Sexology of the Vaginal Orgasm (4 page)

A commonly accepted norm appears to exist. Women pre- fer men who are taller than themselves. Men, by contrast, prefer women who are smaller than themselves. (Gillis and Avis, 1980) Moreover, it can hardly be overlooked that there is a tendency to ascribe a higher status to taller peo- ple. A famous experiment in this context is the one carried out by Wilson in 1968. In various lectures that he gave in Australia he presented a
Mr. England
to the audience.
Mr. England
was presented to one group of students as a student from Cambridge, while to a different group he was presented as
Professor England
from Cambridge. After the alleged
Mr. England
left the room, the students were asked to guess his height. As it turned out, the students believed the professor to be ten centimeters taller.

Human behavior cannot be explained by one single the- ory. On the one hand, we cannot simply slip out of our skin which we have acquired in a phylogeny extending over the millennia. On the other hand, it is precisely our ability to learn and the cultural possibilities of expression that have allowed us to become the homo “sapiens”, that is to say the “wise” being. We are certainly not just the puppets of our genes, but it would also be short-sighted to act as if no innate biological mechanisms acted as a driving force to successfully pass on our own genes. This perspective is seen by many as a narcissistic injury. Yet the fact remains that we are Mother Nature´s children, just as we are cultural beings. The preceding remarks on attractiveness have revealed innate behavioral patterns but at the same time they are not able to completely explain reality. They can only allude to tendencies which are, however, indispensable for our own understanding of eroticism. Charm, charisma and a certain magic that draws us into some people’s orbits will continue to evade models of ‘scientific explanation even in the future. Just as the unfathomable smile, the magic glow in someone’s eyes, a mesmerizing voice – and last not least the eternal mystery of love….

Physically attractive individuals are generally assessed more positively. This phenomenon is referred to as the stereo- type of attractiveness (Walster et al., 1966; Maiworm, 1993; p. 26)

It has, for instance, the effect of allowing more social intel- ligence and sociability. Moreover, it can be noted that a high- er degree of attractiveness in a person also has an impact on the assessment of his or her companion. A man with an attractive woman at his side is ascribed much more positive qualities than one with a less attractive woman. (Landy & Sigall, 1970)

As a result of the attractiveness stereotype people not only prefer to be seen together with so-called beautiful people, since they assume a more positive personality structure, but also because they are assessed more positively as a result of the interaction with them. (Adams, 1977; Maiworm, 1993; p. 28)

In their experiments Walster (et al., 1966) and Berscheid

& Walster (1974) have seen, as was to be expected, physi- cal attractiveness as a very important component of social desirability. It depends on the extent of physical stimuli whether a dating partner is liked and asked out again. Phy- sical attractiveness has a stronger influence on preference than intelligence, equal interests or similar personality qua- lities. Moreover, Dion (et al., 1972) assumes that attractive persons are more likely to respond to sexual stimuli. The future of attractive individuals is seen as being more suc- cessful, since these persons seem more competent and are generally thought to be healthier mentally. (Maiworm, 1993; pp. 26, 28)

In terms of cultural history, it could be more interesting for a man to be physically attractive, as the more socially independent women become, the more status may lose in value. However, this assumption has been disputed by Ame- rican studies. Physical attractiveness plays a more impor-

tant role in men’s selection of partners than it does in women. This is also illustrated by hard-core pornography whose target group are men. Even if in lab experiments women show both physiological and subjective excitation they are less interested in explicitly sexual pictorial mater- ial and depictions of genitals. (Elias & Elias, 1970)

Women are aware of how important their attractiveness is and thus invest their interests and money in it. It is thus no coincidence that most of the contents of women’s journals are devoted to enhancing one’s physical appearance.

The difference to men’s journals is quite obvious in this regard. The latter must cater to issues that revolve around sexual stimuli, sports and status symbols – and this becau- se women are strongly eroticized by male status. Unfortu- nately, many men seem to forget that this alone is not enough…

In his study Buss (1989) finds that in 36 of 37 cultures women find the earning prospects of men, their ambitious- ness and initiative more important criteria for selecting a partner than men do. Men with a high status, by contrast, generally wish to marry younger, more attractive women than is the case in men with a lower status.

