Media portrayals of sexuality perpetuate the notion that, when it comes to penises, bigger is better. This
size bias
is likely due, at least in part, to cultural messages that equate penis
size with masculinity and sexual prowess. Pornography reinforces the
notion that men with large penises are better lovers and more desirable
to women. But does a man’s penis size really matter for heterosexual
women’s sexual arousal and satisfaction?
A new study finds that women who have frequent vaginal orgasms
are more likely than other women to say they climax more easily with
men with larger penises. Women who tend to prefer penile-vaginal
intercourse over other types of sex also say the same, researchers
reported online Sept. 24 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
"Male anxiety about penis size may not reflect internalized, culturally arbitrary masculine stereotypes
,
but an accurate appreciation that size matters to many women — just as
men feel legitimate anxiety when they enter the mating market about
their intelligence, personality traits, sense of humor, social status,
height, wealth, and other traits known to be favored by women
across cultures," study researcher Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of the West of Scotland, told LiveScience.
But other researchers were less convinced.
"There's such variability in preference," said Barry Komisaruk, who
researches female sexual response at Rutgers University. Women who
orgasm through vaginal stimulation may indeed prefer longer penises,
Komisaruk told LiveScience, but not everyone prefers to orgasm that way.
"There are so many different factors," said Komisaruk, who was not
involved in Brody's study. "Once it gets to the kind of specifics that
they're talking about, I get wary."
The female orgasm
Both penis size and female orgasm are hot-button topics. There is still
scientific debate about whether vaginal and clitoral orgasms are
different phenomena. Different nerves carry signals from the vagina and
from the clitoris, Komisaruk said, and stimulation of each activates
different brain regions. But some researchers argue
that vaginal stimulation is simply activating a different, internal,
section of the clitoris. Women report different sensations from vaginal
and clitoral orgasms, Komisaruk said, but which one women prefer largely
comes down to personal preference.
In some cases, female orgasm is even more complex. For example, Beverly
Whipple, professor emerita at Rutgers University and one of the
discoverers of the G spot
,
a sensitive area felt through the front wall of the vagina, has found
that women with complete spinal cord injuries can sometimes experience
orgasm, even though the nerves that carry sensation up the spinal cord
from the pelvis have been severed. It's likely that the sensory vagus
nerve, which runs in the abdomen but bypasses the spinal cord, is
recruited to carry signals to the brain in these cases, Whipple told
LiveScience.
Does size matter?
In the new study, Brody and his colleagues asked 323 women to recall past sexual encounters. They
were asked about their recent sexual behaviors as well as how important
penile-vaginal intercourse and other sex acts were to them. They were
also asked whether penis length influenced their ability to orgasm with
vaginal stimulation.
Defining "average" as the length of a 20-pound banknote or U.S. dollar
bill, which are 5.8 inches (14.9 cm) and 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) long,
respectively, the researchers asked women if they were more likely to
orgasm vaginally with a longer-than-average or shorter-than-average
penis.
They found that 160 of the women experienced vaginal-only orgasms and
had enough sexual partners to compare size experiences. Of these, 33.8
percent preferred longer-than-average penises, 60 percent said size made
no difference and 6.3 percent said longer was less pleasurable than
shorter.
Supporting the hypothesis that size matters, Brody and his colleagues
found the women who reported the highest number of vaginal orgasms in
the past month were most likely to say that longer was better.
"This might be due at least in part to greater ability of a longer
penis to stimulate the entire length of the vagina, and the cervix,"
Brody said.
Finding sexual satisfaction
The data supports Brody's claim, Whipple said, but the sample is
limited to Scottish university students and should be replicated with a
broader group. Nevertheless, she warned against worrying about the
findings in bed.
"To me, all of this is just so goal-oriented, and it's difficult for me
to see researchers setting up another goal [vaginal orgasm] for women
to experience," Whipple said.
Whipple argued that sexuality is healthier when focused on the pleasure
of acts from cuddling to kissing to other sexual sensations rather than
the goal of reaching orgasm
.
"I recommend for women to learn about themselves, learn about their
body, find what they find pleasurable and enjoy that, as long as it's
not exploiting another person," she said.
