The orgasm gap
You’ve heard of the “orgasm gap.” It refers to the fact that women climax less frequently in their sexual encounters than men do. This has been known for decades but a recent study adds a valuable distinction about where the gap falls. Turns out it’s less an anatomical issue than it is a man/woman dynamic. This is worthy of a separate article, but in short it appears that women who have sex with men experience the orgasm gap. Women who have sex with women, not so much. They orgasm at closer to the same rate as men. The machinery itself is perfectly capable.
Another study looked at “female copulatory vocalizations” (women moaning during sex). They found that women weren’t so much moaning during their own orgasm as they were when their partner was close to going over the edge, either to enhance his enjoyment, or simply to hurry up the process.²
The point here isn’t that women fake orgasms, it’s to draw attention to the obvious but overlooked fact that men get off on their partners’ get-off. Another study used eye-tracking to follow the gaze of people watching porn, to determine what parts of the scene had their attention. Guess what the men in the study were looking at the most? The women performers’ faces.³ Surprised? I was intrigued, but not surprised.
So what’s going on here?