Kinsey found that only 20% of women masturbated regularly. Kinsey concluded that masturbation was not only the fastest way for a woman to reach orgasm (4 minutes on average), but also the most reliable way (95% success rate). He used the masturbatory activities of women to define the female orgasm. There are many ways to show that women are wrong about orgasm with a lover because they do not understand what an orgasm is. So, Kinsey’s work indicates that 20% of women can know how to orgasm.
The percentage of women who actually orgasm is likely much lower in the general population. Kinsey’s sample was heavily biased toward more educated women. These women are likely to read more than others and are more likely to learn to use erotic fantasies to get aroused (if they respond positively to eroticism). He also noted the tendency among the less educated to view masturbation as a perversion. Kinsey found that two in five women (42%) never masturbate, while a similar number (38%) attempt masturbation but are not motivated to continue.
But the research inevitably involves women who are confident enough to come forward and talk about orgasm in surveys. The reluctance of women to discuss sexual phenomena suggests that female masturbation is much less common than this. Reading Shere Hite’s book is a tremendous relief for any woman who masturbates. His work is the only evidence that women easily orgasm alone, but cannot achieve the same with a lover. The fact that her book is largely unknown is clear evidence that few women masturbate.
Masturbation clinics encourage women to feel better about their bodies. When a woman feels better about her body, she may be more willing to have sex. You cannot teach someone how to orgasm. These clinics are run by women who have no idea what orgasm or masturbation entails. We cannot learn to respond. Our responsiveness is determined at birth and is typically a male characteristic.
Shere Hite’s work seemed to indicate that many women masturbate during intercourse. Not only is it an impractical technique, but it is also incompatible with the way women masturbate to orgasm. Neither men nor women seem to be aware of the fact that before someone can have an orgasm, they must first be aroused. Men’s arousal is fairly automatic, but women have to work a lot harder to consciously generate their arousal.
Most women don’t like explicit references to the genitals, so they say “bottom front” or “down there”, meaning anywhere between the clitoris and the anus. Most women also do not like references to explicit genital stimulation, including masturbation. They consider the clitoris to be too sexually explicit for a heterosexual woman. Most women associate the vagina, clitoris, and female orgasm with pornography and male fantasies.
Women never comment on the different stimulation techniques and anatomy that are supposed to cause the female orgasm. If women knew how to masturbate to orgasm, more women would find that sexual intercourse does not cause female orgasm. Also his lovers would be realized. Heterosexual women associate clitoral stimulation with lesbians who never have sex and therefore have to engage in more explicit genital sex games.
Shere Hite listed a variety of positions that women reported using during masturbation. Only 5% of the women in their sample who masturbated did so by lying on their front. This means that the rest (the vast majority) were not reaching orgasm. Kinsey noticed the technique of lying on her stomach and thrusting with her hips, which was only related to some of the women who said they masturbated. Kinsey also commented that many women do not use fantasy. Clearly, many women do not masturbate to orgasm.
From the universal silence and ignorance about the female orgasm, we can conclude that female masturbation and therefore female orgasm are rare. Women allow men to portray their sexual responsiveness in completely unrealistic ways without even commenting. Most women have little confidence in their own experiences, so they accept all fictional stories as possibilities for other women, if not for themselves. Few women even know that they have a clitoris, much less know what to do with it. Men explore the female body as they always have. Armed with the latest clitoral news, men convince themselves that as a new breed of male lovers, they provide women with astonishing pleasure for the first time in human history.
Women who masturbate to orgasm understand the need for a source of eroticism. Although they do not respond to pornography the way men do, they can better understand men’s need for an arousal mechanism in the absence of a partner. Women who masturbate to orgasm don’t talk about their fantasies because they are private and taboo. But there are also many women who dislike masturbation. Even without mentioning sex directly, there are signs that indicate a person’s attitude towards eroticism. Most women ignore any reference to sex, which is a clear sign that they will not be receptive to discussing orgasm.
… certainly it is easier for most women to be orgasmic during masturbation than during intercourse … For most women, masturbation involves stimulation of the clitoris, whereas with intercourse, the clitoris only it is stimulated indirectly. (Masters and Johnson 1995)
