Althouse: What's with this beautiful BBC journalist reading the news as if she's having an orgasm?

January 18, 2009

What's with this beautiful BBC journalist reading the news as if she's having an orgasm?

"Idle speculation on my part, women don't need to guess when a man has reached his moment, but men aren't afforded the same luxury. We (for the most part, there are some unmistakeable and unfakeable physical cues, too) have to take the word of our partner that she has been satisfied, so the auditory cues of the approach of that moment are a signal that we've done something right and will likely be rewarded with future and frequent access to more happy fun together time, which is why when men hear women making those noises, even in an unrelated context, we get a bit excited."

72 comments:

Bob said...: Yep. She's a dirty dirty girl.

*laughs*; 1/18/09, 8:55 PM
KCFleming said...: Given the audio, some Brits seem a bit too easily titillated.

But I fully understand, women are beautiful; a toss of the hair, a tilt of the head, the back of the neck, the swell of the hips, a glance, her voice, even her breath can make a man crumble.

Song to the Siren.; 1/18/09, 9:09 PM
Skyler said...: On the local NPR radio station they play the BBC news and they always have this woman reading the news in a husky, breathless voice. I don't find it a turn on at all they way she does it. In fact, it's quite annoying. Probably because unlike this woman, it sounds like she's faking it.; 1/18/09, 9:09 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I do think that you can often tell when the woman you are with climaxes. Sure, they can fake it, but I really don't remember encountering such for decades.

There seems to be a range of female sexuality, ranging from those who cannot, to those who can easily have multiple orgasms. In the last decade or so, it has mostly been the later, thankfully. That is much preferable to the "hard to climax" type, who pull out their vibrator to finish themselves off.

That said, my recent question is why does it matter so much to us guys? We do almost all of the work, and there is often little care given to our needs. And that is after having wined and dined the woman beforehand.

Shouldn't women be bearing at least part of the burden, in this age of sexual equality where they get equal pay and have almost total reproductive control? Why this obsession with satisfying the woman, when she is much less likely to reciprocate?; 1/18/09, 9:10 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: We do almost all of the work, and there is often little care given to our needs.

I think you are having relationships with the wrong women.; 1/18/09, 9:15 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I think you are having relationships with the wrong women."

But they're all so multi-orgasmic! Or so it seems.; 1/18/09, 9:20 PM
Alex said...: Just goes to show there are idiots in any country. The Brits are not superior in any way to Americans from what I see by their media, race relations and crumbling infrastructure. England is fucked.; 1/18/09, 9:27 PM
Meade said...: Wait... you're saying some women are not multi-orgasmic? You're kidding.; 1/18/09, 9:30 PM
Moose said...: Ok, ok. So if women are so gifted in the area of multi-orgasmic-ness, why are men always to blame when the women are not MON?

I mean, if you guys are tuned into the cosmic wavelengths, WTF do you need us for?

*jeez*; 1/18/09, 9:32 PM
Synova said...: Well, Bruce...

I sort of figure that a man should be on the bottom while a woman "does all the work" and has her way with him, so he's got his hands free. ;-)

(I can't quite imagine being so rude as to take out a vibrator to "finish off". You've *got* to be making that up.); 1/18/09, 9:33 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: But I fully understand, women are beautiful; a toss of the hair, a tilt of the head, the back of the neck, the swell of the hips, a glance, her voice, even her breath can make a man crumble.

We really are wired that way. I sure didn't realize it, until my hormone levels started to drop in recent years. All of a sudden you wake up one day and realize that much of our gender interactions involve females punching these male buttons. It is so ubiquitous in our society, that we mostly don't think about it, but rather just react.; 1/18/09, 9:39 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: But they're all so multi-orgasmic!

It is a strange mental image, isn't it? These women lying there passively, shuddering periodically with coital bliss. Odd.; 1/18/09, 9:40 PM
Palladian said...: "We really are wired that way."

Some of us aren't.

"All of a sudden you wake up one day and realize that much of our gender interactions involve females punching these male buttons. It is so ubiquitous in our society, that we mostly don't think about it, but rather just react."

I tend to react negatively if a woman tries to so much as touch my "male buttons". A punch would earn her a punch in the "female buttons", with great force and furious anger.; 1/18/09, 9:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Whore!

