I’m in ur internets findin’ UR G-spots

Click to read; solar cell researchers to blame for recent g-spot study, by XKCD.

Whenever we’re in doubt about sex research… if only XKCD could take over all media messages, and put things to rest. And when a topic close to me is covered by an XKCD comic, I feel like I finally really have arrived into some kind of zeitgeist. To wit, today: The Case of The Missing G-Spots.

A few days ago, I did a neat (and much loved, much blogged) bullshit vs. reality post about the British study claiming that the G-spot was, in fact, a myth. This came to the surprise of may women, who had previously been using the aforementioned spots. I sat in the SFSI offices with sex educator colleagues laughing contemplating the thoroughness and efficacy of such a study. Maggie strolled in on cue, plunked down in a office chair, and without knowing what we were talking about said “Hey. I read the news on the way in. I found out about my G-spot. I thought I left it next to the toaster.” We went to work brainstorming “LOST: my G-spot” posters and putting ads on Craiglslist lost+found. While everyone worked, I did an interview.

And what an interview it is. Yes, There Is A G-Spot in The Daily Beast by Rachel Kramer Bussel is a serious piece of G-spot research and one of the best pieces I’ve ever read of Rachel’s — it should be considered a groundbreaking article about the subject. And not because I’m in it. There are many surprises, and Rachel gives each side an even handed voice, so it’s a pretty spicy examination of cultural obsessions on female sexual pleasure and women’s pressure to sexually conform. Not surprisingly, we see that Betty Dodson doesn’t give a shit about your vagina — she is the champion of the clit, after all. I’m honored to be side-by-side with Dr. Beverly Whipple, the woman who named the G-spot (this fact is in my book, The Smart Girl’s Guide to the G-Spot, which is a very feisty read and is featured in the article). Here’s a snip:

New science claims the ultimate female erogenous zone doesn’t exist. Rachel Kramer Bussel talks to sex researchers and historians who know where to find it. A Daily Beast probe.

This just in: The G-spot doesn’t exist! At least, according to British researchers who’ve made splashy headlines with this claim in a new study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. According to the abstract, “1,804 unselected female twins aged 22–83 completed a questionnaire about their sexuality and G-spot knowledge” and the point of the study was to find “genetic variance component analysis of self-reported G-spot.” That alone should tell you this study was highly subjective.

Yet the very idea of there not being a G-spot sparked international headlines. One commenter on a science blog wrote, “The supposed ‘G-spot’ is probably an androcentric fabrication to support male penetration,” while many others rushed in to gleefully proclaim the spot nonexistent.

“I’m bored with the whole discussion,” says Betty Dodson. “With the huge number of men and women who still have trouble finding a clitoris, why are we talking about some elusive spot inside the vagina that may or may not exist?”

What’s going on? And what is the G-spot anyway?

The term “G-spot” was coined by Dr. Beverly Whipple and John D. Perry in 1982, and named for pioneering German doctor Ernst Gräfenberg, who wrote “The Role of the Urethra in Female Orgasm” (read it here) in 1950 and is also known for developing the first IUD. The Orgasm Answer Guide, co-authored by Whipple, defines the term as “a sensitive area felt through the front (anterior, belly-side) wall of the vagina about halfway between the level of the pubic bone and the cervix (along the course of the urethra).”

Whipple, professor emerita at Rutgers University, was the co-author of the groundbreaking 1982 book The G Spot: And Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality and responsible (with Perry) for popularizing the topic. She says the main problem with the study is bad science. “The easiest way to stimulate the G-spot is by using two fingers inserted into the vagina with a come-here motion, but they eliminated bisexual or lesbian women, [who] often use digital stimulation.”

Violet Blue, sex columnist and author of The Smart Girl’s Guide to the G-Spot, says she laughed when she saw the study, claiming their conclusions were made “with little more than hearsay.” According to her, the idea of self-reporting just doesn’t wash. “It would be like rounding up 2,000 straight guys and asking them if they thought they had a prostate. (…read more, thedailybeast.com)