Tracking women’s orgasms is a top editorial priority at Anne of Carversville.

Hopefully, we do a good job of distilling the facts about female sexuality, and that includes the dreams of big pharma to create the equivalent of Viagra for women.

On May 27, 2010 “Orgasm Inc.” has its film debut at New York’s Lincoln Center. Three weeks later, on June 18, the German manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim goes before the FDA, seeking approval for its pill with the unsexy name “flibanserin”, the focus of its flower-inspired research on four groups of women who participated in trials in Fall 2009.

Tank’s Masha Novoselova by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro MongielloSensuality News Embraces Sexual Intimacy

Let us get our own prejudices on the table.

We believe that women — and disproportionately more American women— underrate the health benefits of positive sexuality in their lives. We’re sad that orgasms get such such minor play among intelligent American women, who consistently say that besides an extra hour of sleep, they would rather read a book or watch a movie.

Statistics from a recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation indicate that White women and Asians put a lower priority on sex vs sleep, than Latino and African American women. Don’t shoot us. This is one ‘fact’ we embrace as a good one, and not a stereotypical assessment of Latino and African American propensity for sexual activity.

Blacks|African Americans and Latinos are 10 times as likely to report having sex every night as Whites and Asians and 2.5 times more likely than Whites.

At AOC, we have hot blood in our veins, too and believe that nothing could be better for women’s health than frequent orgasms, even if she goes solo.

Medicalizing Sexual Desire

The big story around the Boehringer Ingelheim FDA application is the “medicalization” of female sexual desire. There is no new script here, although the research facts are revealing, and we will restate them. American women are understandably aggravated at having their lack of sexual desire put under the microscope, as one more “failing” or imperfection.

Big pharma claims they are only trying to fill a valid medical need expressed by some women to reignite their libidos. Unfortunately, all women will be subjected to the advertising messages, and they are tough to tune out, especially if hubby is in the room.

Even if a woman is positive about her lack of sexual libido, she will be confronted with the medical opportunity of correcting it. Look at the ad campaigns for Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. Every survey says that men desire sex more than women (with the statistical opposite, of course). Women may get a trip to the doctor for Christmas.

The Sexual High Bar

More so than women in other countries, American women hold ourselves against an impossible to achieve set of Wonder Woman standards, and then drown in unhappiness and self-loathing, when we can’t achieve them. Many of those standards are our own, and others are imposed by culture, religion and business marketing.

Our perceived “failures” can turn us against our own psyches and bodies, frequently eating too much comfort food as an escape and not wanting to be seen naked with the lights on.

A few years ago Cosmo advised women to put pink lights in the bedroom, because they minimize the appearance of cellulite visible to “him” when we’re walking to the bathroom naked. With friends like Cosmo, American women don’t need enemies, and I commented just that to them. Horrible!

Tank’s Masha Novoselova by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro MongielloAmerican Culture and Female Sexual Desire

Compared to European women, Americans are hammered with religious and family-values guilt messages, until we agree that it’s nearly impossible to pursue sensible but unrestrained sensual delight with a loving partner.

Some members of the American clergy have changed course, recognizing that pleasure and positive sexuality are core foundations in a successful marriage or partnership. Many more pulpits continue to broadcast the sullied nature of female sexuality and hold women responsible for the corruption of the social order.

We believe that religion is a primary source of American women’s loss of sexual desire, compared to European women, where the church’s influence is held in a different perspective or not at all.

Yes stress is there, long hours and complex lives (European women live in castles???) for American women, but at Sensuality News, we argue that religion subconsciously turns women off of sex.

The pulpit could be more important than any new desire pill in encouraging American women to make sexual intimacy an enjoyable priority in their lives. A papal blessing would help tremendously.

Competing with Porn Stars

Weekly we read that our husbands, boyfriends and intimate partners have adapted in the 21st century loss of female desire, and are “getting off” with an unlimited supply of erotic material online. (Experts believe women were more pro-sex in the fifties — and for obvious reasons.)

Not only can women not compete with porn stars with the sizes of our breasts, butts, or not-so-long legs, but we don’t have nearly the sexual skill set of Sasha Grey. For sure, we don’t know how to speak so seductively up front and personal.

You want me to say what??? Even if I could get the words out of my mouth, then I must go to confession.

… And If We Must Compete

Besides, if we’re going to give him the present of sex, we want him to be seducing us. Let’s get a few things straight here. We’re liberated women in America, so hunker down guys. We’re looking for the Elle|MSNBC sex survey results from 2006 in which women reported how much they were lovin’ all the oral sex they were getting from their husbands.

Women are the ones who want some luvin’, and could you PLEASE get it right this time. Alas, huge disparities existed between the women who reported enjoying oral sex and those who reciprocated on their guys. Call women a bit selfish, but they were thrilled and guilt-free receiving but not giving oral sex.

Nice Try Guys

In spite of America’s sex-saturated culture, sex books created for women aren’t best-sellers, which leads us to wonder if it’s actually true that the majority of American women would rather not have sex, unless a baby is the objective.

