Shan Boodram: Orgasms. 

They're the shining light at the end of the sexy tunnel. I see it. I like it. I want it. I got it. 

Except it's not that simple. We tend to put orgasms on a pedestal as the pinnacle of sexual experience, but there's also lots more to doing it than the big O.

Hi, I'm Shan Boodram and this is Crash Course: Sex Ed 

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First, a note on language. Most orgasm research focuses on cisgender people, aka guys with penises and ladies with vaginas. So, when we refer to men and women in this episode, those are the groups we're talking about. 

Humans have always been more diverse than that, but there's not much research yet on trans, intersex, and non-binary experiences. 

So, with the science we have now, let's get into it. 

An orgasm is the sudden involuntary release of sexual tension.

You get aroused. There's usually some kind of physical action. And eventually all that tension releases with a bunch of super nice contractions and a rush of feel-good chemicals in your brain. 

But behind that simple description is a lot of complexity.

Like sometimes an orgasm just involves the star players. Men mostly orgasm from stimulation of the penis, while women mostly orgasm from stimulation of the clitoris either internally or externally. 

And if you just said, "Huh?" That's your cue to watch episode 2.

But there's a whole supporting cast of characters. Lots of people can experience pleasure and even orgasm from nipple or anal stimulation because both share proximity to the genitals either in the brain or on the body. And both have a lot of nerve endings. 

Men also have the prostate, a gland about the size of a walnut that sits a couple inches inside the rectum. Some people find that stimulating it can be a really nice time. 

Overall though, pretty much any part of the body can be an erogenous zone, an area that can trigger sexual arousal. 

And what gets someone going is pretty unique to them. It can be the nipples, thighs, neck, ears, hands, feet, you name it. Some people can even have an orgasm just by thinking sexy thoughts. 

How's that for DIY? 

And after an orgasm, it might be a few minutes or hours before you can go at it again, especially for men. Scientists even have a name for this downtime, the refractory period. 

All said, there are a lot of ways to orgasm. It all depends on what works for you. 

Teen Shan: What about the G-spot? My friend's cousin's neighbour, they told me all about it, and it's supposed to be way to, you know. 

Shan: Good question, Teen Shan. 

First of all, despite what past experts and friends' cousins' neighbours say, there's no ultimate orgasm, because there's no way of measuring the many dimensions that make up pleasure. 

And when it comes to the infamous G-spot, erogenous zone inside the vagina, turns out researchers can't really agree on exactly what or where it is. 

The G-spot's probably not a magic orgasm button, but another form of internal clitoral stimulation. As for how we learned all this stuff, we owe much of what we know to the research duo William Masters and Virginia Johnson. 

They were a gynaecologist and a sexologist at Washington University in St Louis, famous for their in-depth research on human sexuality. Teen Shan, let 'em know. 

It was 1957, and Masters and Johnson were trying really hard to make their research not seem sexy because they needed funding to study orgasms, which weren't exactly all the rage at the time. 

Fortunately, they got their coin and set up a research lab to observe people having orgasms with the help of a penis camera. 

Teen Shan: A what?

Shan: You heard me. 

Women who agreed to be the subjects would essentially use it to masturbate and it would record video of what was happening inside their vaginas. 

Masters and Johnson learned tons of stuff from observing hundreds of women, especially about how different parts of the vagina and vulva react during orgasm.

And one of their most notable findings was a model they called the human sexual response cycle. A road map for how bodies respond to sexual stimuli broken down into four stages: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. 

At the time, medical journals weren't willing to publish their research. So, in 1966, Masters and Johnson published them in their own book instead. And after a lot of hate mail, human sexual response eventually became a best-seller. 

The human sexual response cycle was revolutionary for its time, although it did have some gaps. 

Like, what about desire? What makes someone want to have sex in the first place? And what if someone's sexual response doesn't follow this cycle?

Masters and Johnson theorised that these 4 stages work the same for everybody. But since then, we've learned about some key differences in how men and women orgasm.

