Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Idle Thoughts on Orgasms and Reproduction

When I was writing those two posts below on female orgasms and their possible evolutionary roots I was thinking what poor things female orgasms are, fickle, hard to achieve, quite unnecessary. Well, I wasn't thinking that way, except that the topic is mostly presented in those terms. As I pointed out there, many women can have multiple orgasms in a row. How that goes with the theory that female orgasms are just a by-product of male orgasms I don't know.

Never mind. We get what is served us. That's why I thought it might be fun to offer some science-fictiony alternatives to the way we humans have reproductive sex. For instance, what would happen if women came into heat once a year, say? How would the world be different?

Would women in heat have long lines of hesitant men walking behind them, stopping whenever she stops, continuing when she does? That's what I saw dogs do when I was a child. The dogs were quite respectful of the bitch in heat, but they were there, just in case she would choose *him*.

It's a fun thought, isn't it? Or would human females under those conditions mate with everyone as often as they could, as chimpanzees appear to do, based on more recent research? How would parenting be arranged in such a world?

Stepping even further into imagination, suppose that we were like the marsupials. Children would be born when they are only few millimeters long, would crawl into that nice pouch and would then complete their growth inside it. I like that idea of giving birth, myself, but I'm not sure how the pouches would work with clothing.

Or we could be egg-layers, hiding the eggs in some nifty place. Would the men sit on the eggs or not to hatch them? Would we write posts about the need to share that task? Property rights to egg-laying sites would probably be a big thing in that world.

A long time ago I imagined a world where men don't produce sperm but pollen. Contraception means using umbrellas or parasols to prevent it from touching the female reproductive organs.

There. I told you these were idle thoughts. And I haven't even gotten to the world where women lay a group of eggs and just walk away.