This fact is not only true for women. In them only the vari- ance in the age span from which they select partners incre- ases with age. The more attractive a woman is the more she is willing to embark upon a relationship with a man who has a higher status. According to the marriage-market the-

ory male status is “paid” by female attractiveness. (Gram- mer, 1992) This reality is reflected in classified ads in the newspaper ads that are placed to find a partner. Given a simi- lar status, women prefer taller men. (Dunbar, 2000) We have noted that this effect is even more pronounced in divorced men. Their second wife should, on average, be ten years young- er than them. The higher the income of the divorced men the less tolerant these men become vis-à-vis women of the same age or older. (Grammer, 1992) Women with a higher status also seek out men who have a higher status but are limited in their wish by the degree of their attractiveness.

The British anthropologist Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder studied the marriage strategies of the
Kipsigi
, a group of Kenyan shepherd nomads. As in a number of traditional societies it is also common there that men pay for their wives. The amount they are required to pay for a bride is negotiated by the two families, and generally equates to one third of the man’s wealth. The researcher tried to find out which women were paid for more and which less. That is to say, she defined the female´s attractiveness on the basis of their price on the marriage market. The results were clear: for women who had their first period before turning fifteen more frequently higher bride prices were paid than for women who reached sexual maturity later….

The partner behavior of the
Kipsigi
men has remarkable consequences for the success of reproduction. The analy- sis of life stories showed that the Kipsigi women who reached maturity earlier obtained a greater success in reproduction in significant statistical terms than the ones who reached maturity later. Their reproductive life span was on average longer, their fertility rate (children per cycle) was on average higher, and the mortality of their

children generally lower.

Without being aware of this, the Kipsigi men who were seeking a bride invested their money according to the pro- bability of reproducing their genes. They paid in propor- tion to the reproductive value of the women. Youth, an essential feature of attractiveness and health, has its price on the marriage market. This is something that only men with a high status could pay for.

That this speaks in favour of sociobiological roots is some- thing that also the author was able to confirm in his studies of the
Mosuos
, a tribe with a matriarchal structure at the Chinese Lugu Lake. People there do not marry in the usu- al sense. Instead, there is “visit marriage”, lasting only for one night. The most beautiful women of the village, most noticeably, tend to accept those men whose mothers own the most cows. A lover can, however, compensate for much of status by being tall, attractive and “potent”. (Stifter, 1996)

What does “status” actually stand for in our modern mass society? One possible scale of status is the ability of a per- son to acquire so-called status goods to demonstrate their status. The quest for status in the anonymous mass society thus extends to the collection and acquisition of goods that rank highest in the hierarchy of consumption. Hirsch (1976) and Frank (1985a, 1985b) argue that the quest for social positions is an important goal in individuals´ lifestyle. Since status is, as we know, a rare good, the possibilities of increasing one’s social rank are strongly limited. Today status appears in a particularly spectacular guise in the star cult. The
glamour
effect which glosses over any neg- ative behavior is evoked by film and pop stars – be

it that of a criminal child molester or a snotty macho. Many female fans are susceptible to this form of status to the point of hysterical helplessness.

The above-mentioned gender-typical differences have more far-reaching biological roots. For the man it is genetically advantageous to fall in love with a woman who can give birth to viable offspring. He thus looks for signs of health, such as youth, clear skin, clear eyes, shiny hair, white teeth and a limber gait.

Women, by contrast, heed property as evidence of power, prestige, success and secure income – and for good reasons. It is advantageous for them biologically to be attached to a man who can support her in nourishing her children. As the Frenchman Michel Montaigne said in his
Essais
in the 16th century: “
We don’t marry for our own sake, irrespective of what we might say, but just as much or even to a greater extent, for the sake of our progeny
.” (cited in: Fischer, 1993; p. 57). At least the socio-biologists agree with him without any reservation.

The term
pheromone
is composed of the Greek word
pherein
(=to carry) and hormone. Pheromones are luring and signal substances that are excreted by insects and by almost all mammals to communicate with the members of the same species by means of smell. While hormones convey messa- ges within the body, pheromones perform communication outside of the body. For this reason they are also referred to as messengers. Pheromones are excreted as a warning (alarm pheromones), to mark sources of nutrition and gathering

sites (aggregation pheromones) or as a signal to initiate mating (sexual pheromones). The term pheromone was coined by Karlson in 1959 when the luring substance of the silkworm moth was identified.

In agriculture, pheromones have been used to incite cows and bulls to mate. In combating parasites, pheromone traps have been used. Animal pheromones, e.g., musk, have also been used in perfumes for a long time.

