by Robin Baker
Added to, and often associated with, these differences in orgasm pattern are differences between women in the sensitivity of different parts of their bodies. Some women have sensitive nipples; others do not. Some have a clitoris so sensitive that they dislike the bulb being touched; others have one that responds very little to stimulation.
It is not quite true that no two women are the same – but to many men it often seems that way. Why is there so much variety to female sexuality, and what bearing does such variety have on the female pursuit of reproductive success? The answer is that it is yet another manifestation of the advantages gained from confusing men (Scene 2) and testing their abilities (Scene 27). It works because, as we have seen before (Scene 27), men have to learn their sexual technique.
The man in Scene 36 was bemused. However, he wasn’t quite the failure he imagined himself to be. In fact, reproductively, his life was fairly successful. He had two children with his first partner and one with his second (assuming they were all his). But he could have had even more. At different times during his life he had the opportunity to impregnate seven other women, and to varying degrees he had failed each time. On some occasions he failed even to inseminate. On others, he failed to handle the relationship either well enough or for long enough to have a realistic chance of paternity. The nearest he got to a child with a further woman was with his second mistress. Eventually, her body allowed him to fertilise one of her eggs. But it took him a year of missed opportunities, and that was just too long. Had he impregnated her earlier, he might successfully have deceived her partner into raising another’s child. Then the baby might never have been miscarried and his reproductive success might have been 33 per cent higher than eventually it was.
His failure to capitalise on opportunities to reproduce with these seven women was due in every case to some combination of surprise, shock and misjudgement. He did what he could, but he was confused by the sheer variety of female sexuality. As he moved from woman to woman he tried to extrapolate from his past experiences. He assumed that techniques of seduction, stimulation and insemination that had been successful in the past would be successful in the future. To some extent, his approach worked – his gradual accumulation of experience with different females slowly increased his awareness and competence in the sexual arts. But, even after encounters with eight very different women, he still failed to inseminate a ninth.
In some species, experience gained by a male with one female can readily be extrapolated to another. In other species, however, such extrapolation is less successful – and it is least successful in those such as humans in which the underlying female strategy is the confusion of males. Then, not only do individual females confuse their partner through unpredictable swings of mood and behaviour (Scene 2), but also the female population as a whole manages to confuse through variety. As was clear from Scene 36, a woman gains in three main ways from being as different as she can be from other women.
First, she can set each man a much more challenging test of experience and competence (Scene 27). From this she can quickly learn whether he has a little or a lot of experience of other women. Because women are so different, a man will only have encountered her type before and thus know how to treat her if he has had a lot of experience. If her priority is to avoid disease or to find a faithful partner, she may actually prefer a naïve man. On the other hand, if her priority is to find a man who is genetically more attractive (Scene 28) she may prefer someone whom many other women have found attractive (Scene 27).
Secondly, she has more initial control at each sexual encounter with a new man, which lasts for as long as it takes the man to fathom the best way to relate to her. The result is that she has more time to assess the man as a long-term partner. In Scene 36, three women tested the main character sexually, but managed to avoid being inseminated before rejecting him. One took longer to decide how she felt about him, but was able to keep both the number of inseminations and sperm retention down to a minimum in the process. Two others managed to avoid insemination for nearly a year while they made up their minds. One finally rejected him, and the other conceived but later miscarried.
Thirdly, after accepting a man as a partner, she can still educate him in her needs without facilitating his infidelity. In the scene, two of the women (his first mistress and his second long-term partner) evidently found the man’s other qualities attractive enough to tolerate his initial sexual incompetence. They then began the relatively long process of educating him in helping them to climax (Scene 27). This could have been self-defeating, if his increased competence had made it easy for him to seduce other women. Of course, it did help him a little, but not as much as it would have done if women were more similar. His first partner pursued the ultimate version of such a strategy. By not having orgasms herself, she could not educate him at all. As a result, she made him miss one opportunity for infidelity and slowed him down in taking advantage of another.
Although it is not difficult to see that women can benefit considerably from being different from one another, there has to be a limit to this range of possibilities. Different though women may be in their individual sexuality, therefore, we can nevertheless still recognise a number of broad categories. These categories are probably genetic, are probably in some sort of balance in the population, and are probably all most successful if they are not too common.
We have met evolved balances of genetic categories before in earlier scenes. The proportion of bisexuals and heterosexuals (Scenes 30 and 31) and the proportion of men with different-sized testes (Scene 35) are both examples of different categories co-existing in an evolutionary balance. When too common, each category has a success rate that is below average. When rare, each has an above-average success rate. The incredible variation in female sexuality is simply the most complex example we have yet encountered of such a balance. As in all previous examples, our expectation will be that the balance point has been fixed by evolution such that reproductively all of the different categories do equally well.
