I love it when two of my favourite things come together. In this case, it's crotchety scientists and orgasms. I was doing my morning perusal of Pharyngula (home of crotchety scientist PZ Myers) and lo and behold: he has tossed off a little blog entry on the female orgasm! Woot!
Let me just pause a moment and reflect...
Okay, I'm done. Where was I? Oh yeah, there's a book out lately. A philosopher of biology (who happens to be a woman) has investigated various theories (hypothesis?) of the developmental history of the female orgasm. Her conclusions is that the strongest of them currently is the one that states that the female orgasm is simply (or not so simply) a byproduct of the male orgasm.
(You're welcome.)
But I don't really want to talk about female orgasms. Well, okay, I do, but that's not the real reason I'm making a journal entry. The real reason is a random quote by another scientist; one whose bio I ended up reading because he gave a strange critique of the "byproduct" theory and was mocked by Myers. The scientist in question has had a history of nervous breakdowns. He wasn't too happy about it. So here is his little story about confessing his feelings about his mental problems with a friend:
"Bill and I were walking in the woods one day, and I told him that my first breakdown had been so painful that I had resolved that if I ever felt another one coming on, I would kill myself. Lately, however, I had changed my mind, and drawn up a list of 10 people I would kill first in that event. I wanted to know if this was going forwards or backwards. He thought for a while, then he said 'Can I add three names to that list?'. That was his only comment."
That's it. Just a story that made me laugh. And now, back to thinking about the female orgasm...
Let me just pause a moment and reflect...
Okay, I'm done. Where was I? Oh yeah, there's a book out lately. A philosopher of biology (who happens to be a woman) has investigated various theories (hypothesis?) of the developmental history of the female orgasm. Her conclusions is that the strongest of them currently is the one that states that the female orgasm is simply (or not so simply) a byproduct of the male orgasm.
(You're welcome.)
But I don't really want to talk about female orgasms. Well, okay, I do, but that's not the real reason I'm making a journal entry. The real reason is a random quote by another scientist; one whose bio I ended up reading because he gave a strange critique of the "byproduct" theory and was mocked by Myers. The scientist in question has had a history of nervous breakdowns. He wasn't too happy about it. So here is his little story about confessing his feelings about his mental problems with a friend:
"Bill and I were walking in the woods one day, and I told him that my first breakdown had been so painful that I had resolved that if I ever felt another one coming on, I would kill myself. Lately, however, I had changed my mind, and drawn up a list of 10 people I would kill first in that event. I wanted to know if this was going forwards or backwards. He thought for a while, then he said 'Can I add three names to that list?'. That was his only comment."
That's it. Just a story that made me laugh. And now, back to thinking about the female orgasm...
I think it's forward progress, but I also have names to add to the list.