She seems to be at it again.; 1/18/09, 9:44 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I tend to react negatively if a woman tries to so much as touch my "male buttons". A punch would earn her a punch in the "female buttons", with great force and furious anger.

And yet, it is ubiquitous. Why so much cleavage today? How about tight jeans? Bare legs ? (esp. now in the middle of the winter - ok, stockings, but that is just to fake the bare legs). I find myself reacting to all of these, constantly.; 1/18/09, 9:59 PM
Meade said...: "...but that is just to fake the bare legs..."

As if it's not enough faking the muli-orgasims?

"I find myself reacting to all of these, constantly."

Yikes! Like a priapic scarecrow, huh?; 1/18/09, 10:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm still having a hard time with the words, "orgasm" and "BBC" in the same sentence.; 1/18/09, 10:07 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Surely there is an appropriate sedative...; 1/18/09, 10:07 PM
XWL said...: Thanks for the link, much appreciated.

And for the record, though I'd like to think she was having a bit of fun, it does sound more like breathlessness from running into the sound booth up a flight of stairs to me; 1/18/09, 10:07 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Surely there is an appropriate sedative...

Age; 1/18/09, 10:09 PM
Palladian said...: "And yet, it is ubiquitous. Why so much cleavage today? How about tight jeans? Bare legs ? (esp. now in the middle of the winter - ok, stockings, but that is just to fake the bare legs)."

Well, women have to make use of what limited resources they possess, don't they?; 1/18/09, 10:10 PM
Palladian said...: "Thanks for the link, much appreciated."

I especially like the PHD candidate with the eyebrow ring. Heh.; 1/18/09, 10:11 PM
Palladian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/18/09, 10:11 PM
XWL said...: The conversation I'd really like to see is the common practice of posting pictures on academic CV pages that look like mugshots after being picked up for a drunk and disorderly charge.

That pic of Neal Pollet definitely would make the cut.; 1/18/09, 10:12 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I think you are having relationships with the wrong women.

But how do you know beforehand?

Sure, guys are always trying to figure this out, but my experience is that women are better at faking this level of passion/ sensuality/ sexuality beforehand, than they are when you finally get around to actually having sex.; 1/18/09, 10:14 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I especially like the PHD candidate with the eyebrow ring. Heh.

That was my favorite too. I actually called my husband to come in from the other room to see it. We'd been reading about that guy's study (and laughing) earlier today.; 1/18/09, 10:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Guys, if you're getting a little out of control at the wrong moment, if you know what I mean, block out the image of your partner and just think about the BBC for a moment or two. Don't think about it too long, however, as the thought of Owen Bennett-Jones could cause permanent ED.

I was going to suggest visualizing Lyse Doucet, but I realize that's terribly sexist.; 1/18/09, 10:22 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: women are better at faking this level of passion/ sensuality/ sexuality beforehand

I think the key would be learning that someone acting like she wants some action is not a very good indicator that she's any good at it.; 1/18/09, 10:23 PM
XWL said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/18/09, 10:26 PM
XWL said...: D'oh, the Ph.D candidate's name is Thomas Pollet, and I think the page I linked is old, so I guess I should call him Dr Pollet as he is in this Times of London article on the same study I linked in my blog post.

About that Times of London take on the wealth=orgasms study, the comments over there are pretty funny, and any 'research' that comes from mining data from a survey (in a different culture from and language than that native to the researches no less) can't really be called scientific in my opinion, but it earned Dr. Pollet his doctorate, so I guess it counts for something for some people.; 1/18/09, 10:31 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: But they're all so multi-orgasmic! Or so it seems.

Actually,no. Probably because of the type of work that I have done over the last 30+ years, the women I have been with were more likely to have been non-orgasmic than multi-orgasmic. Luckily, more recently, that hasn't been the situation.

Ok, maybe not luckily. Both extremes can be exhausting.

I think that early on, it might have been easy to deceive me. But why bother? Maybe to get me to go to sleep, but other than that, I fail to see the point. Maybe I should take it personally if I can't get the woman to climax, but never have. Invariably, it is more a problem with her sexuality than with mine (i.e. she invariably has had problems climaxing with most of her partners, and not just with me).; 1/18/09, 10:32 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Probably because of the type of work that I have done over the last 30+ years, the women I have been with were more likely to have been non-orgasmic than multi-orgasmic.

This definitely requires elaboration.; 1/18/09, 10:34 PM
Anonymous said...: I certainly hope this doesn't degenerate into a kiss-and-tell sort of thread.

