Harvard Law and the Making of a New Dealer

Female sexual arousal: Genital anatomy and orgasm in intercourse

“…Specifically it was proposed that if this distance is less than 2.5cm a woman is very likely to have orgasms solely from sexual intercourse. This relationship has not been statistically evaluated, but two historical studies provide data supporting such a relationship (Narjani, 1924; Landis, Landis, and Bowles, 1940). We use an unconventional approach to investigate the proposed relationship between variation in women's genitals and orgasm during intercourse.…”

“…We use an unconventional approach to investigate the proposed relationship between variation in women's genitals and orgasm during intercourse. We first explore the history of this idea in the scientific and popular literature and then present statistical analysis of the two available historical datasets with data relevant to the proposed relationship (Narjani, 1924; Landis, Landis, and Bowles, 1940). While there are challenges to the validity of these data, we find them sufficiently supportive of a relationship between women's genital anatomy and the occurrence of orgasm in intercourse to feel that they can serve as the basis for developing modern well-controlled studies of the relationship between women's genital anatomy and the occurrence of orgasm in intercourse.…”

“…The notion that women's orgasm during intercourse is related to the location of the clitoral glans in relation to a woman's vagina was suggested more than 85 years ago (Narjani, 1924, Dickinson, 1933, Landis, Landis, and Bowles, 1940). Marie Bonaparte, using the pseudonym Narjani, published the first data relating clitoral glans position to the occurrence of women's orgasm during sexual intercourse (Narjani, 1924).…”

“…Dickinson (1933) and Carney Landis (Landis, Landis, and Bowles, 1940) next collected data on CUMD and orgasm during intercourse. Although Dickinson collected data on the genitalia of more than 5000 women during his career as a gynecologist, he never summarized or published his data, specifically the data on 200 women where he recorded their CUMD and their occurrence of orgasm in intercourse.…”

“…Although there were 153 nonmentally ill women in the study (the other 142 women in the study were psychiatric inpatients), data on CUMD and orgasm were presented only for the 44 married women in the study, for which there were complete data for only 37. In addition, Landis and colleagues (1940) only minimally analyzed their data, publishing a single 2×2 table comparing the incidence of orgasm during intercourse (divided into two groups, 40-100% and 0-30% orgasm incidence) in relation to whether the subject's clitoris was “high” (CUMD of 3.5cm or more) or “low” (CUMD of less than 3.5cm). The authors claimed the comparison was significant with 81% of women with low clitoral placement experiencing orgasm in intercourse more than 40% of the time, in contrast to 50% of the women with high clitoral placement.…”