THE VAGINA AND THE PENIS.

The Vagina and the Penis:
Two organs which the male imagination focuses on.

As far as the vagina is concerned, any sexual stimulation causes a rush of blood and induces a discharge; the vagina secretes and grows noticeably in size.
As the excitement becomes more intense, a fresh rush of blood causes the external third to dilate, this is what Masters and Johnson call the 'orgasmic plateau'; in other words, it becomes firmer and takes on a more definite shape.
Finally, during orgasm, it contracts frequently and regularly around the orgasmic plateau, and then little by little it goes back to its usual shape.

As for the penis, it follows more or less the same pattern; except that behavioural manifestations are external and there is no mucoid secretion. In response to stimulation the blood vessels dilate and the penis becomes enlarged; then a second rush of blood slightly increases the circumference, mainly around the coronal ridge and during orgasm, like the vagina, it contracts at regular intervals - incidentally, the rhythm of the contractions is the same - then it gradually goes back to its regular shape.

And so, anatomically and physiologically, the two organs are very similar; and yet this has not stopped man from ignoring the vagina and regarding it as a mere inert hole, or from being almost entirely ignorant concerning his own penis, which he sees as a power symbol and an instrument of sexual appropriation.
Quite obviously man does not know his own genitals, and now science has recognised this.

Masters and Johnson, no doubt wishing to make up for lost time, comment:-
The functioning role of the penis is as well established as that of any other organ in the body.
Ironically, there is no organ about which more misinformation has been perpetrated.
The penis constantly has been viewed but rarely seen. The organ has been venerated, reviled and misrepresented with intent in art, literature and legend through the centuries...
 These 'phallic fallacies' have coloured our arts, and possibly, of even more import to our culture, influenced our behavioural and biological sciences ...

Why?... should the functional role of the penis have been shrouded so successfully by the 'phallic fallacy' concepts?
This, indeed, is one of the great mysteries of biologic science.

[The above is an extract from... "The Psychology of Circumcising."]

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