io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 9:07 AM
Thu Nov 26
22 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
01/30/09
Research spearheaded by Baerwald et al.(2004) suggests that the menstrual cycle may not regulate follicular growth as strictly as previously thought. In particular, the majority of women during an average twenty-eight day cycle experience two or three "waves" of follicular development, with only the final wave being ovulatory. The remainder of the waves are anovulatory, characterized by the developed preovulatory follicle falling into atresia (a major anovulatory cycle) or no preovulatory follicle being chosen at all (a minor anovulatory cycle).
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/30/09
I recommend it to everyone.
01/30/09
01/30/09
A very hot FAIL!
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/30/09
You know, I was about to go "Well, obviously she's facing left", then stopped myself and said "wait...is that her spine?" I believe she is facing to the right.
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/30/09
i'm sorry, that was inappropriate. it is fascinating how it changes shape.
@corpore-metal: i often get the WC urge too, but that may be mental conditioning. if done right, it often feels like i have to go during the act, especially when (TMI warning) female ejaculation is involved. i also prefer to clean up a little.
01/30/09
01/30/09
Sorry, but that's just mildly offensive - no, actually, that's pretty much on the very offensive end of it - these people were for the most part living as women and men, and didn't say otherwise, so, yeah - nice and all that Lily Elbe had people around that time who had the idea of testing (and lamentably failing) at surgical attempts to rewire her bits, but that didn't make her a woman all of a sudden. What made her a woman was her self-identification. This is the key.
01/30/09
Before you respond, note that I am not saying transsexuality does not exist or that it is wrong. All I am saying is that being born a woman and really wanting to be a man does not make you a man. It makes you a woman that really wants to be a man. Otherwise this would not have been possible:
Not a man
01/30/09
Neither a man.
This is where you are wrong, the combination chromosomes-bits-mind is not that accurate, in fact, doctors go on a crap shoot everytime they decide.
01/30/09
Intersex births are rare (estimates vary from .1 to 1.7% of total births) and usually one set of 'bits' is functional while the other is not. The doctor's choice is not a 'crap shoot', but an aesthetic one designed to give the child a shot at a normal life.
Intersex births could logically be considered a third sex, but in reality are an abnormality - it has been shown that instances increase with inbreeding. This is entirely different though, from transsexuality which is a psychological phenomenon.
01/30/09
01/30/09
And intersex conditions are quite common. You might consider actually reading a book or two about it. I recommend Lessons from the Intersexed, which is a nice introduction [[www.amazon.com]]
01/30/09
No, it's the pretense part, the Lily Elbe bit was about the most respectful I've seen outside of stuff written by trans people (and I admit it's partially an issue of personal weariness over the treatment of a number of historically very identifiable trans people :/)
01/30/09
01/30/09
I understand your side of it, I just do not personally agree that a "sex-change" operation changes one's sex. It changes appearance. Again, I do not believe that this desire or the operation itself is wrong in any way, I just do not agree that the sex of the person actually changes.
@Laurence Martin: I think we are defining normal differently. I agree that it would be more natural for an intersexed child to be allowed to get old enough to decide themselves what to do with their condition. Also, in the normal course of things a child is not mutilated immediately after birth (except of course for circumcision, which is another discussion entirely). The problem is that by the time they're old enough to decide, the condition may have already ostracized them socially because its not normal. It could definitely be argued that the social pressures that force this kind of decision are morally wrong, but the fact remains that there is a social norm. From Annalee's Lessons from the Intersexed:
One can complain about the medical profession and call individual
physicians or the entire enterprise misogynistic and arrogant. Similarly,
one can complain that parents of intersexed infants are overly obsequious
toward medical authority, but ... if culture demands gender, physicians
will produce it, and of course, when physicians produce it, the fact that
gender is "demanded" will be hidden from everyone.
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/29/09
01/29/09
01/29/09
Through science and medicine, the foreskin is known to contain specialized structures, muscle, a complex vascular system, and tens of thousands of highly concentrated, specialized, erogenous nerve cells and fine touch receptors. These specialized structures include the preputial sphincter (protection and stimulation), the frenulum, and the ridged band. In particular, the frenulum is a very erogenous region (known as the "sex nerve" in France) that is either ablated during circumcision or is extremely underdeveloped on the circumcised penis. The ridged band's fine touch receptors complement the coarse sensory receptors of the glans (head of the penis) and it is always removed during circumcision.
