lecl@quads.uchicago.edu (elizabeth e. leclair) (01/23/91)
In article <1991Jan22.105223.5843@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> ant@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Anthony Murdoch) writes: > >What I was wondering was, why does the barb on the human penis point up ? >This is, to my knowlege, just about unique in the animal kingdom aside >from a few marine animals. The barb (for lack of a better name) has a >valid evolutionary purpose in sex, ie it stimulates the clitorus making >sex more enjoyable. > >But when down the evolutionary path did man decide that he didn't like >giving sex from behind and twist his penis around ? (Actually it was >probably a womans decision ;-) > For the second, there is always the good-old "Descent of Woman" quatic Ape theory, which speculates that proto-humans retreated partially into the sea during the drying of the African continent approx. 2.5 mya. The ocean was good for food and, once partially in it, we switched to bipedalism (keep your head as high up as possible), lost most of our hair (akin to streamlining in other aquatic mammals) and started to enjoy sex face-to-face. I don't remember exactly how this last change was to have taken place, but it has much to do with gravity. Whales mate belly-to-belly, careless of their giant mass in their forgiving, buoyant environment. How this shift in humans was presumably translated onto land again (and how early humans managed not to drown in the act) is a harder think again. But the female vagina DOES have a unique angle not suited to "mounting" as in other primates. For the first point, I might gingerly suggest that there is NO feature of the penis-- certainly not the tip, or glans-- which serves to stimulate the clitoris. It is really the base of the shaft, or, more specifically, the man's pubic bone and his weight on top of it which, properly guided, rub the clitoris. "Trying to stimulate the clitoris with a penis is like trying to cut a diamond with a chain saw." -- ////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Elizabeth E. LeClair <lecl@midway.uchicago.edu> International House "Sex is two wavy lines and the United University of Chicago States of America is a trapezoid." -L.M.