Orgasm, Inc. - a film review

[redqueen]

Has anyone seen this? It's been discussed on DU before ( http://sync.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8403824 ), but I stumbled across this review and found it enjoyable so I thought I'd share.

http://www.thefword.org.uk/reviews/2011/03/orgasm_inc

The quest for the 'pink V****a' shows little regard for the fact that women don't really have the same a capacity for mechanical sexual malfunction as men; scientists complain about how women's arousal and satisfaction are harder to measure without the same graphs and endpoints, not, it seems, realising that this is because women are not essentially inverted men.

...

The one test subject we see turns out to be perfectly capable of orgasm but was undergoing an invasive, surgical procedure because she wanted to orgasm from penetrative sex. Never mind the fact that most women don't orgasm this way and sex has a great deal more to offer than that.

This points to a familiar conflation of female pleasure and female objectification which becomes all the more prominent when the film makes links between the drug quest and the plastic surgeons pushing labiaplasty. Campaigners against the drug companies work point out that women are being convinced that to be 'normal' their sexual organs need to look and behave like the ones they see in porn films and they seem to have a pretty clear case.

Of course, some women do have all kinds of problems enjoying sex. But the film makes the point that most of these problems could be dealt with by better education and understanding. A sex toy retailer has some much simpler, much funner, non-drug based ideas, which certainly ought to be a first resort for women who want to feel more comfortable with their sexual-selves.

...

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. Okay ...

I'm going to go where no man has/should go and write my thought on this passage:

The one test subject we see turns out to be perfectly capable of orgasm but was undergoing an invasive, surgical procedure because she wanted to orgasm from penetrative sex. Never mind the fact that most women don't orgasm this way and sex has a great deal more to offer than that.

This is troubling to me in the same way that I am troubled when I see African-American woman minimizing their Afro-centric physical features, while striving toward euro-centric features (e.g., from "relaxing" hair to lip thinning and buttock reduction surgeries).

It smacks of allowing others to define you. In this case, woman allowing men to define the "proper way" to orgasm.

That just my thought ... Now, give me just a moment to climb into my flame-retardant suit.

[redqueen]

2. Ha, your protective gear is entirely unneccessary, IMO.

I agree that these two trends are quite analogous.

[arcane1]

4. Lip-thinning???

I believe I have finally, officially, at last, heard it all. It's truly amazing, the things people go through to try to reach some internalized "ideal" that usually ends up making them look ridiculous.

[redqueen]

7. One of the most amazing things I've noticed is the acceptance of pain.

Heels, for example. The idea that women should simply adapt to pointless and painful practices to look pretty.

[arcane1]

11. Correction: to look silly

I seem to be the only one who thinks heels look totally absurd, the higher the sillier, like a Monty Python silly-walk

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. But that's just it ...

The "internalized 'ideal'" is the result of acceptance of external ideals.

When an African-American woman (man) undergoes lip-thinning surgery, she (he) is running from her afro-centric features and towards what has been presented as the ideal look ... a euro-centric standard of beauty. We want to be what we see and are told is the ideal ... despite, ironically, the growth of collagen lip injection procedures.

When a woman seeks vaginal surgery to "experience penetrative orgasms", especially when she has no problem achieving orgasm though other means, I can only imagine it is more about "pleasing her man" than anything else because EVERYONE knows that any real man can "climb on top and get her there."

[arcane1]

13. Meanwhile, white women are using surgery to make their lips unnaturally thick

and that also looks fake and absurd.

[ismnotwasm]

6. No, you're quite correct.

I also notice when I look at say, "the 50 most beautiful women in the World" on some magazine, while there's no doubt they are beautiful, they all look alike. The few women of color will have skin tone just a few shades darker than their tanned peers, the Barbie doll features much like one another

As an example, There is no clear skinned very dark, black woman with natural hair, with beautiful eyes so intense and compelling they need no enhancement, with afro-centric features so proportionate and lovely, it's hard to look away.