Besides providing a specialized combination of nerves, the foreskin acts as an erogenous sheath in which the shaft and glans glide and with which the frenulum and ridged band are stimulated.
The foreskin provides not just more sensitivity, but enhanced sensitivity. These structures and nerves are essential to the complete experience and functioning of the sex act, so that their amputation results in a clear sensory and mechanical deficiency.
Moreover, there is no debate that circumcision destroys sexual 'perception'. The only question is whether the REMAINING tissue (glans and what's left of the inner foreskin) is desensitized due to the conditions engendered by the amputation of the foreskin. While there is conflicting evidence as to the degree of further desensitizing, it is certainly the case that the glans and remaining inner foreskin are transformed into fully external structures---something that is unnatural for these mucosal tissues. They suffer from drying-out, subtle lifelong abrasion (simple contact with clothes), and keratinization (a response that reduces the irritation of drying-out and abrasion, but also results in a reduction of nerve stimulation); indeed, intact men who find their penises to be too sensitive are often instructed to retract their foreskins temporarily throughout the day in order to let them desensitize via keratinization.
01/30/09
(I'm still against circumcision, btw.)
01/29/09
01/29/09
01/29/09
and I'm waiting for the study that proves that vaginal sex is pretty much useless... the g-spot or clitoris MUST be stimulated. I've had this honest discussion with all my female friends and for all the moaning and oooohing and aaahing while guys hammer away - it's all for show. I'd say about 90% of the women I know have only had REAL orgasms clitorally, if at all.
But men don't want to hear that they're the only ones enjoying their penises lol. (that's not entirely true though - sex with me IS fun)
There generally needs to be a LOT more sexual honesty, not saying people should become cavalier and lose all inhibition - but everyone would be happier if we all kept it real.
01/29/09
Well maybe it's because I was a nerdy teenager with hippy parents in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and maybe it's because I lost my virginity at a comparatively late age that I was pretty enlightened on that subject. I assumed as much right from the start and never had any ego or anxiety involved with it.
Score one for the nerds and the need for abstract research!
01/29/09
01/29/09
And you should be careful people who say things like "innately bisexual" usually make those statement not as an interesting fact, but as a judgement. Like "people are innately bisexual AND the patriarchy deludes you poor fools into believing that you only want one gender".
Sure, most people are innately bisexual, but that bisexuality more often than not falls on one end of the scale or another. So if you're 90% attracted to one sex, then that's effectively hetero. And almost every genuine bisexual person has a single gender that they prefer for long-term relationships. Whichever one they end up getting along with better, I'd guess.
01/29/09
It might be possible that bisexuality is more common but that exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual individuals are the recessives. I can speak from personal experience that I consider myself the latter and have never once felt sexually attracted to females.
Plus come on...bisexual...talk about having your cake and eating it too.
jk.
01/29/09
01/29/09
and yea - I'm no wit (though I wish I was lol) so the lack of responses probably has more to do with my dullness than how provocative my comments are. **sadface**
@Annalee Newitz: Vaginal sex is fun and pleasurable - no argument there... just making sure the guys know where the real party's at. lol
01/29/09
01/29/09
01/30/09
And now to raise a contrarian point, and brag:
I dated a woman earlier this year who was incapable of having an orgasm from oral sex. I'm personally obsessed with going down on girls, and I'm better at it than anybody. She was the only person I've been with I couldn't get off with my mouth. This girl identified as bisexual, and had been with plenty of men and women, but only got off from penetration. And when it came down to that, her response was near instantaneous and repeated three or four times.
I would have to say that about a third to half the women I've dated have had regular vaginal orgasms. Not that that keeps me away from using my mouth or toys...
Why am I writing this at work? God I'm dumb.
01/30/09
I'm also writing this at work...
01/30/09
why would that notion upset people? Oh I don't know, maybe because it is utter BS.
I was never, am not, nor will be bisexual.
I of course have a laissez faire philosophy and what ever you people want to do in the alley behind the A&P at 3:00 AM is your own damned business...
...but why would anyone assume that I, a Red Blooded American Male would _ever_ consider having sex with a _woman_ is beyond me.
01/30/09
01/30/09
01/31/09
01/29/09
=
wii sex
01/29/09
Although I will say that it takes out all the fun getting there and increase the possibility of mischief.
01/29/09
College will get a lot more interesting
01/29/09
01/29/09
Good stuff, sexologists.
Good stuff, good stuff.