Puts David Andrew, Dawood Khytam
Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA.
Twin Res Hum Genet. 2006 Jun;9(3):467-72. doi: 10.1375/183242706777591344.
Do women experience orgasm because this trait was shaped by natural selection to augment female fitness? Or are women merely the lucky recipients of developmental patterns favored by selection to produce orgasm in males? A recent and widely publicized book by Elisabeth Lloyd (2005a) contends that there is insufficient evidence to validate any of the adaptive explanations yet proposed for female orgasm. We agree. But our reading of the data differs from Lloyd's. In this essay, we outline why, unlike Caton (2006), whose review of Lloyd's book appeared previously in this journal, we are not persuaded by Lloyd's argument that female orgasm is a nonadaptive byproduct of orgasm in men. We hold this view because we disagree with the criteria Lloyd uses to evaluate evolutionary hypotheses, and because we believe Lloyd defines female orgasm too narrowly, ignoring critical information about its affective aspects.
女性体验性高潮是因为这一特征是由自然选择塑造以增强女性的适应性吗？还是说女性仅仅是自然选择青睐的发育模式的幸运受益者，这些模式使得男性能够体验性高潮？伊丽莎白·劳埃德（2005a）最近出版且广受关注的一本书认为，尚无足够证据来证实目前针对女性性高潮所提出的任何适应性解释。我们对此表示认同。但我们对数据的解读与劳埃德不同。在本文中，我们将概述为何与卡顿（2006）不同，（卡顿对劳埃德这本书的评论此前发表在本期刊上），我们并不认同劳埃德的观点，即女性性高潮是男性性高潮的非适应性副产品。我们持有这一观点是因为我们不同意劳埃德用于评估进化假说的标准，还因为我们认为劳埃德对女性性高潮的定义过于狭隘，忽略了有关其情感方面的关键信息。
