emmanuel reynaud holy virility the social construction of masculinity

Ignorance and mutilation
For a long time woman's sex organ was considered by
scientists to be 'nothing' in itself; the vulva being only the
entrance to the vagina. which in turn was a mere r&ipiint for the
penis. It was only in the twentieth century that in the West it was
recognised in scientific circles that not only did woman have a
sex organ but also that it functioned, anatomically, more or less
like a man's. Kinsey remarks, in Sexual Behaviour in the Human
Female:
«In brief, we conclude that the anatomic structures which
are most essential to sexual response and orgasm, are
nearly identical in the human female and male. The
differences are relatively few. They are associated with the
different functions of the sexes in reoroductive processes,
but they are of no great significance in the origins and
development of sexual response and orgasm.»[1]
More recently, the sexplogists Masters and Johnson have also
emphasised the similanty between the physiological reactions
in the male and the female genital organs.
«The parallels in reaction to effective sexual stimulation
emphasises the physiologic similarities in male and female
responses rather than the differences. Aside from obvious
anatomic variants, men and women are homogenous in
their physiologic responses to sexual stimuli. »[2]
Taking clinical observations and recent research as a basis, it is
possible to compare the reactions of the two sexual organs
during sexual stimulation. It is obviously not a matter of going
into a detailed description of all the anatomical reactions of the
various elements which compose the genital organs ― labia
clitoris, scrotum, testicles, etc. ―we shall concentrate only on
the movements of the vagina and the penis, as they are the two
organs which the male imagination focuses on.
[Man and his penis / 33]
As far as the vagina is concerned, any sexual stimulation
causes a rush of blood and induces a discharge; the vagina
secretes and grows noticeably in size. As the excitement
becomes more intense, a fresh rush of blood causes the
external third to dilate, this is what Masters and Johnson call
the 'orgasmic plateau'; in other words, it becomes firmer and
takes on a more definite shape. Finally, during orgasm, it
contracts frequently and regularly around the orgasmic plateau,