Animals perceive pheromones by means of the
vomerona- sal organ
(VNO), also referred to as the Jacobson organ. The VNO was discovered by the Danish doctor Ludwig Jacobson in the noses of animals. (Jacobson, 1811) How- ever, the first to describe it one hundred fifty years earlier was the Dutch military doctor Frederick Ruysch (1703). The American David Berliner discovered this organ also in human in 1991. According to Monti-Bloch, a neuro- physiologist from the University of Utah, the
nasolabial fold
running from the outer edge of the nasal ala to the corners of the mouth is especially richly endowed with pheromone-excreting glands. (1994) It is precisely this area that is touched by the nose tips of one’s partner when kissing. Monti-Bloch assumes that kissing is a ritual that mainly serves the purpose of allowing one to smell the pheromones.

For a long time, the mucous membrane tube found in the nose that corresponds to the VNO was at best seen as a non-functional evolutionary vestige. In the future, this view could radically change since it probably represents the organ that also determines whether we like the “smell” of someone or not, and which partner we unconsciously select.

In 1998 two Berlin professors took a closer look at this organ in fourteen adults. It had been removed from men and women who had to be operated on in the area of the nose for other reasons. Volker Jahnke and Hans-Joachim Merker studied the structures of this organ under an electron micro- scope and recognized its amazingly differentiated structure. In principle, it was a thin tube with a blind end measuring 2 - 8 mm in length and 0.2 – 2 mm in width, which is formed by a dorsal inversion of the mucuous skin of the nose. (fig. 11) The VNO lies in the bottom front part of the nasal septum on both the right and left hand side. (Jahnke and Merker, 1998) (fig. 10)

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) Microscopic image of the VNO

This perceptual organ could possibly constitute our seventh sense. This assumption is backed by a large amount of scien- tific evidence confirming the importance of pheromones in humans. (Watson, 2000)

The VNO responds as quickly as light to each trace of phe- romones. Already a ten-thousandth of a second after a sti- mulus the physiological changes can be measured. This proves that the nerve paths lead from the VNO directly to the brain, for this is the only possible explanation for such rapid response. This tiny pheromone detector in our nose is high-

ly sensitive. The VNO of Monti-Bloch’s test subjects responded already to 30 picograms of pheromone. That amounts to a 30 millionth part of a billionth milligram.

The main sources of the pheromones are the apocrine glands located not only in the above-mentioned
nasolabial fold
but also in the armpits, on the breast, cheek, eyelid, ear chan- nel, head skin and of course in the genital region. They are not active throughout a person’s entire life but only between puberty and menopause. (Maiworm, 1993; p. 65)

We can only speak of a pheromonal effect in a person if there is a marked influence of a scent on human behavior or physiological processes. There are some studies that show that androstenone is a human pheromone that has a slight but empirically provable eroticizing effect. This was stu- died by Clark in 1978; for instance, he sprayed theatre seats with androstenone, which were subsequently favored by women. Even theatre programs sprayed with androstenone were more often taken home by women than those that had not been sprayed. Maiworm & Langthaler (1900) also studied the self-assessment of women under the influence of androstenone and discovered that the test subjects men- tioned having “
a strong desire for something
”. In a follow-up study series Maiworm noted in 1993 that women under the influence of androstenone also perceive men in a different way. This influence is dependent on a woman’s cycle. Main- ly in the first half of her cycle she responds more strongly to lower concentrations of androstenone (0.014 mg) and she describes photographs of men as being significantly “
better, sexier and more of a turn on
” as opposed to the control group. In the second third of a woman’s cycle, men are described as being “
more attractive
”, if they are admin- istered a higher concentration. In addition, women showed

a tendency to higher sexual attractiveness under the influen- ce of androstenone. (Maiworm, 1993; p. 161 f.)

Androstenone is mainly found in under-arm perspiration and in noticeably higher concentrations in men than in women. It is assumed that it is created as a result of bacterial activity since it is not found in fresh secretions. The smell is described in highly different ways (often as resembling sandalwood or musk), but basically it is seen as pleasant when it is combined with other odorous sub- stances. Androstenone only appears at the onset of puberty. Experiments suggest that pheromones do not always have to be consciously perceived to have a certain effect.