So, what are these different categories? More importantly, are the categories different simply for the sake of being different, or is each category linked to other aspects of sexual behaviour? The latter seems the more likely. Just as large testes (Scene 35) and bisexuality (Scene 30) predispose some men to specialise in particular sexual strategies, the different orgasm patterns shown by different women will also predispose them to particular sexual strategies. For example, some orgasm patterns will help the women concerned get the most out of the promotion and exploitation of sperm warfare. Others will help the women concerned to get the most out of fidelity and an attentive partner. Very crudely, while accepting that the tremendous variation in female sexuality largely defies categorisation, we can make life easier for ourselves by recognising four main types.
The first consists of women who are programmed sometimes to have (and sometimes not to have) the full range of possible orgasms (masturbatory, nocturnal, foreplay, intercourse and post-play - with some being multiple). Although only about 5 per cent of women have absolutely the whole range, an additional 25 per cent have all except multiple orgasms, and an additional 40 per cent again have all except multiple orgasms and nocturnals. All women in this category can manipulate sperm retention in all of the ways we have discussed (Scenes 22 to 26). In particular, they can vary the frequency with which they have and do not have every type of orgasm so as to take maximum advantage of the men and opportunities which present themselves. They are thus probably the women most able to exploit sperm warfare whenever it is advantageous to do.
Although as a whole this first category of women is probably the largest (about 75 per cent), there is tremendous scope for women to differ within the category. For example, about 30 per cent within the category both masturbate and have nocturnals, whereas 50 per cent only masturbate and 10 per cent only have nocturnals. These differences probably reflect variety for variety’s sake, as we have discussed. Masturbation and nocturnals are alternati
ve means to the same end (Scenes 22 and 23). Variation in emphasis on one or the other outlet allows women to differ. It may also influence their scope for secrecy in preparation for infidelity (Scene 23), but it is unlikely to have major repercussions on their ability to manipulate sperm retention. In addition to differences between women within the category, each woman also has so much scope for varying her own behaviour (from phase to phase and man to man) that she need never become predictable.
The second category consists of women who are programmed to avoid one or other of the major avenues for the manipulation of sperm retention and warfare. Either they do not have solitary (masturbatory and nocturnal) orgasms or they do not climax in the presence of men. In most cases, however, such women sacrifice only a little of their manipulative ability. In compensation, they gain by being slightly less common. Thus, about 10 per cent of women are programmed neither to masturbate nor to have nocturnals, which has the effect of delegating responsibility for the manipulation of sperm to orgasms in a man’s presence. The full range of sperm manipulation is still possible (via orgasms during foreplay, intercourse and post-play – Scenes 22 to 25), but it becomes much more important to the woman that she chooses a sexually competent man. Other women (again about 10 per cent) are programmed never to climax in a man’s presence but do masturbate and/or have nocturnals. They also have the full range of sperm manipulation. They can secretly prepare a strong or a weak cervical filter – but what they cannot do is change their minds at the last minute and bypass an over-strong filter (Scene 25).
The third category consists of those 10 per cent of women who climax virtually every time they have penetrative sex. Such women can still manipulate sperm retention, and thus play an active part in influencing the outcome of sperm warfare – as long as they vary the timing of their climax relative to the moment of insemination (Scene 25). An orgasm more than one to two minutes before the man allows low sperm retention; any time thereafter allows high sperm retention.
The final category consists of those 2-4 per cent of women who never orgasm, either during intercourse or via masturbation or nocturnally. In compensation, as mentioned above, such a woman gains by not educating her partner in sexual techniques that would aid his infidelity. Unlike those in the previous three categories, such women are the least able to influence the outcome of sperm warfare. They are, however, well suited to the relatively safe process of selecting a mate and making the most of that relationship. They do have some control over sperm numbers, largely through waiting for their cervical filter to weaken with time since their last intercourse (Scene 22). But since sperm numbers are far less important for conception than they are for warfare, in the absence of any possibility of the latter it does not really matter how many sperm such a woman retains from each intercourse.
Although it is possible to retain too many sperm for conception from a healthy ejaculate (Scene 19), it is much more difficult to retain too few. Admittedly, ejaculates containing few sperm are often sub-fertile, even if the woman retains them in full. But this is not because they contain few sperm – even vasectomised men who occasionally introduce tiny numbers of sperm (perhaps fewer than a hundred) into women have fathered children. It is rather because the clinical conditions that cause some men to introduce few sperm (perhaps only tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions) at the same time render their ejaculates sub-fertile.
The women in this final category do, of course, lose the benefits of orgasm as a defence against infection. But then, of all the categories of women, they are also the least likely to encounter sexually transmitted diseases. In any case, it seems that even women programmed to avoid manipulating sperm via orgasm may nevertheless begin to orgasm if they are ever exposed to genital infection. Just how they do so will depend on their anatomy. If their clitorises are sensitive to stimulation they may suddenly experience the urge to masturbate. However, it is often part of the programming of such women that their clitorises are relatively insensitive to stimulation. This may make it difficult for them to masturbate to orgasm but, of course, in no way prevents them from climaxing nocturnally. Clitorectomised women, for example, may still have nocturnal orgasms.
