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September 7, 2005
Female Orgasm
Is the female orgasm useful in its own right or vestige from males?
Several decades ago, while a graduate student, I noted that when a subordinate male grizzly bear mounts a female, his head swivels constantly over his shoulder as he anticipates the arrival of any dominant boar[sic], who would rapidly supplant him. Not surprisingly, subordinate grizzlies ejaculate quickly whereas dominants are substantially less rushed. I have no idea whether grizzly sows experience orgasm, but it seems likely that if they do, it would be more likely when copulating with the latter than with the former. And this, in turn, led me to wonder whether female orgasm is a signal whereby a female's body tells her brain that she is sexually engaged with a dominant individual. If this is the adaptive significance of female orgasm, then we certainly would not expect orgasm to occur with regularity, and would be altogether misled if we took its seemingly erratic occurrence as evidence that it does not serve an evolutionary function.
Posted by OneEyedMan at September 7, 2005 10:18 AM
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