Attractive persons not only look nice, they also smell nice, as Anja Rikowski and Karl Grammer from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut for Urban Ethology in Vienna have noted. In order to capture their body smell, the test subjects had to sleep with the same T-shirt for three nights. Before they had to wash their bed linen with non- perfumed detergent and were only allowed to use odorless soap and shampoo in this three-day period. In order to suppress further smells also food with a strong odor, such as onions or garlic, were taboo during this time, along with alcohol, cigarettes and even sex.

22 independent evaluators of both sexes assessed the phys- ical attractiveness of the test subjects. Another group only had the used T-shirts to find out whose “smell” they liked, with women assessing the smell of the men’s T-shirts and the men assessing the smell of the women’s T-shirts. The results were surprising. The men assessed the smell of a T- shirt positively when it had been worn by a woman who was described as being physically attractive. In women, there

was not this obvious connection. But instead there was a no-less surprising ability.

In an experiment carried out at the University of Berne it was proven that women feel by smell attracted to men who have genes that would be advantageous for the health of potential joint offspring. To be more precise, these are genes that are responsible for the structure of the immune system and are referred to as MHC (major histocompatibility com- plex). Only when parents are as dissimilar as possible in terms of MHC is the genetic diversity of offspring increased. The avoidance of MHC-similar partners thus prevents incest and results in a lowered risk of recessive hereditary illnesses. Moreover, there is also advantage for children in terms of enhanced immune defense against viruses and parasites (Doherty and Zinkernagel). The Australian Peter Doherty and the Swiss Rolf Zinkernagel, professors for exper- imental immunology, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996 for respective insights. Among the Hut- ters, a religious sect, of which about 50,000 live very isola- ted in North America, it was observed that MHC-similar couples had to face longer intervals between the birth of children. (Ober et al., 1997) An observation that was con- firmed by earlier studies: MHC-similar couples more often suffer chronic abortions than control couple. (Jin et al., 1995)

In a Swiss test men were asked to wear a cotton T-shirt for two nights. The following day each of the women smelled T-shirts previously worn by different men and assessed their attractiveness on the basis of the smell. One clear result was that the smell actually contains information regarding the genotype. Those T-shirts were seen as most attractive that were worn by men who with regard to the women’s immune system had the most advantageous, that is most dissimilar

MHC genes. (Wedekind et al., 1995) Children who were a product of a relationship with these men had a higher sur- vival capability given their improved resistance to illnesses.

It is fascinating that later studies showed that the same mechanism can be observed among men as well. Men also preferred the smell of women who have a different MHC genotype than themselves. (Wedekind and Füri, 1997) Now it is clear that there must be some truth to expressions such as: “
There has to be good chemistry.
” Or: “They can’t stand the sight of each other.” (The corresponding German idiom: “
Sie können sich nicht riechen
” translates literally as “They don’t like each other’s smell.”)

Now of course there is the question of what role perfume plays. Either it can serve to cover up the smell of one’s own body or to enhance it. A study also carried out in Switzer- land revealed that a perfume can even reinforce one’s own MHC-smell, even if it is used in a subtle way. (Milinski and Wedekind, 2001)

Men show a tendency to be able to recognize their dream woman any time – blindfolded and simply by means of smell. Thus it comes as no surprise that the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe furtively stole a corsage from Frau von Stein whom he so adored “so as to able to sniff at it to his heart’s content at all times” (cited in Ellis, 1919, p. 89)

The first signs of heterosexual attraction can be observed very early in small children. Already in the first phase of breast- feeding when the body’s needs have been taken care of and the child is full and satisfied, the female infant turns its face away from the mother as soon as the father or another man

approaches and directs all its attention to him. It seems as if the girl were mainly responding to olfactory stimuli, since this specific reaction can even be noticed in blind girls.

Later, at the age of four or five months, when the child can stretch his/her arms we can witness the same scenario. If the father appears when the girl needs food or other physical needs taken care of, he remains unnoticed. In this moment the mother is the child’s only object of desire. Once it has been taken care of, the girl turns away from the mother as soon as a man attracts its attention. It often reaches out to the man with her arms, even if it doesn’t know this man. If, however, a woman who is not her mother responds to a similar request the girl looks at it indifferently, turns away from the woman and directs her attention towards her mother. “The interest of the girl in men”, as the renowned psychoanalyst Francoise Dolto writes, “lets us assume that femininity is present in an indeterminate way throughout the entire body of the girl, reacting to the complementary masculinity emanating from the bodies of men.” (Dolto, 2000; p. 81)