, as the stimulation can be overwhelming or painful.
Sometimes, female multiple orgasms are accompanied by female ejaculation

Female ejaculation

Female ejaculation refers to the expulsion of noticeable amounts of clear fluid by human females from the paraurethral ducts through and around the urethra during or before an orgasm...

.

The biological function of a woman's orgasm is not completely understood; it does not appear to serve an essential purpose to human survival; but some theories suggest that muscular contractions

Muscle contraction

Muscle fiber generates tension through the action of actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. While under tension, the muscle may lengthen, shorten, or remain the same...

associated with orgasms pull sperm from the vagina to the cervix

Cervix

The cervix is the lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina. It is cylindrical or conical in shape and protrudes through the upper anterior vaginal wall...

, where it is in a better position to reach the egg.

Erogenous zones

The female erogenous zone

Erogenous zone

An erogenous zone is an area of the human body that has heightened sensitivity, the stimulation of which may result in the production of erotic sensations or sexual excitement.People have erogenous zones all over their bodies, but which areas are more sensitive than others vary...

s are areas with nerve endings that increase the sensitivity and their stimulation

Stimulus (physiology)

In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....

results in sexual response. The aim of exploring the female erogenous areas is to prepare the woman for sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

by increasing her level of arousal in order to enjoy the act and potentially reach an orgasm. The erogenous zones are different from woman to woman and it is also likely that the stimulation of the erogenous areas that some women find pleasant and exciting may be impossible to bear for others.

Historical conceptions of female sexuality

Representations of female sexuality date back to prehistoric times; there is clear evidence of the depiction of female fecundity

Fecundity

Fecundity, derived from the word fecund, generally refers to the ability to reproduce. In demography, fecundity is the potential reproductive capacity of an individual or population. In biology, the definition is more equivalent to fertility, or the actual reproductive rate of an organism or...

in ancient Venus figurines

Venus figurines

Venus figurines is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of women portrayed with similar physical attributes from the Upper Palaeolithic, mostly found in Europe, but with finds as far east as Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, extending their distribution to much of Eurasia, from the...

. Fertility goddess

Fertility goddess

A fertility deity is a god or goddess in mythology associated with fertility, pregnancy, and birth. In some cases these deities are directly associated with sex, and in others they simply embody related attributes...

es are common in many ancient cultures. In many cultures there are also gods of love, marriage, and sex.

In the ancient civilizations of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, the subject of female sexuality was expressed in several writings and commentaries. For example, much of the Kama Sutra

Kama Sutra

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian Hindu text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit literature written by Vātsyāyana. A portion of the work consists of practical advice on sexual intercourse. It is largely in prose, with many inserted anustubh poetry verses...

, an ancient treatise on sex and sexuality, deals with female sexuality.

Historically, female sexuality has been seen in many male-dominated cultures as subordinate to male sexuality, and as something to be controlled by society through restrictions on female behavior. One may say that within these cultures the most popular conceptions of female sexuality are seen through the male gaze, without counter self-conceptions through the female gaze, or gazes not female nor male.

Traditional cultural practices such as enforced modesty

Modesty

Standards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged....

and chastity

Chastity

Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....

have historically tended to place restrictions principally on women, without imposing similar restrictions on men.
Some controversial traditional cultural practices such as female genital cutting

Female genital cutting

Female genital mutilation , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."FGM...

have been described as attempts at nullifying women's sexuality altogether. Many females are deprived of the ability to achieve orgasm through the act of Female Genital Mutilation which is practiced in many countries around the world. Against their will, young girls around the world undergo mutilation at a young age-at the age of 5 or 6. It is a procedure that involves the cutting of the clitoris, most often without the use of pain killers. There are many health risks. These risks include: severe pain, urine retention, infection to many parts of the female reproductive system, difficulties menstruating, difficulties masturbating, difficulties with childbirth.