Well, maybe not "kiss" exactly.; 1/18/09, 10:36 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I think the key would be learning that someone acting like she wants some action is not a very good indicator that she's any good at it.

I would, of course, agree.

But how would a guy really know beforehand? That isn't usually what you talk about beforehand, and even if you did, I would expect the woman to lie about it. After all, how attractive would it be for a woman to admit that she had a hard time climaxing, and thus admit to being frigid in some people's estimation?; 1/18/09, 10:36 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: This definitely requires elaboration.

15 years as a software engineer, followed by 18 as a (patent) attorney. Both programming and law seem to attract more cerebral types of people, whom I think are often less in touch with their bodies than some other types. (I am, of course, excluding law professors from this generalization).

The best at being in touch with their bodies seem to be (regular, non-exotic) dancers, in my experience. The ones I have known have had not problems with having multiple orgasms. But I have tended to meet lawyers, and before that programmers, in my line(s) of work.; 1/18/09, 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, I'd just mention my background studying 5 languages.
A cunning linguist can do wonders in these situations.; 1/18/09, 10:45 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I certainly hope this doesn't degenerate into a kiss-and-tell sort of thread.

I take much of the responsibility here. I took Ann's post as an invitation for us to entertain ourselves on a slow Sunday night.; 1/18/09, 10:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, I'm having a grand time writing all the one-liners you don't see.

No offense, Bruce, but this is the only blog in the world where people make wisecracks about politics and the Constitution, and go on seriously about sex.

I'm reminded of an alien abduction I once read about. Two cute "Greys" get off a flying saucer and wink at a pedestrian, saying to him telepathically, "Hi Sailor. Want a good time?" He thinks, "Star Whores! Well, I'm up for anything. Why not?" The "Grey" gals explain that sex on their planet has become totally mental, and that sex as he knows it is outmoded. He thinks back, "Hey, that's what I keep telling my wife, but she already knows about the totally mental part."; 1/18/09, 11:00 PM
Palladian said...: "I certainly hope this doesn't degenerate into a kiss-and-tell sort of thread."

You know, given the graphic things written by certain commenters regarding liaisons and bowel movements, a kiss-and-tell thread would seem downright prim and old-fashioned.; 1/18/09, 11:03 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: You know, given the graphic things written by certain commenters regarding liaisons and bowel movements, a kiss-and-tell thread would seem downright prim and old-fashioned.

I am not sure if I would use the plural there. I seem to remember that the same commenter seems to be the one talking about both his sex life AND his problems with his bowels.; 1/18/09, 11:08 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, I could tell you about my longtime girlfriend who definitely was NOT multiorgasmic.

She reminded me of Obama. In her case, there was the ONE.; 1/18/09, 11:10 PM
Anonymous said...: The analogy breaks down, because we don't really know yet if the One will be any good.
But H's ONE was always very, very good.; 1/18/09, 11:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Oops! Am I kissing and telling?
Sorry, not another word about kissing!; 1/18/09, 11:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I think the newscaster is thinking about Tuesday!

"Tasmin Obama....Mrs. Tasmin Khan Obama....OMG....oh, that was good!"; 1/18/09, 11:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm trying to think of something profound to say about sex as a result of having read a lot from our loafy friend. You know, about how it's so variable, etc.

All I keep coming back to is, "Eeeew!"; 1/18/09, 11:19 PM
Meade said...: "But I have tended to meet lawyers, and before that programmers, in my line(s) of work."

I'm afraid that may be where you turned the wrong way down a one-way street, Bruce. Never date women who are in your own line of work and, I guarantee you, you will no longer encounter orgasm problems. Multi or otherwise.

"But how would a guy really know beforehand? That isn't usually what you talk about beforehand, and even if you did, I would expect the woman to lie about it"

Exactly backwards. The best indicator of responsiveness comes from talking about sex. In fact, I would argue that the longer the conversation, the more orgasmic. Eroticism is 99% in the mind, right? This is why the worst sex is stupid drunken sex or sex with someone who's mind you don't or can't respect.

Also, assuming your potential lover is a liar is always a passion killer. If you really believe someone is lying to you, why would you want to have sex with her?; 1/18/09, 11:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Eroticism is 99% in the mind, right?

Just what those ladies from the flying saucer said!