Also, we've learned that orgasm isn't all about the physical. There are social aspects at play, too.

One of the more recent models that takes these nuances into account is called the dual control model, developed at the Kinsey Institute in the 1990s by sexologists John Bancroft and Eric Jansen. 

This model says every individual has their own set of offs and ons, like the brakes and accelerators on a car. 

Your ons might be physical, like someone kissing you just right. Or they might be social — maybe your partner wore something attractive, smelled good, or did something nice for you that wasn't sexual at all.

Maybe they just got the rizz. 

Similarly, your offs can be physicals, or they can be less tangible. Maybe you're tired, or maybe you can't get the dog to leave the bedroom, and it really feels like they're just staring at you. 

These two control systems work in tandem throughout the whole sexual experience, determining if you want to have sex, if you can reach orgasm, and how that experience of the orgasm makes you feel. 

And because humans are a lot more complex than wiener mobiles, everyone's brakes and accelerators are different. 

When it comes to sex and gender differences, there is some evidence to support that women tend to have more sensitive brakes and men tend to have more sensitive accelerators, but those are just averages. 

In this study, these differences varied more from person to person of the same gender than they did between men and women. 

That said, we got to talk about the gap. 

And I don't mean the store that your mom used to buy your basic tees from. Data shows that men are more likely than women to orgasm during heterosexual sex.

In one US-based study of more than 50,000 people, 95% of straight men said they usually or always orgasm during sex, while only 65% of straight women said they do. 

This gendered discrepancy is called the orgasm gap. 

On one hand, it could be related to differences in anatomy, including the location of nerve endings and the fact that it's pretty easy to stimulate the penis compared to the smaller and largely internal clitoris. 

But social and cultural attitudes play a role, too. Sexual scripts, those social expectations about how to behave when it comes to sex, can influence whose sexual pleasure gets prioritised. 

Like, men often just need P in V sex to have an orgasm. But 80% of the straight women in that 50,000 person survey said they usually are always orgasmed when they combine P in V sex with other types of intimacy like deep kissing, genital stimulation, or oral sex. 

And in Western culture, sexual scripts that stigmatise women's sexual pleasure can make partners less likely to engage in the kind of stimulation that helps women orgasm. 

Those same sexual scripts can be reinforced in sex scenes in movies, TV shows, and porn, which often show women orgasming from penetrative sex alone. 

Like in a 2018 study of 50 popular porn videos, almost half of female orgasms came from P in V sex. Seeing these kinds of representations can lead women to think they're supposed to orgasm this way, and fake orgasms with their partner if it isn't naturally happening. 

Luckily, studies have shed some light on what seems to help reduce the orgasm gap.

One is knowing about the clitoris and how it works.

And two is ditching those sexual scripts that tell women their pleasure matters less than men's. 

In a 2022 survey, researchers found that for women, both of these things together were related to a better time in the bedroom  

Orgasms can be great, but don't have to be the crown jewel of sex.

Just because someone didn't orgasm, doesn't mean they had a bad time. You can explore pleasure for pleasure's sake and connect with your partner with no end goal on mind. 

Like sometimes I just want to drink a nice cup of tea. If a caffeine rush hits me, great. But if not, I still had a lovely cuppa. 

Orgasms can happen in a lot of different ways. All bodies have the potential for pleasure. But scientists are still learning about how orgasms work, especially outside of cisgender straight relationships. 

And while we haven't quite yet reached orgasm equality, some good ways to have more of them are by communicating with sexual partners and experimenting to find what feels good for you. 

We'll keep this conversation going in next week's episode on masturbation. See you then. 

This episode of Crash Course: Sex Ed was produced in partnership with the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. If you are interested in learning more, visit their website for resources that explore the topics we discussed in the video today. 

Thank you for watching this episode, which was filmed at the studio in Indianapolis and was made with the help of all of these awesome people. If you want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever, you can join our community on Patreon.