Note that erotic romance novels are selling very well. An entire wall in a bookstore at O’Hare Airport was turned over to sexy reads a couple years ago. Don’t assume that women are reading Plato’s “Republic” rather than having sex with their husbands.

Medical spokespeople for women consistently argue that if women don’t want to have sex, it’s their prerogative. Theirs (we’re not included here) is not a medical problem but a life choice. Sexual desire doesn’t grow on trees, and if women don’t feel it, big pharma should stop trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

As for husbands — well, they should learn to live with the situation. Note that huge numbers of married women object to their husbands masturbating in sexless relationships. Many women consider masturbation a form of infidelity.

Women Wanting To Reclaim Lost Libido

Lana, a housewife in Northern Virginia, said she feared that her gradual, unexplained loss of sexual desire threatened her marriage.

“You kind of need to have it for closeness,” said Lana, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used. “You’ve heard the saying, ‘Men are like microwave ovens, and women are like crockpots?’ Well, I felt like I was a crockpot with a short circuit. I was supposed to be at a woman’s peak, but I was fizzling.” via Washington Post

Every majority has a minority built into its realm of truths and statistics.

For certain, there are millions of American women who want to reclaim their sexuality, sensuality and lost libido. They want physical intimacy with their partners because THEY miss the feelings of vitality that come with an active sexuality.

Many of the sexperts who will be testifying against the approval of “flibanserin” tend to dismiss the importance of female sexuality, as if it was created by men for their own use, and not a source of women’s vitality.

One of the core divisions in American feminism back in the 70s-80s concerned the argument that any sex with men was bad. Presumably Catholic priests applauded.

With all the emphasis on positive sexuality among gays, the same groups have reluctantly celebrated sexuality among heterosexual women. The very groups that could have communicated a clear message different from religion, endorsed it for different reasons.

In the pop culture gloss over of “sexual liberation” and the emancipation of women, with the pill, we ignore the negative messages about sexuality sent by feminism to other women for years. Prominent feminists like Andrea Dworkin argued that “penetrative sex is by its nature violent.” Other feminists stated emphatically that in a patriarchal culture, true sexual consent isn’t possible for women. Therefore …

Tank’s Masha Novoselova by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro MongielloBoehringer Results

America has never been comfortable talking about sex or promoting a sex-positive culture. This cultural disparity between the US and Europe may explain why Boehringer Ingelheim got very different results in its American trials, compared with Europe.

1. The placebo affect also worked. After taking the drug for six months, North American women taking the placebo reported 3.7 satisfying sex acts each month, compared to 2.7 acts during the baseline period.

2. The North American women taking 100 milligrams of flibanserin nightly reported an average of 4.5 satisfying sex acts per month, up from 2.8 acts during the four-week base line test period.

The Orchid test in Europe failed to deliver more satisfying sexual events, though women reported increased desire. A lower-dose version called Dahlia was ineffective. via Sensuality News

Personally, we have no issue with women taking a medically-safe pill to unlock inhibitions and activate sexual desire. But the placebo results — essentially dismissed by Boehringer — document the reality that cultural changes and just promoting the idea that American women will feel renewed desire becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Duke University studies on the relationship between obesity — where America leads the world — and sexual desire show that a loss of just 10 pounds can activate — not only sex hormones — but an individual’s self-image, so that she (more so than he) reports significantly increased pleasure in sexual activity.

Our bottom line is the proverbial grey matter middle in the discussion of medicalizing women’s loss of sexual desire. Having studied the health benefits of sex for years, we don’t camp out in the “who needs it?” school of thought.

Nor do we believe a little blue pill for women is the answer.

What we can’t dismiss in the Boehringer results is that the total increase in sexual desire and events was very measureable among American women. The net differences between the baseline period before the study began and increased sexual activity in both groups can’t be denied.

Perhaps American women in the study put sex on their “to do” lists, wanting to achieve our Wonder Woman level of perfection. The survey results bear another reading for any psychological questions of the woman. Was this just a numerical tick-off box of sexual activity before and after the study, or did researchers interview each woman in depth?

The testimony in the Boerringer application for flibanserin”s approval will bear witness to how far America has or hasn’t come in the study of female sexuality. For us this study confirms the single constant in this entire discussion about female sexuality.

Among women, the brain is the biggest sex organ.

Was it always? There’s a strong anthropological argument that with maternal instincts playing such a prominent role in female sexuality, that the brain always dominated women’s sexual decision-making — to the extent females have a choice in the matter.

An equally strong argument is made that modern American women are more mental about sexual desire than ever before. Human sexuality exists outside our definition of self, not deeply embedded in it.

When the subject is female sexuality, there’s a lot of processing going on among our beta cells. Much is for our own good, but other times we totally outsmart ourselves for our own psychological wellbeing and physical health. Anne

Read the full range of our best Sexuality Articles and especially Female | Libido | Desire.