Female Ejaculation and the G-Spot (7 page)

Female ejaculation appears in 20th century
anthropological
works, such as
Malinowski's
Melanesian study,
The Sexual
Life of Savages
(1929), and Gladwin and Sarason's "Truk: Man in Paradise" (1956). Malinowski states that in the language of the
Trobriand Island
people, a single word is used to describe ejaculation in both male and female.
51

Both the male and female discharge are called by the same name (
momona
or
momola
), and they ascribe to both the same origin in the kidneys, and the same function, which has nothing to do with generation, but is concerned with lubricating the membrane and increasing pleasure

In describing sexual relations amongst the
Trukese
Micronesians, Gladwin and Sarason state that "Female orgasm is commonly signalled by urination".
52
Catherine Blackledge
27
(p. 205) provides a number of examples from other cultures, including the
Ugandan
Batoro
,
Mohave
Indians,
Mangaians
, and
Ponapese
. Amongst the Batoro, older women teach the younger women "kachapati" (spraying the wall) at puberty. (See also Chalker 2002 pp. 531-2, Ladas et al.

1983 pp. 74-5)

The debate in the current literature focuses on three threads: the existence of female ejaculation, its source(s) and composition, and its relationship to theories of female sexuality.
16
This debate has been influenced by popular culture, pornography, and physio-chemical and behavioral studies. There is some resistance from feminists to what has been perceived as a male lens in interpreting the data and construct. Often the debate is also tied to the existence of the

G-spot
;
1853
stimulation of the anterior vaginal wall involves simultaneous stimulation of the para-urethral tissue, the site of the
Skene's glands
and ducts and presumed source of the ejaculated fluid, and therefore it has been variously stated that stimulation of this spot results in ejaculation. These tissues, surrounding the distal urethra, and anterior to the vagina, have a common embryological origin to the prostatic tissue in the male.
5455

Shannon Bell
argues
16
that the debate is confused by the discussion of two separate phenomena. In an extensive survey, Darling and colleagues claim support for the existence of ejaculation,
4
while in a sharply critical response, Alzate
5657
states that direct experimentation fails to provide any evidence.
58
Alzate states:

the ignorance and/or confusion still prevalent among women about the anatomy and physiology of their sexual organs may make them mistake either vaginal lubrication or stress urinary incontinence for an "ejaculation"

Bell comments that Alzate simply dismisses women's subjective experiences in favour of rigorous scientific proof, and is typical of male sexologists withholding the validity of experience from women. Bell's critique lies at the heart of feminist concerns about this debate, namely a tendency to "disregard, reinterpret, and overwrite women's subjective descriptions." For some, she states, it is more a matter of belief than of physiology.