Could this point the way to our evolutionary future?

If you ask your basic dog whether sex is in the mind, what do you think Fido would say?

By the time you get around to Oop and Oona, there's no doubt things have gotten a bit more complex.

Then there's us.

And if you're zipping through wormholes in the galaxy from Planet Deneb, I have no doubt it will have evolved to a higher plane yet.

My question is where do programmers fit on this evolutionary spectrum?; 1/18/09, 11:30 PM
Meade said...: Not that mind, Theo. The other mind... you know, the one that's in the gutter.; 1/18/09, 11:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, I'll leave the Althouse Lonely Hearts Club to its late night meeting, and mosey on to bed. Alone, dammit, because my wife is in California on business.

BTW, if I were single, I'd have no problem here in Massachusetts. From what I can tell, sex is banned, so I wouldn't have to worry about it. You see, we have evolved ever so much up here.; 1/18/09, 11:38 PM
Fred4Pres said...: She was just really into that news bit.

You wonder what was going on in the studio.; 1/18/09, 11:52 PM
Palladian said...: "If you really believe someone is lying to you, why would you want to have sex with [him]?"

Almost anything is excusable for a big enough cock.; 1/18/09, 11:56 PM
Meade said...: "Almost anything is excusable for a [responsive] enough c[litoris]."

I suppose so.; 1/19/09, 12:03 AM
Host with the Most said...: Of course the reporter was having an orgasm - it's the norm in the liberal media.

Just look at the main article on the New York Times on the Web at this minute:

From Books, New President Found Voice
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
(Still on front page lead:)
Barack Obama’s love of language and reading has helped him to communicate and shaped his sense of the world. Above, Mr. Obama at a book signing in 2006.

My screen seems to have sticky white goo pouring out of it. Ms. Kakutani?; 1/19/09, 1:12 AM
Host with the Most said...: That article goes on:

Much has been made of Mr. Obama’s eloquence — his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while contextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who he is and his apprehension of the world.

This is journalism?

This person is paid to write shit like this? At this level.

Oh, my country! When the "paper of record" hires idiots and incompetents like this - someone who would have been told as recently as the 90's in high school that "journalism is not your strong point sweety" - and PUBLISHES tripe written like this . . . Can you now believe that our nation's students are are below average among nations in writing and math?

SHIT!; 1/19/09, 1:19 AM
Host with the Most said...: Michiko Kakutani continues to diddle herself after her first "O":

His predecessor, George W. Bush, in contrast, tended to race through books in competitions with Karl Rove (who recently boasted that he beat the president by reading 110 books to Mr. Bush’s 95 in 2006), or passionately embrace an author’s thesis as an idée fixe. Mr. Bush and many of his aides favored prescriptive books — Natan Sharansky’s “Case for Democracy,” which pressed the case for promoting democracy around the world, say, or Eliot A. Cohen’s “Supreme Command,” which argued that political strategy should drive military strategy. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, has tended to look to non-ideological histories and philosophical works that address complex problems without any easy solutions, like Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings, which emphasize the ambivalent nature of human beings and the dangers of willful innocence and infallibility.

What’s more, Mr. Obama’s love of fiction and poetry — Shakespeare’s plays, Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” and Marilynne Robinson‘s “Gilead“ are mentioned on his Facebook page, along with the Bible, Lincoln’s collected writings and Emerson’s “Self Reliance“ — has not only given him a heightened awareness of language. It has also imbued him with a tragic sense of history and a sense of the ambiguities of the human condition quite unlike the Manichean view of the world so often invoked by Mr. Bush.

Oh YEAH - there's no leftward bias in the New York Times or Main Stream media.; 1/19/09, 1:23 AM
Synova said...: Wow, Host. That's... grotesque.; 1/19/09, 1:29 AM
Palladian said...: Host, that almost reads like a progress report sent from an English teacher to the parents of a developmentally disabled child.

I wonder exactly how much money a thinking person has to get paid to be able to cope with the humiliation and self-loathing engendered from writing something so embarrassing? 50 thousand? 100 thousand? Far easier to be a streetwalker, you'd at least be able to sleep with a clearer conscience.; 1/19/09, 1:36 AM
Palladian said...: "It has also imbued him with a tragic sense of history and a sense of the ambiguities of the human condition"

You know, those have to be two of the absolutely worst qualities to want in the President of the United States.

