Althouse: A meditation on causality.

October 5, 2010

A meditation on causality.

"It wasn't the anal sex that caused the orgasms. It was the orgasms that caused the anal sex."

I think that's the last line of "King Kong." Yeah. Here:

25 comments:

TWM said...: "It wasn't the anal sex that caused the orgasms. It was the orgasms that caused the anal sex."

I also heard that the guy washing the dishes, doing laundry, and not leaving the toilet seat up all the time helps cause it too.; 10/5/10, 9:50 AM
bagoh20 said...: I liked this line, and it explains the whole thing:

"...anal sex is a trailing indicator of women's sexual satisfaction,..."; 10/5/10, 9:52 AM
ricpic said...: AIDS? What AIDS?

Anal sex, anal sex, anal everywhere,
Be happy as a faygala and fuck without a care.; 10/5/10, 9:57 AM
KCFleming said...: "The last time I looked at the anal sex data..."

Imagine overhearing that in a conversation.; 10/5/10, 10:04 AM
prairie wind said...: Imagine overhearing that in a conversation.

I'm worried about someone reading it over my shoulder. :-); 10/5/10, 10:16 AM
traditionalguy said...: Butt what did Christine O'Donnell do? That is the necessary question for a Senate of the United States candidate. Sure, "Butt Fucking the Democrats" on election day is a metaphor, butt has she earned the right to use it.; 10/5/10, 10:45 AM
Unknown said...: You actually believe this drivel?

PS ricpic is right, but it applies to hetero as well. The Blonde has some ghastly stories about women who do this on a regular basis and the consequences.; 10/5/10, 10:54 AM
Michael Haz said...: I'd comment, but you'd find the moaning sounds in the background a distraction.; 10/5/10, 10:57 AM
Trooper York said...: I wonder why Titus is commenting over at my blog when you dedicated a post just to him.

Did you guys have another fight?; 10/5/10, 11:01 AM
Trooper York said...: Of course I did put up a post with a photo of big Hogs.; 10/5/10, 11:02 AM
SteveR said...: Some of this involves monogomous married folks, NTTAWWT; 10/5/10, 11:29 AM
Michael Haz said...: I was just remembering the Farkel family from the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In skits.

Especially Bart Farkel and Fanny Farkel.; 10/5/10, 11:56 AM
LL said...: Proximate causation or actual causation?; 10/5/10, 1:22 PM
William said...: We are at the tail end of the sexual revolution. It is heartening to see that, even on an experimental level, there is very little bestiality or necrophilia going on. A certain level of morality heightens sexuality, and a certain level of debauchery diminishes it.....A propos of nothing, Spitzer's show initiated last night. He was asked what his guilty pleasure was. Honest to God, he was. He replied that he was a NASCAR fan. CNN continues to bait Jon Stuart.; 10/5/10, 2:12 PM
AST said...: Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

wv: goolorm - one who practices anal penetration.; 10/5/10, 2:21 PM
Anonymous said...: "..The last time I looked at the anal sex data..."

I wonder if the data was displayed on a pie chart? Bar chart? Doughnut?; 10/5/10, 2:41 PM
jimspice said...: Have to admit, when I saw this in my rss feed, I too thought it was going to be Maher's newest Christine O'Donnell clip.; 10/5/10, 4:08 PM
Matt said...: "The anal sex just came along for the ride." Love it.; 10/5/10, 6:06 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: The other thing that isn't mentioned here is the recent work on semen. It turns out that semen contains all sorts of interesting stuff, including, if I remember right, dopamine and serotonin. One thought here is that this is why some gay men may prefer unprotected anal sex, despite the risk of AIDS, and why women can enjoy sex even when they don't climax. This may also explain why women seem quicker to jump into rebound relationships when they have been in a monogamous relationship with a guy than do men. Semen also apparently includes female sex hormones that may accelerate ovulation - a Red Queen counter to the problem of hidden ovulation.; 10/5/10, 6:08 PM
Michael Haz said...: Were ewoks part of the data group? Accuracy should demand that they were, any reasonable person would think.; 10/5/10, 6:56 PM
chickelit said...: The other thing that isn't mentioned here is the recent work on semen.

That's a load of information there.; 10/5/10, 6:56 PM
Michael Haz said...: Would a nice dinner factor in a partial "causality"?; 10/5/10, 7:01 PM
Stephen A. Meigs said...: "The other thing that isn't mentioned here is the recent work on semen."

You probably are thinking of the survey done by Gordon Gallup in 2002, from which he suggested maybe semen is an antidepressant or addictive. His study is the only one I know of in academia that sought to consider the question of whether semen has addictive properties. It wasn't much of a study, though (maybe he couldn't get funding for a proper study).

I have long thought the reasonable correct explanation for the significance of sodomy (behavior that introduces semen into the digestive system) is that semen contains addictive chemicals (and chemicals that increase sensitivity to pain, thereby making concomitant physical abuse more effectively terrifyingly controlling). Semen is chock full of prostaglandins, which when blocked allows drunk mice to right themselves quicker, including PGE2, a potent algesic. Also, it contains anandamide, the neurotransmitter whose receptor marijuana and chocolate affect.

I am skeptical that sex itself is significantly addictive. Except for the uterus, which is complex and has evolved to cramp painfully and violently when exposed to the prostaglandins of semen (so much so that semen must be washed of prostaglandins before being used in artificial intrauterine insemination), the female reproductive system is not lined by simple epithelial tissue, but by thicker tissue presumably less effective at absorbing things than the tissue lining the digestive system (e.g., the rectum is lined by simple epithelial tissue). Also, this would explain why mammals have done as well as they have, since with very few exceptions (monotremes, the beaver, maybe a few others), they have separate openings for the reproductive system and the end of the digestive system (birds and reptiles have a cloaca, which enables them to conserve water by secreting uric acid along with their solid waste). It's important for evolution that the sexual decisions of females be determined according to their own natures and not artificially according to what chemicals have been introduced adventitiously into their digestive system.

Ha, there is basically no academic scientific investigation of whether sodomy (or sex) is addictive in the important useful sense of the word (the chemical sense), and there never has been. Perhaps I am the only person in the history of humanity ever to have thought at all carefully about it.; 10/5/10, 9:14 PM
Triangle Man said...: Perhaps I am the only person in the history of humanity ever to have thought at all carefully about it.

I nominate this for "Funniest statement of the day".; 10/6/10, 8:52 AM
ndspinelli said...: "Get the Butter." Movie buffs..name the actor and flick. It's an easy one.; 10/6/10, 10:47 AM