New research published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy provides insight into the relationship between knowledge about the clitoris and female sexual pleasure. The findings highlight the importance of clitoral knowledge but suggest it is still relatively limited among both women and men.
“The clitoris is central to woman’s pleasure and orgasm experiences. Little knowledge about the clitoris is therefore very likely related to the orgasm gap, the fact that heterosexual women experience orgasms at far lower rates than men,” said study authors Marie-Feline Dienberg of the University of Cologne and Verena Klein of the University of Southampton.
“A few years ago, a study showed that clitoral knowledge among both women – who theoretically had access to a clitoris their entire lives – and men is rather low. At the same time, it seems like that recently some effort has been made to enhance women’s sexual pleasure (e.g., promotion of sex toys, platforms, etc). Due to a possible change in the social climate, we wanted to know if today people know more about the clitoris and how that relates to orgasm.”
In the new study, 573 heterosexual individuals (64% women), who ranged in age between 18 and 68 years, completed a 9-item quiz about clitoral knowledge. The participants also reported how much pleasure they usually get from sexual acts, how often they had an orgasm during sex, and how often they had an orgasm during masterbation. Additionally, they completed a questionnaire regarding the endorsement of orgasm-related gender norms. (e.g., “It is more important for men compared to women to have an orgasm”).
Participants answered about 4.5 out of the 9 items correctly on the quiz, indicating that clitoral knowledge has not increased since 2005. Women were a bit more likely to answer items correctly compared to men.
Approved ~ FS
Mike Rodick