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Anika Reza

Carleton University
PHIL 2306 A
Christine Koggel

Reading The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm


A look into how the ‘myth’ may be a myth in itself

In The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm Anne Koedt argues that it serves men’s purpose to

perpetuate the myth about the female vaginal orgasm. According to Koedt no such thing exists;

females cannot achieve orgasm through vaginal stimulation alone. She states that inside the

vaginal wall there are almost no nerve endings and most women are completely unaware when

they are being touched there. The myth about vaginal orgasm is apparently so prevalent that

when women achieve orgasm they automatically assume it was centered in the vagina. This is

because they have “a desire to fit [their] experience to the male-defined idea of normalcy” (246).

Why would men want to perpetuate this myth? Koedt cites that the vagina creates the perfect

balance between lubrication and friction to give a man an orgasm so it is in his best interest to

keep this form of copulation as the standard. Furthermore Sigmund Freud popularized the idea

that clitoral orgasm was adolescent while vaginal orgasm was mature and that women who failed

to achieve orgasms were envious of men thus it was an anti-male phenomenon. Koedt also says

that “the establishment of clitoral orgasm as fact would threaten the heterosexual institution”

(248) as it would mean sexual pleasure could be received from men or women thus the male-

female role would become optional. Koedt’s argument has strong points but by declaring there

are no orgasms other than those centered in the clitoris she aligns herself with those thinking in

exclusionary terms; such as Freud. Just as Freud declared that achieving vaginal orgasm is a sign
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of a ‘mature’ woman Koedt declares that all self-aware women recognize that orgasms occur

through clitoral stimulation alone. Both of these exclusionary terms have the same pitfall; they

close off a whole set of possibilities. Thus instead of trying to discover the full range and

possibility of female sexual experience these types of arguments try to confine them within its

narrow walls and that is not the path to greater understanding.

One of the main reasons cited by Koedt for the perpetuation of the myth of vaginal

orgasm is that the vagina creates the perfect balance between lubrication and friction to give a

man an orgasm. Koedt argues women have thus been defined sexually in terms of what pleases

men. The vagina may create a good balance between lubrication and friction but there are other

parts of a woman that can also do the same; such as the mouth. The saliva in the mouth creates

adequate lubrication and women have better control of the muscles in their mouth and tongue

than in their vagina and so they can better control the intensity of friction. Given these details

and the fact that men need to expand less energy when they are being orally stimulated, versus

repeatedly penetrating the vagina, one may conclude that it would be in their best interest to

create the myth of the oral orgasm.

Koedt also argues that orgasms are centered in the clitoris only and any other forms of

orgasms felt by women are actually clitoral ones which they mistakenly believe to be vaginal.

This statement is as arrogant and harmful as those of Freud declaring all clitoral orgasm as

adolescent. To completely disregard the G-spot as a real area of stimulation that may lead to

orgasms would be to limit our understanding of women’s sexuality. It is undeniable that an

overwhelming number of women need clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm but at the same

time there are significant numbers who can either achieve orgasm through penetration alone or

those who do not enjoy clitoral stimulation at all. Just as those women in patriarchical society

who are made to feel inferior because they ‘failed’ to achieve orgasm through vaginal

penetration, Koedt’s argument puts a similar blame on those that do not enjoy clitoral

stimulation. The important thing to recognize would be that every woman has unique desires and
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needs and in order to achieve orgasm the specific needs should be catered to; be it a need for

clitoral or G-spot stimulation.

Sigmund Freud made the pronouncement that the "mature" woman has orgasms when her

vagina, but not her clitoris, is stimulated. This, of course, made the man's penis central to a

woman's sexual satisfaction. Anne Koedt felt by shattering this ‘myth’ and showing how it is

actually the clitoris which gives women pleasure the penis would no longer be a central figure in

women’s sexual satisfaction and so in effect men would no longer be central. This type of

argument implies that women seek men for their penis alone which is a purposely narrow view

of why individuals seek physical intimacy. Furthermore her argument that “the establishment of

clitoral orgasm as fact would threaten the heterosexual institution” (248) is based on the idea that

what keeps some women from being with other women is the idea that orgasm could only be

achieved through a penile vaginal penetration. If a woman was truly attracted to another woman,

and was worried about achieving orgasm without a penis, a dildo is available for them to use and

have been around for decades if not centuries. What attracts a woman to a man has to do with

more than a penis and similarly I would assume what attracts a woman to another woman has

more to do with than just breasts. A clitoral orgasm as fact would not threaten the heterosexual

institution; it would only teach men and women alike what to do to achieve mutual orgasmic

satisfaction.

In The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm Anne Koedt argues that it serves men’s purpose to

perpetuate the myth about the female vaginal orgasm. Well, it may serve lesbian individuals’

purpose to perpetuate the myth about the female clitoral orgasm. Arguing that there is only one

way to achieve orgasm disregards the complexity of our human sexuality and alienates those that

do not fit into the mold. It must also be recognized that sex includes more than just a goal to

achieve sexual satisfaction and peak; individuals seek emotional as well as physical bonding. At

which stage the penis becomes secondary to emotional connection. It is more important and far

more helpful to try to understand the diverse range of female sexual experience and to recognize
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that the biggest myth of them all may be our false assumption that we fully understand our own

sexuality.

Work Cited

Koedt, Anne. The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm. Ed. Carole R. McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim.

New York: Routledge, 2003. 242-248.

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