[Marxism] Clitoris, orgasm and Darwinism

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a couple of problems with this argument. First, ...how can I say
this...a little bird told me.. Some women get a lot of pleasure from
stimulation of the vagina, and can have orgasms based on vaginal
stimulation. Then the clitoris is rather close to the vagina, even if
outside it....so its stimulation easily leads to vaginal stimulation.

So, even though clitoris ( and pleasure from clitoral stimulation) and
female orgasm are not _necessary_ for reproduction, they _promote_  actions
and practices that are very closely appended to fertile sexual intercourse.
So, they very well could be explained in terms of Darwinian theory by their
giving selective advantage to individuals who had these phenotypical
characteristics. In other words, the ability to have clitoral pleasure and
female orgasm could encourage those women who had these traits to have
fertile sex more often, even though clitoral stimulation itself is not
directly a fertile act or that female orgasm is not necessary for fertile
sex. If the ability to have clitoral pleasure and orgasm even _indirectly_
causes human females to have more sex, then they can be explained by a
Darwinian selection argument through advantage in differential fertility,
the main prize on which selection keeps its eyes.

Take two types of females in really , really ancient times, the
proto-paleolithic age. One has the capacity for clitoral pleasure and
vaginal orgasm. The other does not. So, the first one wants to have sex 5
times more often than the second. That's a really big selective advantage.
Might even come about that the males get to the point that they only "ask"
the first one, quantity turning into quality; two groups, Big Mommas and
Nuns.

As to other animals doing it more quickly, an obvious hypothesis is that the
more frequently you do it, and the more time spent doing it when doing it,
the more likely that the act will be fertile.

Because differential _fertility_ is the direct "prize" in selective
advantage, these traits' "indirect" relation to fertility is closer than
most other traits, which are much _more_ indirectly related to fertility.
So, differential fertility is likely to be more sensitive to the difference
between having and not having the traits of female orgasm and clitoris
pleasure than to difference in other traits. Most other traits impact
differential fertility indirectly through differential mortality.

Charles





We may think of intercourse as requiring orgasm for completion, so that
frustration will not follow, but in fact it is ejaculation which is
required for the male to be fulfilled, and of course for pregnancy to
occur.  Ejaculation and delivery of  spermatozoa to the appropriate site
could take place with little awareness by the male, who would still feel
satisfied.  It is hard to believe that any man approaches any woman with
the thought simply of achieving orgasm---the sexual desire is the
compelling force.

Birds, dogs and other mammals do it quickly, why should we not?  I seem to
recall that Darwin said that  natural selection wastes nothing, and orgasm
is clearly a waste.

To summarize, both clitoris and orgasm are unnecessary for
reproduction.  They cannot be explained by evolution as a result of chance
variations.

Have at me, if you will.  If you do not, I will be even more convinced than
I am that this is a chink in the armour of Darwinism.

Ken Ranney



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