Women are unnecessarily complicated. Unfathomable, mysterious. In any case, it sounds like this when sexuality research is divided into “marvelous erections, who they are, what they do” and “female sexuality, or why it doesn't work”. Is that true?
What is true is that sex is complicated. A dream concert made up of different voices: brain and palpitations, relaxation and goosebumps, estrogen and a shot of testosterone. The more body parts we include, the better. Caresses release endorphins everywhere, reach different parts of the nervous system via the clitoris and labia and wake oxytocin on the breasts. This intensifies the climax long before we reach it. Our brain enables or slows this arousal – but not entirely, because moisture protects against injury. Everything is very complex and … universal. Across the gender spectrum. Men also like nipple play and a dash of estrogen. Their arousal fluctuates – with the day, year, and marital status – or produces morning erections without a head cinema. Nobody complains.
Getting moving: a women's problem?
The start of the excitement is more exciting. Because where it seems that it is enough for men to wag nude photos vaguely in their direction, women in the experiment are considered unpredictable to erotically blind. Admittedly, they show themselves to be less enthusiastic about erotic films. However, the enthusiasm increases as soon as women choose the films. And who knows where it would be if the majority of the films were produced by women. Or what they like better about it, when the length of the foreplay was the same. Fortunately, one can ask (because of unfathomable). Then you learn that arousal in women is predicted less by a potpourri of attractiveness and co than by one Question (complicated because of it): Can I put myself in it? Arousal arises from cognitive engagement. Perspective takeover. Even with pictures. And variety, unlike men, through changes in events instead of new actors. Accordingly, male literature describes “her breasts” and female literature “her desire” – and male protagonists can rightly feel neglected.
Maybe that fits the sex hormones
Where testosterone makes us excited and a bit prefrontally foggy, estrogen works in upturned U-curves. First it supports the prefrontal cortex and its working memory, then it overwhelms it and gives us daring impulsiveness – and the egg cells like it. Such a wide-awake social-emotional network wants to be employed. Women ponder more and maybe that's why they prefer to use their thoughts for erotic fantasies during sex – before they digress and turn to the tax return. If these fantasies are still adventurous to captivating, the focus and erotic sensation sharpens. No wonder, because thrills as well as testosterone awaken the amygdala and it can tunnel vision. To the delight of men, whose amygdala generally reacts more strongly to pornography. Nevertheless, the detour through thinking has advantages: When women let their eyes wander, they win new excitement from old films. Women with the pill use the same strategy for arousal despite suppressed sex hormones. Women are also flexible when it comes to the sex of the sexually depicted, as long as something happens. In general, when it comes to sexual orientation: women often describe themselves as bisexual or "straight until I have a crush on this woman".
Every gender offers scope.
And sex could be so much nicer if we see it as a sport: as teamwork. As a buddy movie in which we gather. Instead of seeing men as a yardstick and women as a problem, it is best to quote an unspeakable 80s study that names ~ 50% of them sexually dysfunctional. We not only overlook scientific botch-up and a conflict of interests in pharmaceuticals, but also the at least as logical counter-conclusion “sex with men less popular than last season Game of Thrones”. 150 years after psychology preferred to invent the vibrator than to explain to men what a clitoris is. Progress is different. Lust too.
Dr. Franca Parianen, born in 1989, worked at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. In recent years, she has been researching the origin and structure of human coexistence at the level of neurons and hormones at the Helmholtz Institute at Utrecht University. Since 2014, the Berlin resident has been active as a science slammer and slamt among others. at medical congresses, in theaters and at trade fairs.
In her latest book, the bestselling author writes on a topic that concerns all of us: hormones! They are the main messengers between the body and the brain. What happens to us when we jet through time zones, father children, paddle on cell phones and cry in the cinema? Why are we more suspicious of hormonal fluctuations than hormonal agents? And where's the pill for the man? Franca Parianen reports in a knowledgeable, rapid and entertaining way about the interface between heart and brain, health and thoughts. "Hormone-controlled is self-determined" was published by Rowohlt Verlag.
