As a fan of the female orgasm, I guess I’m glad people are researching it. But, these scientists seem to take such a limited view of evolution by making everything cause and direct affect. Maybe female orgasms can exist for social reasons, by helping bond females and their partners.

Hmm, apparently total awesomeness carries very little weight with evolutionary biologists.

Hmm, maybe so women will have the desire to procreate? All bad stuff aside...

I found several things in that article rather insulting. First, this quote:

"Theories of female orgasm are significant, she added, because "men's expectations about women's normal sexuality, about how women should perform, are built around these notions."

"And men are the ones who reflect back immediately to the woman whether or not she is adequate sexually," Dr. Lloyd continued.

What about her own point of view and feelings about her sexuality? Apparently she should be looking to men to establish that for her. Oh, or she can look to popular culture. And we should be careful not to get her hopes up because:

Western culture is suffused with images of women's sexuality, of women in the throes of orgasm during intercourse and seeming to reach heights of pleasure that are rare, if not impossible, for most women in everyday life.

"Accounts of our evolutionary past tell us how the various parts of our body should function," Dr. Lloyd said.

If women, she said, are told that it is "natural" to have orgasms every time they have intercourse and that orgasms will help make them pregnant, then they feel inadequate or inferior or abnormal when they do not achieve it.

"Getting the evolutionary story straight has potentially very large social and personal consequences for all women," Dr. Lloyd said. "And indirectly for men, as well."

That last part kind of implies that any science is only worthwhile if it benefits men, doesn't it?

I'm also offended by the distinction drawn in the article between "assisted" and "unassisted" female orgasm. Which seems to be saying that if an orgasm isn't brought on by a penis (and only a penis1), it doesn't count.

Oh, I didn't even get to the part about looking for an evolutionary logic to the female orgasm making women feel inadequate. That's some seriously patronizing bullshit right there.

Stupid scientists. Everyone knows that the orgasm was beginning of evolution. It didn't evolve. That’s like saying, "How did reproduction evolve?" It didn't. An Orgasm is the feeling of evolution.

Everyone knows that. We were all taught that in science class. I was.

"An orgasm is the feeling of evolution" - that's my new motto.

Like Karen and Brette have said, this kind of evolutionary explination for sexuality almost always seems to focus on men and how female sexuality is a response to male sexuality. That's kind of annoying.

Wow, I was not offended at all by this article. But I feel sorry for our future generations if, as the article posits, the vestigial orgasm is shed from the human genome. Who says sex had to be the only cause of orgasmic feelings? And do women who never achieve it have a medical disability (that should be cured by modern medicine)?

don't call em scientist. they are just a few horny boys that have nothing better to do with their times.

Um, I don't know if Dr. Lloyd would appreciate anyone calling her a horny boy.

Well, humans are smarter than most other animals by a long way. We have drastic differences from most other mammals, such as only two mammary glands and not having any fur apart from on our heads. We use sophisticated language, and have a brain specialised for such communication. The female orgasm is clearly present because most mammals can just be hunted down and grabbed by the male. Female humans are far too clever to be hunted down, they are very good at hiding and therefore nature has had to come up with the endorphin bribe of the female orgasm to persuade them to copulate. End result : the smarter and more advanced you get, the better you can extort a good time out of nature. Here's to the female orgasm! Cheers! Thank god We're not bacteria. Or rabbits.