Even Obama must be embarrassed by reading that effluent.; 1/19/09, 1:38 AM
Kev said...: A cunning linguist can do wonders in these situations.

Heh. Theo, are you a fan of The Tubes (more specifically, this song of theirs), or did you conjure that up on your own?; 1/19/09, 2:36 AM
former law student said...: She was out of breath -- a woman trying to sound sexy would breathe more rhythmically.

We have to take the word of our partner that she has been satisfied

I don't understand this at all. You can easily tell if a woman is having an orgasm because you feel her vagina rhythmically clamping your unit. Is the article about phone sex?

The "Grey" gals explain that sex on their planet has become totally mental, and that sex as he knows it is outmoded.

Reminds me of this classic:

70 year old married man: Doc, you gotta help me.
Doctor: What seems to be the problem?
70yomm: I want to lower my sex drive.
MD: Lower it? What do you mean?
70yomm: Right now it's all in my head.; 1/19/09, 2:53 AM
blake said...: A guy can easily fake an orgasm.; 1/19/09, 5:32 AM
traditionalguy said...: My reaction is that Power is the new missing ingredient that most people now seek: either to experienc power over another human[s] or to submit to one. This leads to a good audience for the display of a simulated sexual surrender by a well put together human female. What could be nicer? Then today the Human Female attracts both sexes equally, not that there is anything wrong with that.Seealso, the power of the Darling Mr O to attract an audience of intellectuals by seeming to submit to their favored cultural norms while at the same time being the Powerful Black Male Icon.. He must be just like me, or so it seems to them, and we do so love him. The JFK experience was similar, and we are told was "Charismatic". Not that such nonsense could get a rise out of Palladin and a few others too mentally tough to fall for it.; 1/19/09, 7:10 AM
Anonymous said...: That's supposed to sound like a woman having an orgasm?

Uhhhhhhhh... OK.

Trust me, nobody would be saying that if the newcaster weren't one of those vanilla, superficially "hot" women who tend to get jobs as newscasters.; 1/19/09, 8:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Kev: Oh, that one has been around since the 18th century, at least ;-)

I recall reading about a Harvard-Yale game in the 60's, where the Harvard halftime announcer talked about the fine language instruction at Yale and their many cunning linguists. He then went on about the ending of the famous Eating Clubs at Yale, and wondered what students would do for meals. Meanwhile, the band formed the words, "EAT OUT" and played "Ain't She Sweet."

A little raw-raw from Harvard.; 1/19/09, 9:30 AM
Tibore said...: "Fred4Pres said...
She was just really into that news bit.

You wonder what was going on in the studio."

Actually, I think that was just one hell of a chair she was sitting in.; 1/19/09, 9:37 AM
blake said...: Hey, maybe she was having a baby!; 1/19/09, 1:47 PM
David said...: Wow--the post that turned into a locker room. Towel off, boys, and get into your street clothes.; 1/19/09, 4:56 PM
Joe said...: Having worked in a TV studio, I can fairly reliably predict what happened--the news break came on too early and she had to run into the studio to do the sound. Alternatively, something happened to the normal news reader (not journalist) and they called up the alternate who had to dash to the studio.; 1/19/09, 9:55 PM
Joe said...: You can easily tell if a woman is having an orgasm because you feel her vagina rhythmically clamping your unit.

You know, it helps to actually have had sex with women to declare what it feels like. Some women are physically demonstrative in orgasm, others aren't.; 1/19/09, 9:57 PM
F4GIB said...: (some unmistakeable and unfakeable physical cues, too)

And they are ???; 1/19/09, 11:21 PM
former law student said...: Some women are physically demonstrative in orgasm, others aren't.

Suure. Just like some men ejaculate during orgasm, others don't.; 1/19/09, 11:30 PM
Anonymous said...: about wearing bare legs (tights in the winter

Excuse me for as a woman bringing science into fashion statements.

Compression hose will keep your legs warmer than a pair of jeans. they help the circulation. This is similar to water in a river not freezing as fast as water in a lake.

I think it has something to do with movement, but far be it from me to recall the offical scientific principle. It's probably named after some man anyway after his wife gave him the idea when she was knitting or something.

You can top compression hose off with jeans, but why double your laundry, especially if your dryer is in a room that is only 4 degrees. Your dryer has to waste that much more energy, too.; 1/20/09, 9:23 AM