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- Sexuality is a mysterious topic and the answer to whether people need sex and orgasm for survival can be the cause of much controversy.
- While some believe sex is a basic need, others believe sexuality is something created by culture.
- Taking into account asexual people and the evolution of the female orgasm, it's clear there are no exact answers, though sexual pleasure has some incredible benefits.
When you type in the phrase, "Do people actually need sex?" on Google, the top search result reads: "Under normal circumstances, no. It is true that sexual relations bring with them a sense of physical and mental well-being, but not having them does not cause any discomfort, so they are not actually essential."
But is it really as easy as that? Reading further down the page reveals far more complex responses, with some even declaring, "Sex is a basic human need." Conversely, one article in The Conversation details how in the 19th century, many people never engaged in sex.
"In the 19th century, lots of people never had sex. Many in domestic service, armed forces, the church and so on never married and this was thought quite normal. Sex outside marriage, masturbation and sex with same-sex partners were all much more stigmatised than now (though sex work was far more common)," reads the article.
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An article about the history of sexuality in History Today seems to concur that some people are capable of not needing sex.
"Sexuality is something created by culture – virtual desires rather than a natural, unchanging force," says Anna Clark, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and author of The History of Sexuality in Europe.
Sexual pleasure has also not always been part of the sexual experience, especially for women.
Holly Dunsworth, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Rhode Island, summed this up in an article for Sapiens.org, where she wrote: "But actually, as long as it enables successful reproduction, copulation only needs to be rewarding for one of the mating pair – on condition that one partner can manipulate its mate into copulating."
Usually, that one mate who would derive reward from the sexual experience was male. That is until the female orgasm became mainstream. Dunsworth says human female orgasm during sexual intercourse is uncommon, particularly without additional clitoral stimulation. "So, it's the manual work, not the manhood, that's topping off the pleasure in the female half of the species," she says.
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A doctor who deals exclusively with obstetrics, women's health and sexual health and who is the author of the best-selling medical textbook Rapid Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr Adam Kay takes us on an interesting and somewhat tragic history of the female orgasm in an article for condom brand, Durex.
He explains that in medieval times, which ranged from 400AD to 1400AD, a lot of attention was placed on the female orgasm as people wrongly believed that women needed to orgasm to fall pregnant – which made husbands extremely attentive to their wives' orgasm.
"This, unfortunately, had a tragic consequence – it became law that if a woman fell pregnant from a suspected rape, she could legally not be deemed to have been raped, because she must have orgasmed during the act," writes Kay.
Later, the Victorians who lived between 1837 and 1901 likened female arousal to illness, terming it "hysteria" (also referred to as "suffering in the uterus") with symptoms that included sexual desire and excessive vaginal lubrication.
Surprisingly this led to the birth of vibrators, as the prescribed treatment was a pelvic massage performed using very early vibrators to bring women to orgasm. Before the invention of vibrators, doctors would use their fingers to get women to orgasm, thus 'healing' their symptoms.
"These devices were some of the unsexiest devices imaginable; the 1891 'Manipulator' was steam-powered and so noisy you couldn't hear speech above it. One positive to come from this regressive period of history, though, was the spread of the vibrator from doctors' surgeries to supermarket shelves," writes Kay.
"In fact, the vibrator was the fifth home appliance to benefit from electricity (after the toaster, fan, kettle and sewing machine). These vibrators flew off the shelves but were never marketed with their true purpose – generally described as massagers or blood stimulators."
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Regarding the desire for sex, it cannot be conclusively said that sex is a basic need, such as food and water. However, it does have some incredible benefits such as preserving heart health in some people, reducing blood pressure, boosting immunity and improving mood, relationships, and mental wellbeing.
Moreover, according to research, approximately 1% to 6% of the population is asexual, meaning that they do not experience sexual attraction to others. Some asexual people have sex or masturbate, and interestingly, more women than men identify as asexual.
According to a study on how asexuals define sex, 33% had received oral sex, 28% had engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse, and 10% had been involved in penile-anal intercourse.
"Despite almost everyone in the study reporting that they've had sex in some form or another, most reported that they weren't interested in engaging in sex in the future," says the study. Only 4% of asexuals reported interest.
It is clear not everyone is interested in sex, and there is no side effect of not being sexually intimate or not having an orgasm.
Nonetheless, despite the massive body of research around this topic, Thierry Lodé, a researcher who wrote a paper on the brief history of the orgasm, concedes, "Why the sexual climax, in humans, results in a pleasurable experience remains an important biological question."
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Writers for Science.org agree, writing that some people believe women have orgasms because their reproductive machinery has the exact origins as those of men, who need to have orgasms to ejaculate sperm.
In contrast, others think orgasms are an evolutionary novelty that persists because they help foster loyal partners. Some believe that female orgasms induce physiological changes that increase the chances of conception.
Regardless of the biology around it, most people agree, as elusive and mysterious as the female orgasm and sex are, the momentary pleasure has been the antidote to millions of possible disagreements among couples for decades, if not centuries.
