Cosmo SSL Review: Jan 2013 #3: Only 1/3? Really?

I am now continuing my SSL Review of the January 2013 Cosmo article "Rebound Sex, The Right Way." by Casey Gueren. I reviewed the main part of the article HERE. In this post, I will comment on the "Rebounding by the Numbers" part, which is just the results of a poll conducted on Cosmopolitan.com in this one.

So in the poll, we find out that 62% of women claimed not to orgasm in their rebound sex and 32% did claim to orgasm. Does that not seem like a raw deal, right there? If a men's magazine found that 2/3rds of men couldn't orgasm during rebound sex, wouldn't that be the story? Yet it just sits there on the page in an unremarkable way.

It's so weird to me how there is this confused, bi-polar, forgive and forget kind of understanding of female orgasm, particularly in magazines like this where orgasming during sex is discussed casually all the time; new positions to give you better orgasms; new bedroom tricks. They do also mention from time to time how few women do orgasm from intercourse or how most can only orgasm from clitoral stimulation. It's a very odd dynamic. In the same breath, they try to comfort the vast majority of women out there who don't recognize themselves in the getting-banged-to-orgasm media image of women we are constantly being exposed to but then also heavily contribute to the cultural feeling that sexual women easily orgasm from intercourse.

They point out the insanely large number of women who admit to never orgasming during intercourse, but take no interest in investigating or commenting on it in any thoughtful way. I mean, honestly, if we really just stop to think about that statistic, how crazy is that? It's pretty much the same statistic commonly found when women are asked if they orgasm often or always during just any ol' sex they have. For this type of question too, only about 1/3 say yes. Only a 1/3! I know that statistic is out there and people know about it, but sit and imagine what that says about the realistic, actual female experience with sex. That should be appalling, and incredibly interesting, and we should be really investigating what this means and why it is the case. Instead, if you ask me, as soon as it's written or said aloud, it seems we just sort of pretend it doesn't exist and move on as we always have. It's crazy.

So, I can't blame the article for not being outraged by that number. It's status quo and expected, but I think the insanity of that situation should be pointed out.