Tented!

Did you know that 'tenting' is a sign that the female body is prepared for sex? What's 'tenting', you ask? Let's talk about how bodies get prepared for orgasmic relief.

Let's talk about these two: William Masters and Virginia Johnson. They spent their entire sexology careers trying to figure out what happens when we get turned on and what to do when we don't. 

"The Masters-Johnson study made it possible to follow the entire human sexual cycle: from the first stirrings of erotic desire, through orgasm, to ultimate subsidence as objectively as 19th century physiologists have followed the digestive cycle from mastication to excretion. There are, of course, minor variations from individual to individual, but the basic pattern is still the same." (As read from 'The Sex Researchers by Edward M. Brecher)

Masters and Johnson welcomed participants into their labs by the hundreds to perform over 10 000 episodes of sexual arousal, masturbation and coitus. Their findings became known as 'The Human Sexual Response' -- a cycle of how we get turned on and stimulated both physically and psychologically. 

[Graph is shown, x-axis reads: 'Time' and y-axis reads: 'Arousal']

X-axis. Y-axis. 

[Graph now shows an upward-inclining line which reads 'Excitement']

The first stage is called excitement. This is when your heart rate starts increasing, breathing rate increases, blood pressure rises, nipples erect, and breasts enlarge. Muscles tone up, the genitals engorge with blood like the labia changing shape, getting bigger, flattening out and spreading apart. The penis gets an erection, blood vessels become more pronounced and it can sometimes double in size. You've heard the phrase 'It's a grower, not a show-er'. Then you've got the testicles elevating and the scrotum around them thickening. The clitoris also gets an erection and then it retracts under the clitoral hood so if you're looking for it when you're turned on it's a little harder to find. 

A sex flush occurs in in 50 to 75 percent of bio-sex females and 25 percent of bio-sex males. This is a reddening of this part of the body [gestures at upper torso and neck area] and it will go away.

Also part of excitement is the vagina preparing to take something into it. The walls lubricate and thicken, the cervix that separates the uterus from the vaginal canal is actually gonna lift up and move out of the way. This all works like an accordion; it makes more room for things, more than the 3 to 5 inches and we call it tenting! It's generally a good idea to wait to penetrate until this point.

Give attention to where your body is in this cycle. If you don't notice any cues, give it some more time and ask what it needs.

The second stage is called 'plateau'. Time is still passing but the level of arousal is not changing very much. At this time the vaginal walls continue to to tighten. They create and orgasmic platform in the first third of the vagina and this grips the object of insertion. The vagina, again, is going to continue to tent and other changes are going to occur as well.

During this stage though, more of the tenting is going to happen.

Testicles raise up and enlarge by 50 percent. A gland called Cowper's releases pre-cum which clears the urinary pathway so that the urine that was there is no longer for the semen that is going to be there. 

I'll post a list of more physiological changes so that you can follow along with your body. I want you to be able to recognize these things so that you're aware of where you are in your cycle of arousal and you don't jump the gun.

If you heat up like your microwave and your partner heats up like an oven, acknowledge this! Neither of you have to slow down or speed up: there is no moving through these stages too quick or too long, these are perceptions about how sexuality is supposed to be. Realistically, there isn't a too long or a too short, there just is and you decide whether or not to share that, resist it, move on! Physiological compatibility is really important. It's also more probable the more creativity you incorporate. 

[Lindsey somersaults into tent]