The 1960's had witnessed a time of magnificent discovery about sexual intercouse and what exactly happens behind closed doors.
This surge in research was spearheaded by Masters and Johnson, who were close to being dismissed from their positions at Washington University in St. Louis for the risky endeavors they took. Namely, they recorded couples and strangers alike having intercourse with each other and analyzed the results. When that was insufficient, they engaged in intercourse with each other to attempt to draw additional conclusions about sex.
Indeed, it's an approach that sounds radical even today. Imagine how ostracized they were in the 1960s before the sexual revolution and squarely in the age of the Baby Boomers. Literally watching people having sex with sensors and cameras in all sorts of areas behind one-way mirror is as shocking an idea now as it was back then.
Masters & Johnson had numerous findings from their controversial studies, during which they estimated studying "10,000 complete cycles of sexual response". The findings ranged from the mechanics on female vaginal lubrication, to how frequent and intense sex was amongst older populations.Undoubtedly, their biggest finding was in the Human Sexual Response Cycle (HSRC).The HSRC is a model that outlines what happens to your body during a sexual encounter, from a baseline of non-arousal to post-orgasm. As aforementioned, they looked at over ten thousand cycles of sexual response to be able to clearly find four stages to the cycle.
What's notable about this research is that it documents only the physical states, and they occurred regardless of the emotional attachment or romantic chemistry between the participants. Indeed, this is something that has also been proven in the context of women who have suffered rape yet counter intuitively reported signs of physical arousal and lubrication during their encounter.
This suggests that at the prospect of a sexual encounter, whether it is desired or not, the body acts in predictable ways to prepare itself physically. In this context, lubrications is to protect the vaginal canal from tearing, or other types of injuries that can occur from an unwanted sexual assault.
Such lubrication is a physiological reflex, as are the other stages in the HSRC. Bodies will react for protection and preparation, not necessarily pleasure.
The four physiological stages of arousal are:
1.Excitement
2.Plateau
3.Orgasm
4.Resolution (otherwise known as refractory)
Once you begin to read the descriptions, you'll see that this parallels your experience during any sexual encounter. Masters and Johnson described the host of physical responses, which is important for two main reasons. First, so you can understand what the normal flow of arousal looks like and understand your body better; second, you can diagnose yourself and watch yourself progress through the stages, and see if there is anything you are missing in youself, or any way that you deviate from the norm set forth here.
Excitement
This is the first stage of arousal,and it takes you from a baseline of being not aroused or excited whatsoever. It might be when you step in closer to someone, or might even just be triggered by a kiss. The causes of initial excitement are different for everyone, just as some people will consider a kiss to be flirting and others will consider it to be just a friendly guesture. This is the stage that occurs when you sense that you might have the opportunity for sexual intercourse, and your body is preparing itself for that opportunity. That's why even flirting can trigger the excitement stage for some-it's whatever appears to be a real opportunity.
However, it doesn't matter if the initial causes are different. The physiological responses will generally be the same.
During the excitement stage of arousal, and this applies for both genders, blood begins to pool in the pelvic region, which begins to swell and becomes more sensitive to stimulation. Obviously in men the blood pools in the erectile tissues in the penis, but it is only intermittent and not at full strength. In women, the blood circulation makes their labia swell and begins to produce internal vaginal lubrication. The excitement phase can last for hours for women.
Sexual excitement also tends to release an amount of adrenaline, which can cause people's heart rate to rise, sweaty palms and other signs of overall physiological arousal.
Plateau
The plateau stage comes second in arousal, and is an accumulation of the first excitement stage. In other words, when you go fully through the excitement stage, you will eventually reach a point where you are as sexually aroused and excited as possible. That's the plateau stage, where the stimulation leads to.
There aren't any different physiological responses from the prior stage, just more intense and heightened ones.As physical arousal grows, people's blood pressure rises, heart rate rises and they grwo sweatier.It's all the mental and emotional flags of being physically ready for a fight. There are the same physiologically because the same stress hormones of adrenaline and cortisol are released.
More blood will continue to flow to the genital regions. For women, the clitoris will begin to swell and become sensitive and lubricated while for men, this is where they reach full erection and may even start to secrete pre-ejaculatory fluid.
It's clear at this stage that people are ready for extremely imminent sexual intercouse. Everything in their body is primed for it and you might even say that the only thing missing here is penetration and everythign else is present.
Many people may rush through the first two stages as you've probably been a victim yourself. What does that result in? Sex that isn't fulfilling or even, good because one or both parties weren't ready for it physiologically. Despite what someone might want or think mentally, if their body does not catch up to their emotions, the sex may lag behind as well.
Penetration without a sufficiently lubricated vagina or only a partially erect penis may never lead to the subsequent stages and only serve to hold you back from better intercourse.
Orgasm
While many women may never reach this stage it doesn't mean they didn't plateau. In other words, just because someone doesn't orgasm doesn't mean they aren't having a pleasurable experience.
For women, with enough stimulation directly or indirectly on the clitoris, an orgasm will occur. At this point, all the tension and excitement accumulating in the body reach a peak and are suddenly released through a series of muscle contractions in the vagina and is often, accompanied by a flood of vaginal lubrication. Some women may even ejaculate, but that is the small minority.
In this stage, muscle tension is completely released and gives way to relative relaxedness after orgasm.
Resolution
You can't orgasm again and again without resting. This is when rest and recovery from a recent orgasm is necessary.
This is known as the resolution or refractory stage. Although people suffer vastly in how long it can last, this is a part of the human sexual response cycle to some degree. It might take some people two hours before they can have sex again, but others might have an almost non-existent resolution stage of five minutes.
Masters and Johnson noted that it was impossible for men to achieve orgasm during this stage, though it may be different for women. This is where the ability of women to have multiple orgasms comes into play. Women either have extremely short resolution stages, or none at all depending on the stimulation they are receiving. As a result, it may take them a longer time to reduce their sexual arousal and excitement, whereas a man's arousal might fall right off a cliff post-orgasm.
This completes all the cycles of the HSRC. It takes you from your normative everyday state of non-arousal and right back to it so you can get on with the rest of your day, essentially. Sex was seen as a physiological event to prepare for and then wind down from.
She created it because she felt that the HSRC was a linear model that only predicted male sexual response. Masters and Johnson's model started with desire, arousal, then orgasm, whereas females engaged in sex for reasons other than simple desire and arousal.
It's a circular and nonlinear model, which means that women don't follow the desire-to-arousal model. It can be backwards, and any number of exciting factors can cause women to be aroused, such as emotional intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and of course, sexual stimuli.
In other words, men follow the sequence of having a desire for sex and then getting aroused, but women can have any number of antecedents for getting sexually aroused. It heavily implies that women place a far greater emphasis on emotional closeness, and that sex isn't necessarily about pleasure or arousal for them. It’s a form of emotional bonding and creating a sense of security.
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