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2 corrections found
In 1966, Masters and Johnson’s landmark research on sexual response systematically minimized the clitoral role in favor of vaginal orgasm.
This reverses what the literature says about Masters and Johnson. Their work is widely summarized as emphasizing the clitoris’ role and arguing that so-called vaginal and clitoral orgasms are not separate physiological entities.
Full reasoning
This sentence is inaccurate.
Modern scholarly reviews summarize Masters and Johnson very differently from how this article describes them. A 2016 peer-reviewed review states: “Masters and Johnson (1966) reported that most women achieved orgasm from clitoral stimulation, whereas far fewer achieved it from vaginal stimulation.” Another 2022 review likewise says Masters and Johnson “argued for the role of the clitoris in the female orgasm.”
So while later scholars have criticized some aspects of Masters and Johnson's framework, it is not correct to say their 1966 work systematically minimized the clitoral role in favor of vaginal orgasm. The mainstream summary of their findings is closer to the opposite: they treated clitoral stimulation as central and rejected a strict physiological split between “vaginal” and “clitoral” orgasms.
2 sources
- The whole versus the sum of some of the parts: toward resolving the apparent controversy of clitoral versus vaginal orgasms
Masters and Johnson (1966) reported that most women achieved orgasm from clitoral stimulation, whereas far fewer achieved it from vaginal stimulation.
- The female orgasm and the homology concept in evolutionary biology
Reporting on Kinsey and colleagues' research, Masters and Johnson argued for the role of the clitoris in the female orgasm on the basis of anatomical and physiological homologies between male and female sexual response.
In 2017, French researchers published 3D sonography of the clitoris during arousal — the first imaging of the primary organ of female pleasure in its functional, aroused state.
This was not the first imaging of the clitoris in an aroused state. Published studies had already imaged female genital anatomy during sexual arousal years earlier, including MRI in 1999 and functional ultrasound in 2013.
Full reasoning
This “first imaging” claim is contradicted by earlier published research.
A 1999 BMJ paper, “Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal,” explicitly states that MRI was used to study female sexual arousal. And a 2013 paper, “Pilot echographic study of the differences in clitoral involvement following clitoral or vaginal sexual stimulation,” describes using functional sonography of the stimulated clitoris ... during arousal obtained by external or internal stimulation.
Because published imaging studies had already visualized female genital anatomy during arousal well before 2017, it is incorrect to describe the 2017 sonography paper as the first imaging of the clitoris in its functional, aroused state.
2 sources
- Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal
Magnetic resonance imaging was used to study the female sexual response and the male and female genitals during coitus... During female sexual arousal without intercourse the uterus was raised and the anterior vaginal wall lengthened.
- Pilot echographic study of the differences in clitoral involvement following clitoral or vaginal sexual stimulation
We used functional sonography of the stimulated clitoris... Main outcome measures: ... the clitoris and CUV complex ... during arousal obtained by external or internal stimulation.