Yes Virginia, there really is a G-spot

By Roger Hollands

Those unfortunates who do not believe in the existence of the G-spot are about to experience a rude awakening.

On Thu., Nov. 1, Dr. Beverly Whipple, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, and co-author of the international bestseller G-Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, will deliver a lecture focusing on her research of the last 30 years. Whipple promises a unique approach to the topic of the much-debated G-spot.

"I will teach listeners how to find the male and female G-spot and how to have male and female multiple orgasms," she declared. "I will teach men and women how to take care of their sexual health and how to improve their sexual responses, by doing exercises."

Whipple, Vice-President of the World Association for Sexology, has published over 100 journal articles and three books the neurological aspects of female sexuality. In 1979 she rediscovered the Graffenburg spot and published her findings in the Journal of Sex Research in 1981.

Whipple’s rediscovery of the G-spot came while conducting bio-feed back exercises with women to prevent surgery for urinary stress incontinence.

"When a women coughs, jump or sneezes, she dribbles some urine," Whipple explained. "Some of the women who learned to do this bio-feedback had extremely strong pelvic muscles and said that they only lost the fluid during orgasm."

Research discovered that the fluid secreted during orgasm by these women was significantly different from urine. This finding prompted Whipple to explore the adaptive significance of the G-spot during child birth, and the analgesic effect that occurs with stimulation of the G-spot.

"There is a natural analgesic effect that occurs with stimulation of the nerve pathways that come from the G-spot," Whipple said.

It was not until Viagra came onto the market four years ago that funding for her research began to take off. While she is reluctant to look a gift horse in the mouth, she is leery of strings that may be attached.

"I am concerned because some of [the funding] is coming from the pharmaceutical companies," she said. "I’m hoping it’s not just to give a pill, but rather to learn more about female sexuality."

Whipple believes the production of a female equivalent of Viagra would contravene prevailing models of female sexuality. Sexuality, she explained, can be considered in terms of circular and goal-oriented processes.

"I use the analogy of a staircase for goal-oriented sex," Whipple explained. "Women are unique individuals and they don’t fit into the male linear model."

In the "staircase" model the sexual experience takes on meaning only when the goal of orgasm is achieved.

"I’m hoping that we can get people to see that we have to focus on women’s dissatisfactions based on pleasure and satisfaction; rather than on the male model of erection and orgasm," said Whipple.

Whipple’s use of another model, called the circle model, allows for a greater degree of expression than the ladder model. The circle model encapsulates a wide range of gestures and actions, all of which may be used for sexual expression. Pleasure is derived from all parts of the process and not merely the end result, as in the ladder model.

A great deal of the literature that has been written to aid heterosexual men, explains female sexuality in terms of a male linear model. According to Whipple, this line of reasoning is responsible for the conception of Viagra for women. She suggested that the betterment of the sexual experience does not require the aid of drugs but a change in conception of the sexual experience.

Her presentation is sponsored by the University of Calgary Institute For Gender Research, and the Faculties of Medicine, Nursing and Social Work. The presentation is at 12:30 p.m. on Thu., Nov. 1 in Murray Frasier Hall room 162.

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