Aw, G! G-whiz! No G?

Well, according to the world authority on such matters, Salon.com, the crushing news has just been announced: there is no G-spot!

Given her history of dealing with the more sensitive subjects of sex, diarrhea, and halitosis (among others), I thought that our own special collaborator Holly would be the one to comment on this bit of hot research. But Anne thought it might be presumptuous of me to ask her such a thing. And Anne demurred, perhaps thinking that such a subject touched, so to speak, too close to home. So the task fell to me.

The G-spot for those who are uninitiated in the arts of female pleasuring, is a point in the vaginal wall that, when proberly (no misspelling here!) stimulated can lead to exquisite orgasms (for her, too!). But for some of the unfortunate of our better halves, this pleasure oasis doesn't seem to exist.

Cold fish? Just not interested in their partners? Can't really get into it?

Not so, say the experts! Yet another thing that turns out not to be her fault, despite our sexist accusatory society! What was thought perhaps to be a revelation for the new G-eneration of women turns out not to exist at all! It was a sex-toy vendor's scam. All those weird shaped twisting, vibrating, variously sized dildos: they're bunk (from this point of view, at least)!

It turns out that our more socially responsible citizens (university professors), who have to think of something important to research so they can get grants and promotions, did a twin study of the G-spot. Like searches for the Loch Ness monster, they delved deeply but came up empty handed.

More precisely, identical twins who are genetically the same, were no more concordant (didn't agree more) on whether they had the G-experience or not, compared to fraternal (well, sororal) twins who share only half their genes. Or, at least, whether they reported such G-ratification.

Assuming no confounding issues such as monozygous twins picking less knowledgeable partners than sororal twins, nor a strange kind of sibling ribaldry, there simply is no evidence -- at least no genetic evidence -- for the existence of Playboy's favorite playground. Conclusion: it's a myth.

G, that is sooo too bad!

Hey, wait a minute! What kind of conclusion is that? After all, a substantial fraction of women in the study did say they had one (G spot). And so said both kinds of twins! What the heck more do you want for evidence? So maybe this is consistent with a G-enetic reality, and has to do with the well-known variable expressivity of the G-ene, as with any other gene. Maybe the spot's bigger in some than others, or more trigger-happy. Maybe other women, wishing to uphold a demure image, deny what they experience to be true. Maybe they want their husband (or their mates) to feel put down as performance failures.

This relates to the genetic concept of 'penetrance' (no pun intended) that we will discuss in tomorrow's post. Having the G-ene doesn’t imply having the same amount of fun, except probabilistically (i.e., what's the probability that he'll get to the bottom of this phenomenon and figure IT out?).

What I think is the obvious answer to this question is: we need more research! Lot's more research! Maybe, like SETI (where everyone is asked to volunteer their computer to search for ET's in outer space), we can engage the whole population to search for ITs in inner space.

I think I've said enough.... Again, I think this is a ball for Holly or Anne to pick up.

Ken