Discovering the female orgasm

Don’t get me wrong, said Jessica Grose in Slate. A woman’s orgasm is an important thing. But the One Taste Urban Retreat Center—a San Francisco organization dedicated to the pursuit of the perfect O—takes things a bit too far (read the New York Times story). “Isn’t it horrifically self-absorbed to join a commune” with such a limited focus?

“Maybe I’ve just been in San Francisco too long,” said Tracy Clark-Flory in Salon. But the people in the Times story didn’t seem self-absorbed to me. If anything, the women seeking to realize their “orgasmic potential”—and the men willing to focus on female satisfaction—are “sexually absorbed.” And, “within a mainstream sexual culture defined almost exclusively by dudely desires,” a little devotion to female rapture can be a very healthy thing.

The religion angle is the really interesting thing here, said Mollie Ziegler in Get Religion. The 38 people at One Taste practice yoga and mindfulness meditation. Yes, "the rare individual who is interested in sex" might focus on the group's key ritual, "where women, naked from the waist down, are brought to orgasm by their 'research partners' through orgasmic meditation." But there seems to be a lot more to it than that.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up