<< Total Sexual Outlet >>

The six chief sources of orgasm for the human male are masturbation, nocturnal emissions, heterosexual petting, heterosexual intercourse, homosexual relations, and intercourse with animals of other species. The sum of the orgasms derived from these several sources constitutes the individual’s total sexual outlet.

In the present study, we have tried to secure data on (1) the incidences and frequencies of sexual activities among the males and the females in the available sample; (2) the incidences and frequencies of their responses to socio-sexual contacts and to psychosexual stimuli; and (3) the incidences and frequencies of the responses which led to orgasm.

From most of the subjects it has been possible to secure incidence data on the overt, physical contacts which were recognizably sexual because they were genital or because they brought specific erotic response. From most of the subjects it has also been possible to secure frequency data on most of those contacts, but this has not always been possible because there are situations in which the genital anatomy is not involved, and then it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the contacts or emotional responses are sexual in any real sense of the term. It has been difficult, for instance, to secure exact data on the incidences and frequencies of self-stimulation which was non-genital, on the frequencies of sexual dreams which did not lead to orgasm, and on the incidences and frequencies of the non-genital socio-sexual contacts. There is every gradation between a simple good night kiss or a friendly embrace, and a kiss or an embrace which is definitely sexual in its intent and consequences.

But whenever physical contacts or psychologic stimuli had led to orgasm, there was rarely any doubt of the sexual nature of the situation, and it has in consequence been possible to secure incidence and frequency data which were as reliable as the interview technique would allow. For these reasons, the statistical data in the present volume, just as in our volume on the male, have been largely concerned with the incidences and frequencies of sexual activities that led to orgasm. The procedure may have overemphasized the importance of orgasm, but it would have been impossible in any large-scale survey to have secured as precise records on some of the other, less certainly identifiable aspects of sexual behavior.

For these same reasons, we have defined the total sexual outlet of an individual as the sum of the orgasms derived from the various types of sexual activity in which that individual had engaged. Since all sexual responses, whether they are the product of psychologic stimulation or of some physical contact, may involve some sort of physiologic change and therefore some expenditure of energy, all sexual responses might be considered a part of the individual’s total sexual outlet; but the term total outlet as we have used it has covered only those contacts and/or responses which had led to orgasm.

There is, moreover, a reality involved in any such summation of orgasms, for all orgasms appear to be physiologically similar quantities, whether they are derived from masturbatory, heterosexual, homosexual, or other sorts of activity. For most females and males, there appear to be basic physiologic needs which are satisfied by sexual orgasm, whatever the source, and the sum total of such orgasms may constitute a significant entity in the life of an individual.
The concept of a total sexual outlet appears not to have been employed in other studies. The nearest approximation seems to be in Davis 1929:233, who classifies her sample on the basis of the number of sources of outlet which they were utilizing.

It is, of course, true that sexual experience may have a significance which lies beyond the physiologic release that it provides, and each type of sexual experience may have its own peculiar significance. For instance, many persons will consider the psychologic significance of an orgasm attained in masturbation very different from the psychologic significance of an orgasm derived from a socio-sexual source. The social significance of orgasms attained in non-marital coitus may be different from those attained in marital coitus. In many ways, it may be more significant to know the frequencies and incidences of the particular do. But social interests are still involved when an individual finds satisfaction for a physiologic and psychologic need; and the data on total sexual outlets may, therefore, deserve as much consideration as any of the data on particular types of sexual activity.

Since practically all of the sexual contacts of the mature male and female involve emotional changes, all of which represent expenditures of energy, all adult contacts might be considered means of outlet, even though they do not lead to orgasm. These emotional situations are, however, of such variable intensity that they are difficult to assess and compare; and, for the sake of achieving some precision in analysis, the present discussion of outlets is confined to those instances of sexual activity which culminate in orgasm.

Figures 126-127. Sources of orgasm for total active U. S. population, by age groups
and types of sexual coitus contributing to outlet. Males vs. females.

Figures 110f-112f. Percentage of total outlet: sources of orgasm,
among single, married, and previously married females

Figures 113f-115f. Percentage of total outlet: sources of orgasm,
among single males and females of different educational levels

Figures 128-133. Sources of orgasm for single and married males
of the grade school level, the high school level, and the college level, by age groups

Summary data, corrected for distribution of age, marital status, and educational level
shown in U. S. Census of 1940.

Viewed objectively, human sexual behavior, in spite of its diversity, is more easily comprehended than most people, even scientists, have previously realized. The six types of sexual activity -- masturbation, spontaneous nocturnal emissions, petting, heterosexual intercourse, homosexual contacts, and animal contacts -- may seem to fall into categories that are as far apart as right and wrong, licit and illicit, normal and abnormal, acceptable and unacceptable in our social organization. In actuality, they all prove to originate in the relatively simple mechanisms which provide for erotic response when there are sufficient physical or psychic stimuli.

To each individual, the significance of any particular type of sexual activity depends very largely upon his previous experience. Ultimately, certain activities may seem to him to be the only things that have value, that are right, that are socially acceptable; and all departures from his own particular pattern may seem to him to be enormous abnormalities. But the scientific data which are accumulating make it appear that, if circumstances had been propitious, most individuals might have become conditioned in any direction, even into activities which they now consider quite unacceptable. There is little evidence of the existence of such a thing as innate perversity, even among those individuals whose sexual activities society has been least inclined to accept. There is an abundance of evidence that most human sexual activities would become comprehensible to most individuals, if they could know the background of each other individual’s behavior.

The social values of human activities must be measured by many scales other than those which are available to the scientist. Individual responsibilities toward others in the social organization, and the long-range outcome of behavior which represents the individual’s response to the stimuli of the immediate moment, are things that persons other than scientists must evaluate. As scientists, we have explored, and we have performed our function when we have published the record of what we have found the human male doing sexually, as far as we have been able to ascertain that fact.

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