Since I've seen black women with this level of beauty, I certainly know they exist. But our sexist and racist standards of beauty ignore it, and yet another level of damage is done to young women.

[1StrongBlackMan]

9. If I ever ...

As an example, There is no clear skinned very dark, black woman with natural hair, with beautiful eyes so intense and compelling they need no enhancement, with afro-centric features so proportionate and lovely, it's hard to look away.

learn to post pictures, with her permission, I will post a picture of Mrs. 1StrongBlackMan ... You have described her to a t!

[ismnotwasm]

3. "Of course, some women do have all kinds of problems enjoying sex"

I wonder if only heterosexual sex was examined? Women misled by penis worship? I wonder if the same proportion of lesbian women have these sexual problems? Problems, I'm gathering, mostly involving lack of orgasm. (nobody has the time or patience for tantric sex these days, sigh)

But what other 'problems'--not 'enjoying' fellatio? Easily countered by males not enjoying cunnilingus.

Porn has this idiot trend involving women called 'squirting' while it's clearly urinating, it's apparently supposed to be a woman orgasming. Jesus wept. I can only imagine the ignorance.

[redqueen]

5. Tantric sex is all too often thought to be nothing but marathon sessions

of the standard McSexxxy Sex.

It's a real shame.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. Well ...

in all fairness ... there are no "Tammy Does Tantric" videos out there being marketed out the back room of your local bodaga, for us mens to learn from.

{Yes ... I'm being sarcastic.}

[redqueen]

12. Too right, too right...

I wonder why that is ... why is McSexxxy Sex so much more popular than a more egalitarian, balanced, sharing depiction of intimacy?

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Intimacy????

What does that have to do with sex?!?

{sarcasm}

[redqueen]

20. :)

But porn IS sex!

If you don't like porn, that means you hate sex and love the religious right.

Oh and you have an unsatisfactory sex life, too.

[ismnotwasm]

16. ROFLMAO

Good one

[MadrasT]

14. ???

Are you implying that you don't think women ejaculate during orgasm at all, ever -- or that it does't happen the way it is depicted in porn?

This is something that I've seen studies on that prove it does happen and isn't urine, and other studies that seem to indicate it is urine. The evidence seems inconclusive as to what is going on, but something definitely goes on for some women and it is very different from peeing.

The fixation some men have on it is rather odd, but then if you pick anything you can think of, it is someone or other's fetish, LOL.

[ismnotwasm]

15. What I've seen in porn

You'll have to look for yourself to see what I mean; like I said, it's quite the trend

[MadrasT]

17. Porn does tend to exaggerate human sexual behavior on occasion. <grins>

And then people think that's the way it's supposed to be.

And anyone who says that (some) men don't expect women to behave like porn stars and duplicate acts they see on the screen is in denial.

My partner now does not watch porn, he thinks it is degrading. And he's the only partner I ever had who just lets sex be sex and doesn't make all kinds of inspired "suggestions" about things he'd like me to do or have unusual erotic fixations.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be an active member of the BDSM community, I have seen everything -- and done quite a lot of it myself. But it is amazing the difference there is when you have a partner who hasn't grown up on a steady diet of porn.

My experience is not big enough to say that's how it is for all people all the time, but it is my experience so I am sharing it.

[redqueen]

19. LOL, "squirting"... if there was ever any clearer evidence that Idiocracy is real...

Female ejaculation is real... but "squirting" and "gushing" (the idiotic porn crap) is peeing.

[One_Life_To_Give]

21. It downplays that some women have real difficulties

A man has the slightest sexual issue even at 90yrs and we have a pill for that. We have trained medical professionals who spend their entire careers working with individuals and couples with sexual problems. Why would we not encourage the development of tools for treating their patients as their training and experience dictate.

And just the basic fairness. If we are going to be concerned in GrandPa can enjoy sex, then I hope GrandMa is doing more than Thinking of England.