O dear, biohacking the female sexual response...

[oursin]

Okay, the article itself is pretty much on the side of It's All More Complicated:
Who Killed the ‘Female Pleasure Button’? In 1998, a North Carolina doctor accidentally discovered a device that could make women cum at the drop of a hat. Two decades later, we've got nothing to show for it. This is the long, strange story of the Orgasmatron.

(Me, I couldn't help thinking that the answer to why this did not take off in a big way was the same as the answer to the question of why there were by no means the numbers of women interested in male sexbots as there were men interested in female sexbots. There is a much simpler, more portable/less invasive solution.)

The Orgasmatron worked by stimulating nerves “from the pelvis that enter the spinal highway near the tailbone,” which “shoots pleasure signals straight up to the part of the brain that processes information coming from the genitalia.”

It involved a implant inserted at the base of the spinal cord, which could be activated by remote control.

But quite apart from the problem of scurrying up research funding in this, ahem, sensitive area, the inventor has had problems in finding volunteers:

Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute and the host of the Sex and Psychology podcast, says he isn’t surprised that volunteers were hard to come by. “While the preliminary data looked promising, it’s expensive and invasive, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about long-term effects and potential risks,” he tells me. Also, while the device may be of “great value” for those with disabilities or “significant and persistent difficulty orgasming,” it doesn’t address any of the interpersonal, cultural or environmental factors that prevent climax (communication issues, shame and sexual anxiety are particular culprits). “The concern is that biomedical devices that facilitate orgasm could potentially just become another Band-Aid solution,” Lehmiller explains.

We note also good comments from Dr Petra Boynton on whom be praise.:

["]The Orgasmatron is very much part of an early 2000s view of ‘perfect sex’ that, in some ways, feels old fashioned now.” This idea of “perfect sex” — often buoyed by free, mainstream, heterosexual porn — centers on the cis male-esque climax, and the widely-held view that sex ends — and is “good” — when one or both parties have cum.

We are not entirely surprised, my dearios, when another sex therapist suggests that men would like this as it would give them the gratification of getting their partner off without any fuss and bother.

(Wot, me, cynical?)

Hark to the biohacker's dreams (I think I read this in sf in the 70s, didn't I???)

He says that with the right technological upgrade, the Orgasmatron could even facilitate “massive multiplayer orgies,” where users could feel the pleasure that other users were feeling via their spinal implants. “You could have what your partner’s feeling added to you and then send it back to them,” he explains. “It would be amazing to have a bunch of people plugged in and feeling what multiple people are feeling at once. It’s got a lot of weird and awesome potential.”

While the valid point is made that “There’s still a lot of stigma, bias and lack of resourcing in health care for female sexuality”, reservations are also in play concerning this mechanistic approach as the way forward.

As I recall, didn't the original Orgasmatron in the movie obviate the need for actual human sexual contact...?

Comments

[lilysea]

One of the main reasons this didn't take off was it contained a nonzero risk of serious spinal cord complications if something went wrong. :(

[oursin]

Well, the whole 'invasive surgery + sticking an implant in' has potential for Stuff Going Wrong, it's not something people are going to do as a first resort, which seems to be what he was hoping, rather than maybe a last extreme throw in certain cases.

(Though honestly, when I consider the history of men in the medical field messing around with women's nethers... cf this book - read her previous, which was in the same sort of field, and v good)

[oracne]

All it makes me think of is having to recover from the implantation surgery. EUGH.

[azurelunatic]

I was Not Pleased when my yeeterus operation (I'm very glad to have it gone, but much more extensive than I would have wanted, on account of the cancer) managed to clip a few nerves. I was using those!

Cynically, one does not expect the current pinnacle of medical science to get things entirely right.

[oursin]

Given e.g. the significant lack of attention to issues to do with nerves in the area in question when performing cosmetic surgery on lady-parts (because it's all about the aesthetics), I am all about the cynicism here myself

[silveradept]

I am looking at this idea and thinking about all the ways that it can be abused, from the crude to the sophisticated, which tells me enough about why others might not be so hung-ho to have their climaxes under any control but their own.