Kenyon College - CASE

class nOTES
Understanding the Faked Orgasm
The orgasm—yes, the orgasm—plays an
important role in our lives and helped
shape the development of the species.
It’s best not to leave everything we know
about it to bar talk and magazines.
Erin Billie Cooper ’04 has ushered the orgasm into
the realm of science with her study, begun at Kenyon,
of heterosexual women who occasionally fake it.
“Studies have found that between 50 and 68 percent
of women have faked an orgasm at some point in their
lives, but until I started my research, we never knew
why. All the evidence was anecdotal,” said Cooper, a
fourth-year graduate student in clinical psychology at
Temple University.
Cooper developed an assessment measure that
unveils motives behind the behavior. She used it to
survey 481 women between the ages of eighteen
and thirty-two who endorsed faking orgasms. “The
common assumption is that women do this to protect
the man’s ego because they don’t experience a
real orgasm, but women fake orgasms for a variety
of reasons.”
One motive is indeed to protect a partner’s feelings.
But others include insecurity about sexual functioning
and the desire to end the sex act quickly. Some
women fake orgasm to
enhance their sexual
experience. “These
women are never
talked about. They are
taking control of their
sensuality and ensuring
that they have
a good time. Faking
orgasm can make sex
more fun and exciting
for them; it has little to
do with their partner.”
Cooper’s research, which has attracted national
attention in the popular media, originated with girl-talk
over lunch during her senior year in Gambier. “I was
looking for an independent study idea and this came
up as a bunch of girls were sitting around in Peirce
Hall,” recalled Cooper, who is originally from northern
Kentucky. “I think the conversation was triggered by a
Cosmopolitan article.”
Being the good psychology student, Cooper
searched the literature and was surprised to find
just two articles in peer-reviewed journals about the
practice. Under the tutelage of Professor of Psychology
Allan Fenigstein, she began collecting data from
Kenyon female undergraduates and developing her
questionnaire.
Presentations at professional conferences since
2007 have sparked a firestorm of interview requests
and reports in newspapers, magazines, and Web
sites. “I wonder every day if this is good for my career,”
said Cooper, who hopes to continue her research
in an academic or clinical career. “Most graduate
students are not yet respected enough in their field
to be contacted for interviews, so this has been great
attention for my work. But I have some concern that
it will not be taken as seriously as it should due to the
interest shown by the popular press.”
When people ask Cooper what she studies, she
typically smiles in anticipation of their response to her
answer. “I know they are going to react with shock,
horror, or fascination, but for the most part people are
interested, especially women. The practice is common,
so there is good reason to study it.”
Her work, which she hopes to publish soon,
advances knowledge about human sexual behavior
and can better inform therapy for individuals and
couples. It even has implications for men. “They
can use my research as an ice-breaker for
having an open and honest conversation
with their partners,” Cooper said.
—Dennis Fiely
’04
California, won the Professional
and Amateur Pinball Association’s
(PAPA) World Pinball
Championships in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, in August. Andrei
tells us that his first attempt at the
world title was in 1994 when he was
still attending Kenyon. He writes,
“All those hours I spent playing in
Gund Commons finally paid off.”
’96 Delia A. Kloh
Charlottesville, Virginia
delia1974@gmail.com
Sarah Michael
Long Beach, California
sarahemichael@gmail.com
Christopher Ellsworth
Mount Vernon, Ohio
ellsworthc@kenyon.edu
Christian L. Ball and his wife, Anne,
welcomed their new son, Maxwell
Thomas Ball, in November
2010. Chris and his family live
in Billings, Montana. Joseph F.
Herban, Columbus, Ohio, informs
us that he is a top producing
realtor and real estate investor
in Columbus. He married his
wife, Angela, at Kenyon, and they
have a three-year-old daughter
named Hailey. Joe keeps in touch
with Michael H. Schuermeyer and
Joshua H. Cornehlsen, and they
jointly own ocean-front property
in Nicaragua, where they plan to
eventually open a youth hostel/
resort home for tourists. Adrienne
Biggert Morrell is still living and
working in Washington, D.C. She
and her husband, Jarrett, are kept
very busy by their three children,
Greer (five), Charlotte (three), and
Anders (one).
’97 Barbara Kakiris
Cleveland, Ohio
barbara.l.kakiris@nasa.gov
R. Joseph Rodriguez, Austin, Texas,
had a research article featured in
the National Council of Teachers of
English centennial issue of English
Journal, in which he commented