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Authors: Desmond Morris
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cases, most of the other body.responses mentioned apply in all cases, although, of course, their actual intensity and duration will vary according to the circumstances.
Another point that requires clarification is the way in which these sexual activities are distributed throughout the individual’s lifetime. During the first decade of life no true sexual activity can occur in either sex. A great deal of so-called ‘sex-play’ can be observed in young children, but until the female has begun to ovulate and the male to ejaculate, functional sexual patterns obviously cannot occur. Menstruation begins for some females at the age of ten and by the age of fourteen. 80 per cent of young females are actively menstruating. All are doing so by the age of nineteen. The development of pubic hair, the broadening of the hips, and the swelling of the breasts accompanies this change and, in fact, slightly precedes it. General body growth proceeds at a slower rate and is not completed until the twenty-second year.
The first ejaculation in boys does not usually occur until they have reached eleven years, so that they are sexually slower starters than the girls. (The earliest recorded successful ejaculation is for a boy of eight, but this is most unusual.) By the age of twelve, 25 per cent of boys have experienced their first ejaculation and by fourteen 8o per cent have done so. (At this point, therefore, they have caught up with the girls.) The mean age for the first ejaculation is thirteen years and ten months. As with the girls, there are characteristic accompanying changes. Body hair begins to grow, especially in the pubic region and on the face. The typical sequence of appearance of this hairiness is: pubic, armpit, upper lip, cheeks, chin, and then, much more gradually, the chest and other parts of the body. Instead of a broading of the hips, there is a widening of the shoulders. The voice becomes deeper. This last change also takes place in the girls but to a much smaller extent. In both sexes there is also an acceleration of the growth of the genital organs themselves.
It is interesting that, if one measures sexual responsiveness in term of frequency of orgasm, the male is much quicker to reach his peak of performance than the female. Although males begin their sexual maturation process a year or so behind the girls, they nevertheless attain their orgasmic peak while they are still in their teens, whereas the girls do not reach theirs until their mid-twenties or even thirties. In fact, the female of our species has to reach the age of twenty nine before she can match the orgasm rate of the fifteen-year-old male. Only 23 per cent of fifteen-year-old females will have experienced orgasm at all, and this figure has only risen to 53 per cent by the age of twenty. By thirty-five it is go per cent.
The adult male achieves an average of about three orgasms a week, and over seven per cent experience daily or more than daily ejaculation. The frequency of orgasm for the average male is highest between the ages of fifteen and thirty, and then drops steadily from thirty to old age. The ability to achieve multiple ejaculation fades, and the angle at which the erect pen is is carried also drops. Erection can be maintained for an average of nearly an hour in the late teens, but it has fallen to only seven minutes at the age of seventy. Nevertheless, 70 per cent of all males are still sexually active at the age of seventy.
A similar picture of waning sexuality with increasing age is found in the female. The more or less abrupt cessation of ovulation at around the age of fifty does not markedly reduce the degree of sexual responsiveness, when the population is taken as a whole. There are, however, great individual variations in its influence on sexual behaviour. The vast majority of all the copulatory activity we have been discussing occurs when the partners are in a pair-bonded state. This may take the form of an officially recognised marriage,
Another point that requires clarification is the way in which these sexual activities are distributed throughout the individual’s lifetime. During the first decade of life no true sexual activity can occur in either sex. A great deal of so-called ‘sex-play’ can be observed in young children, but until the female has begun to ovulate and the male to ejaculate, functional sexual patterns obviously cannot occur. Menstruation begins for some females at the age of ten and by the age of fourteen. 80 per cent of young females are actively menstruating. All are doing so by the age of nineteen. The development of pubic hair, the broadening of the hips, and the swelling of the breasts accompanies this change and, in fact, slightly precedes it. General body growth proceeds at a slower rate and is not completed until the twenty-second year.
The first ejaculation in boys does not usually occur until they have reached eleven years, so that they are sexually slower starters than the girls. (The earliest recorded successful ejaculation is for a boy of eight, but this is most unusual.) By the age of twelve, 25 per cent of boys have experienced their first ejaculation and by fourteen 8o per cent have done so. (At this point, therefore, they have caught up with the girls.) The mean age for the first ejaculation is thirteen years and ten months. As with the girls, there are characteristic accompanying changes. Body hair begins to grow, especially in the pubic region and on the face. The typical sequence of appearance of this hairiness is: pubic, armpit, upper lip, cheeks, chin, and then, much more gradually, the chest and other parts of the body. Instead of a broading of the hips, there is a widening of the shoulders. The voice becomes deeper. This last change also takes place in the girls but to a much smaller extent. In both sexes there is also an acceleration of the growth of the genital organs themselves.
It is interesting that, if one measures sexual responsiveness in term of frequency of orgasm, the male is much quicker to reach his peak of performance than the female. Although males begin their sexual maturation process a year or so behind the girls, they nevertheless attain their orgasmic peak while they are still in their teens, whereas the girls do not reach theirs until their mid-twenties or even thirties. In fact, the female of our species has to reach the age of twenty nine before she can match the orgasm rate of the fifteen-year-old male. Only 23 per cent of fifteen-year-old females will have experienced orgasm at all, and this figure has only risen to 53 per cent by the age of twenty. By thirty-five it is go per cent.
The adult male achieves an average of about three orgasms a week, and over seven per cent experience daily or more than daily ejaculation. The frequency of orgasm for the average male is highest between the ages of fifteen and thirty, and then drops steadily from thirty to old age. The ability to achieve multiple ejaculation fades, and the angle at which the erect pen is is carried also drops. Erection can be maintained for an average of nearly an hour in the late teens, but it has fallen to only seven minutes at the age of seventy. Nevertheless, 70 per cent of all males are still sexually active at the age of seventy.
A similar picture of waning sexuality with increasing age is found in the female. The more or less abrupt cessation of ovulation at around the age of fifty does not markedly reduce the degree of sexual responsiveness, when the population is taken as a whole. There are, however, great individual variations in its influence on sexual behaviour. The vast majority of all the copulatory activity we have been discussing occurs when the partners are in a pair-bonded state. This may take the form of an officially recognised marriage,
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