Female Ejaculation - Controversy, Debate and Feminist Criticism

Controversy, Debate and Feminist Criticism

The debate in the current literature focuses on three threads: the existence of female ejaculation, its source(s) and composition, and its relationship to theories of female sexuality. This debate has been influenced by popular culture, pornography, and physio-chemical and behavioral studies. There is some resistance from feminists to what has been perceived as a male lens in interpreting the data and construct. Often the debate is also tied to the existence of the G-spot; stimulation of the anterior vaginal wall involves simultaneous stimulation of the para-urethral tissue, the site of the Skene's glands and ducts and presumed source of the ejaculated fluid, and therefore it has been variously stated that stimulation of this spot results in ejaculation. These tissues, surrounding the distal urethra, and anterior to the vagina, have a common embryological origin to the prostatic tissue in the male.

In an extensive survey, Darling and colleagues claim support for the existence of ejaculation, while in a sharply critical response, Alzate states that direct experimentation fails to provide any evidence. Alzate states:

the ignorance and/or confusion still prevalent among women about the anatomy and physiology of their sexual organs may make them mistake either vaginal lubrication or stress urinary incontinence for an "ejaculation"

Shannon Bell argues that the debate is confused by the discussion of two separate phenomena. She comments that Alzate simply dismisses women's subjective experiences in favour of rigorous scientific proof, and is typical of male sexologists withholding the validity of experience from women. Bell's critique lies at the heart of feminist concerns about this debate, namely a tendency to "disregard, reinterpret, and overwrite women's subjective descriptions." For some, she states, it is more a matter of belief than of physiology. Bell further questions why feminists have not been more outspoken in defense of women's control over female ejaculation, pointing out that the literature frames the discussion in only five separate ways; procreation, sexual pleasure, deviance, pathology, and a scientific mystery.

The discussion entered popular culture in 1982 with the publication of the best-selling book The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, by Ladas, Whipple, and Perry. The book discussed female ejaculation and brought the issue back into discussions of women's sexuality both in the medical community and among the general public. This was a popular account of three papers by the authors, the previous year, at the suggestion of Alice Khan Ladas. Rebecca Chalker notes that this book was largely met with scorn, skepticism and disbelief. The chapter on 'Female Ejaculation' is largely based on anecdotal testimony, and illustrates another issue in the debate, the weight placed on anecdotes and small numbers of observations rather than biomedical investigation or clinical trials. Importantly, a number of the women stated that they had been diagnosed with urinary incontinence. The book advances another feminist theory: that because women's pleasure in their sexuality has been historically excluded, the pleasure of ejaculation has been either discounted or appropriated by health professionals as a physiological phenomenon. Whipple continued to publicise her discoveries, including a 9 min video made in 1981 Orgasmic Expulsions of Fluid in the Sexually Stimulated Female. In 1984, the Journal of Sex Research described the debate surrounding female ejaculation as 'heated'. Josephine Sevely then followed up her 1978 study by publishing "Eve's Secrets: A new theory of female sexuality" in 1987, emphasising an integrated rather than fragmented approach to understanding female sexuality, with the clitoris, vagina and urethra depicted as a single sexual organ. This not only challenged the traditional fragmentation of female sexuality into clitoral vs. vaginal sensation, but also sexualised the urethra.

The continuing debate is further illustrated in the angry exchange of letters between the author and researchers in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2002 following the publication of 'The G-spot: A modern gynecological myth' by Terrence Hines. As of 2007, and 2008 the existence of a female prostate and of ejaculation are a matter of debate, and articles and book chapters continue to appear with subtitles such as "Fact or Fantasy".