The predisposition of different women for different sexual strategies adds a final nuance to mate selection – an element that can be added to those we have already accumulated (Scenes 18, 20, 21, 27, 28). This is that a woman should seek a partner whose approach to sperm warfare complements her own. The small-testicled man in Scene 35 who specialised in mate guarding was a good choice for the woman who never climaxed. Similarly, the large-testicled man in the same scene was a good choice for the woman with a varied orgasm pattern who could gain the most from infidelity and sperm warfare. This woman gained in two ways. First, her partner’s specialisations for sperm warfare meant that his large sperm armies gave the armies from her other lovers a good run for their money. Secondly, because he pursued infidelity himself, he often left her free to pursue her own reproductive success by following the same course.
The final point to stress is the one we have stressed in other scenes in this chapter – on average the different categories of women should all reproduce equally well. The proportions of each category in the population will have stabilised at precisely the appropriate level for this to occur. Consequently, no woman should be hindered in her pursuit of reproductive success by the orgasm regime with which she has been programmed – as long as her choice of mate and subsequent behaviour are compatible.
11
Final Score
SCENE 37
Total Success
The old man reached out a gnarled and wrinkled hand. His stiff fingers touched the hand of the woman sitting next to him outside their home. She turned her head towards him, looking blindly through opal eyes, and smiled. Eventually, everybody had come, some of them travelling for days to be there. For the first time in decades, the old couple were surrounded by their whole family, the product of their long lives together. Including themselves, there were five generations present. Their eldest son was now nearly seventy; their youngest great-great-grandchild, just two weeks old.
The old man looked at his partner’s face, his eyesight as keen as hers was faded. The reality in front of him was a deeply wrinkled face, blind eyes that so cruelly imprisoned her, kind mouth and a one-toothed smile – she was so proud of that last tooth. But, for a moment, what he saw was the smooth, beautiful face, clear, dark, mischievous eyes, sensuous mouth and gleaming teeth that had so fired his senses over seventy years ago. He still remembered, as if it were yesterday, how he had chased her through the forest and, on a bed of sweet-smelling leaves, had explored and entered her taut and perfect body for the very first time. She had been a wonderful partner, mother and grandmother: the perfect companion throughout life. He could remember only one phase, as she approached menopause, when their relationship had been strained - but it had lasted a mere five years.
He had had many opportunities to be unfaithful, and at times had been tempted, but he had always resisted, so afraid had he been of disease and of losing his princess. His last chance had been in his early sixties when a flirtatious young girl of twenty, so impressed by his status and well-preserved body, offered him hers for the night. But he had turned her down. It was one of the best decisions of his long life, because five years later she was dead. She had succumbed to the sexually transmitted disease which had become the scourge of their community and which she had probably been harbouring on the night she offered herself. What would his partner and his family have done for the last twenty-five years had he died and not been around to sort out their problems and give them the benefit of his experience?
The night after his last chance for infidelity, he and his partner had sex for the very last time. Somehow, ever since, it had never seemed worth taxing their ageing bodies with the effort – they couldn’t have been closer, sex or no sex. Now, swamped by the emotion of the occasion, he told his partner that she was looking wonderful.
&nbs
p; Once again, the old woman smiled her one-tooth smile. Deep in her stomach, the pain that was now her constant companion was temporarily eclipsed by the sheer pleasure of hearing her family around her. She squeezed her partner’s hand. It was ten years since she had been able to see him. No longer need she be troubled by the reality of his frailty and his recent deterioration. More and more, the image in her mind was not the worn old man she last saw with her failing eyes but the muscular young athlete she had known all those years ago. She still remembered, more clearly and accurately than him even, the first time she had surrendered her body to him as they swam naked in a lake.
It had been a few years before she conceived their first child, but after that it had been easy. She had never really felt tempted to be unfaithful. As her partner had grown in wealth and status, her biggest fear had been that she would lose him. There had been long spells in their life when she had found him irritating and arrogant, but he was always kind, considerate and fun. As their family had grown, not once had she found herself wishing for a better partner or provider. She asked him once again to tell her who was there – for a start, could he see all their children?
He looked around the huge group of people gathered outside their home. Not only their family but the whole village had assembled for the celebration, which was planned to last all day. The children were running and chasing, many laughing, a few arguing or crying. The adults were in scattered groups, some sitting on the ground, others standing. Most were drinking, eating morsels of food, and anticipating the main meal. Everywhere was the sound of conversation, laughter and occasional raised voices as people renewed old family friendships and feuds.