Other cultural practices such as honor killing

Honor killing

An honor killing or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community...

s threaten unsanctioned female sexual behaviour with death, often at the hands of the woman's own relatives. This combines with a "blame the victim" attitude which punishes women who accuse men of raping them; even if the rape is proved, the woman will be punished for the "crime" of fornication, regardless of her unwillingness to "participate". Oftentimes, after the killing takes place, the family attempts to forget and no longer mention the family member they just killed. Some honor killings are made to appear as accidents so measuring them can be difficult.

Nevertheless, many studies have shown that women's actual sexual behaviour throughout history appears, like that of men, not to have been controlled anywhere near to the degree decreed by social orthodoxy.

Modern studies of female sexuality

In the modern age, psychologists and physiologists engaged in the task of exploring female sexuality. Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

propounded the theory of two kinds of female orgasms, "the vaginal kind, and the clitoral orgasm." However, more recently studies (1960s) by Masters and Johnson

Masters and Johnson

The Masters and Johnson research team, composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s....

reject this distinction. Further studies have revealed the existence of uterine orgasms, so there remains some debate. Ernst Gräfenberg

Ernst Gräfenberg

Ernst Gräfenberg was a German-born physician and scientist...

was famous for his studies of female genitalia and human female sexual physiology; he published, among other studies, the seminal The Role of Urethra in Female Orgasm (1950), which describes female ejaculation, as well as an erogenous zone where the urethra is closest to the vaginal wall. In 1981 sexologists John D. Perry and Beverly Whipple named that area the Gräfenberg spot, or G-spot

G-spot

, in his honor. While the medical community has not embraced the whole concept of the "G-Spot", Dr. Sanger, Dr. Kinsey, and Drs. Masters and Johnson credit his extensive physiological work.

Some researchers challenge the notion that women only want sex for the physical closeness or cuddling, by identifying the characteristics of highly sexual women. These women characterized as “highly sexual” held more favorable attitudes toward casual sex, fantasized about sex often and enjoyed sex outside of a committed relationship. These findings tell us that the importance of sex or cuddling is not solely based on gender.

Feminist concepts

The feminist movement

Feminist movement

The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...

, and the increasing social status of women in modern society, have led to women's sexuality being reassessed as a subject in its own right.

During the 1970s and 1980s, in the wake of the sexual revolution

Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

, numerous feminist writers started to address the question of female sexuality from their own female perspective, rather than allowing female sexuality to be defined in terms of largely male studies. The first such popular non-fiction book was Nancy Friday

Nancy Friday

Nancy Colbert Friday is an author who has written on the topics of female sexuality and liberation.'Nancy Friday's successful fantasy revelations ' have seen her placed among 'the feminist erotic pioneers'...

's My Secret Garden
My Secret Garden
My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies is a 1973 book compiled by Nancy Friday, who collected women's fantasies through letters and taped and personal interviews. After including a female sexual fantasy in a novel she submitted for publishing, her editor objected, and Friday shelved the novel...

. Other writers such as Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

, Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

and Camille Paglia

Camille Paglia

Camille Anna Paglia , is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984...

were particularly influential in this, although their views were not universally or placidly accepted. Toward the end of the twentieth century the most significant European contributions to understanding female sexuality came from psychoanalytical French feminism, with the work of Luce Irigaray

Luce Irigaray

Luce Irigaray is a Belgian feminist, philosopher, linguist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and cultural theorist. She is best known for her works Speculum of the Other Woman and This Sex Which Is Not One .-Biography:...

and Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...

.

Lesbianism and female bisexuality

Bisexuality

Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...

also emerged as topics that could be talked about in public. A short-lived movement towards political lesbianism

Political lesbianism

Political lesbianism is a phenomenon within feminism, primarily Second-wave feminism; it includes, but is not limited to, lesbian separatism. Political lesbianism embraces the theory that sexual orientation is a choice, and advocates lesbianism as a positive alternative to heterosexuality for...

within the feminist movement led to temporary schisms within the feminist movement between heterosexual and lesbian women, then rapidly floundered in the face of the acceptance that most women's sexuality was not defined by politics, but by their own sexual preferences. Most modern feminist movements now accept all forms of female sexuality as equally valid.

