Ok, well, I'm just going to carry on because I think this is a good thread.
So for me,
so far there's two important components here that this thread has identified as potential sources of female sexual insecurity:
appearance: (KUSA referenced the dimensions of clitoris and labia; both things some women are self-conscious about)
scent: as long as she's clean and healthy, most men seem to concur that the female scent isn't bad at all;
rather the opposite;
now I'll raise a third: Practices. Specifically a practice known as "tribadism" (pronounced "tribbid-ism")
If any of you viewed the
webpage that RocketSurgeon posted in another thread, some time ago, on Bonobo apes,
this practice was also described therein, if not named as such, as being practiced by primates other than humans, as well;
the term has a certain fluidity of use, but it primarily refers to the strictly female sexual act of genital-to-genital contact, using friction but not penetration, usually but not exclusively with another female; can also be done with an inanimate object or with a male partner. In porn, the term "scissoring" is also substituted for tribadism but I feel this is misleading; scissoring is one position that can be used, in a lesbian context, for the practice of tribadism (or "tribbing") but the two terms are not necessarily synonymous.
So my point is this: it kind of comes back to shaming females because of the "unfeminine" nature of the clitoris, insofar as it corresponds to the penis...and apart from it's mere appearance, and the fact that most females derive pleasure from its stimulation;
I wonder how most males feel about a female taking a dominant role in the acquiring that pleasure, IE tribadism in one form or another.
Many females learn to self-pleasure via tribadism, early in life, in fact;
so to be shamed because of the mere existence of their clitorises,
nevermind the method they naturally take to pleasure themselves,
is arguably sexually debilitating,
and it very likely repressed due to fear of male insecurity, discomfort, boredom, or derision.
Thoughts?
(Other than that I am going to be sent to Coventry for not taking this to A69)?
EDIT: It is worth noting that there is a male counterpart for tribadism....it is called "frotting" and has also been observed in the higher primates, as well.
there is a whole subsection of the gay male subculture that eschews anal sex entirely, opting for the practice of frotting instead, as a satisfactory substitute.
And again, the term is somewhat fluid...it can refer to activity carried out with or without clothing on, and not exclusively between gay males,
but also between males and females.
I point out this whole subject because in porn, no one bats an eye if the guy suddenly decides to position himself between a woman's breasts for his own pleasure, another form of non-penetrative sex,
but how often, by comparison, do you see women pleasing themselves on a man's thigh, or elsewhere on his body?
many would dub the practice as "weird" or at the very least, superfluous.
And i think it's a sad double-standard, myself.
SECOND EDIT:
I think it bears mentioning that the practice of tribadism is something most frequently done by lesbian couples,
but many lesbians even fail to ever try the practice,
ASSUMING that manual, oral, or artificial means of stimulation will be preferable;
however I have read blog posts from some lesbians who volunteered that once it was given a chance,
it surpassed even oral as a preferred method of pleasure.
