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The recently published Italian study suggesting women can only have clitoral, rather than vaginal, orgasms raises important questions about the medicalisation of female sexuality and sexual dysfunction. Many women would be happy to have an orgasm any old way, as University of Western Sydney researcher Jane Ussher points out, especially those who experience sexual difficulties. It's difficult to write about the topic of female sexuality without using negative language such as "female sexual dysfunction" or "failure" to orgasm. Much of what has been written about the female orgasm is based on phallocentric assumptions, such as that women "should" have orgasms through penetrative sexual intercourse with men. And if they don't achieve orgasm, there is something wrong with them. Many women have absorbed these culturally acceptable views and the ongoing medicalisation of female sexuality continually reinforces them. |
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