Feminist attitudes to female sexuality have taken a few different directions. The first is that female sexuality should be accepted and women should be free to have sex when they like, with whomever they like, provided they are of legal age and are willing to participate. This view is supported by academic and philosopher Patricia Petersen. The other is that women should be empowered to refuse to have sex when they want to, or to have their sexuality respected in society. Confirming the theory that "a woman's body is a woman's right", Indian Feminist Author Sarojini Sahoo

Sarojini Sahoo

Sarojini Sahoo is an Orissa Sahitya Academy Award winner Indian feminist writer, a columnist in The New Indian Express and associate editor of Chennai based English magazine Indian AGE, who has been enlisted among 25 Exceptional Women of India by ‘Kindle’ English magazine of Kolkata.Born in the...

claimed the patriarchal society has held control over sexuality. In the case of a married woman, she encounters many restrictions with respect to sexuality whereas her male partner is free from these restrictions. Women are denied the right to express themselves as sexual beings. They are discouraged from taking an active role or even allowing themselves to experience the act as pleasurable. Women are taught that they should not be open to their sexual desires. Sahoo, however contends that to realize feminism, Eastern women need two types of liberation. One is from financial slavery and the other is from the restrictions imposed on female sexuality. Women are always victims; men are oppressors. A minority view within radical feminism

Radical feminism

Radical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...

states that even if it appears that women consent, heterosexual sex is inherently nonconsensual and women cannot ever be said to truly consent to it, because their decision is forged by the expectations and influences of growing up in a predominantly male-oriented society.

This has led to different groups of feminists embracing and opposing pornography

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

as sexually liberating and sexually oppressive respectively, both in the name of women's empowerment over their own sexuality.

Women as responsible for sexual safety

Since the emergence of sexual independence, health officials have launched campaigns to bring awareness to the dangers of unprotected sexual intercourse. While the dangers of unprotected sex include unintended pregnancy

Unintended pregnancy

Unintended pregnancies are those in which conception was not intended by the female sexual partner. Worldwide, 38% of pregnancies were unintended in 1999 . Unintended pregnancies are the primary cause of induced abortion, resulting in about 42 million induced abortions per year...

, sexually transmitted disease

Sexually transmitted disease

Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...

s (HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

/AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

being the deadliest), the use of contraceptive devices, the most reliable being condom

Condom

A condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...

s, remain inconsistent. These campaigns place the greatest responsibility for safe sex

Safe sex

Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...

on women and there are several social constructions and assumptions that are to be taken into account to understand the reasoning why.

The social constructions of masculinity

Masculinity

Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...

and femininity

Femininity

Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...

play a lead role in understanding why it is women who are responsible for controlling their sexual encounters. Society has attributed many traits to masculinity including a high sex drive. This high sex drive asserts that men are constantly interested in sex and once they are sexually aroused must be satisfied through orgasm

Orgasm

Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...

. This drive is intertwined with the male identity and consequently creates a momentum that once started is difficult to stop. Society has also attributed many traits to femininity including altruism. This trait has caused women’s sexual desires to be largely ignored and because men are seen as unable to control their sexuality, women become responsible for enforcing condom use instead of the “uncontrollable” male.

Another commonly believed social ideal of sexuality is the coital imperative. The coital imperative is the idea that for sex to be “real” there must be penis-vagina intercourse. For many women this imposes limitations to the sexual possibilities and a condom is seen as a symbol of the end. It is easy to see how these two ideas, male sex drive and coital imperative, paired with the social construction of femininity can easily lead to an imbalance of the power to make the decision to use a condom.

Popular literature

Maggie Wittlin, "Girls Gone Wild...For Monkeys", Seed Magazine" (10/14/2005)
Peter Hercules, Liberating the Caged Human Female Animal's Sexuality
Sally Lehrman, The Virtues of Promiscuity
Jennifer Armstrong, "Slut" is Not A Four Letter Word

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Orgasm

Multiple orgasms

Erogenous zones

Historical conceptions of female sexuality

Modern studies of female sexuality

Feminist concepts

Women as responsible for sexual safety

See also

Popular literature