Deep blue patters, and fireworks of yellow and orange. Or streaks of blue, pink and andwhite or light trails of silver white exploding into minute star sprayed firecracker-like yellow to pure light is how some people describe orgasm.
One woman not only saw this near synaesthesia like display, she also reported a taste of sweetness every time she experienced multi sensual orgasmic experiences write researchers Lynn champion and Judy Scott-Kemmis in The Colour of Sex.
While some people experience heightened colour awareness building up to orgasm, few actually experience this near synaethaesic orgasmic rainbow during climax.
One of life’s greatest pleasures, when in moments following of emotional and physical involvement we thrill to a mind blowing, magical and dream like state of self indulgent pleasure.
However, sexual climax is a biologically colourful experience. So much so that zoologist Desmond Morris described human beings as the sexiest primates alive.
Arriving at sexual closeness is highly complex. However, from one culture to another, seduction is instigated by the same sensual triggers “and different courtship rituals across the world reflect the universal emotion of love” wrote Morris in The Human Animal.
You probably dream of having your breath taken away in the presence of your beloved. So while we may honestly seek a person based on personality, your immediate attraction is biologically based.
“Studies have shown that a male body that has this particular shape garners more attraction from women and more admiration and FEAR from other men” said Brad Howard co-author of The Adonis Effect .
“Both men and women make instant assumptions about you based on the way you look (known as value attribution)” he said “and it’s almost impossible to change those assumptions once they are ingrained (diagnosis bias).”
Basically a man with more muscle tone is more likely to get a lady to his bedroom and with less required romance according to evolutionary psychology. However you can have too much muscle. Huge body builders are often treated with suspicion as untrustworthy.
Desmond Morris links female sexual attractiveness to primate evolution. Even apes are selective about who they mate with – it’s not ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’
This selectivity has been carried over into the human female claims Morris.
Morris maintains that female breasts evolved to mimic the buttocks, after all women do not flash target red buttocks when they are fertile.
Women have more fleshy backsides than the proportionately more muscle toned male equivalent. So while a women may not want her backside to rock and roll, they usually know that swaying their hips has a very seductive appeal.
Clearly breasts, hips, knees and shoulders have an erotic appeal – as do lips.
While new shear can reveal the breasts in more tantalizing fashion, the fashion of enhancing the breasts by pushing them up goes back centuries.
“The delicate naked skin of a woman”, says Morris “does not have erogenous zones – it is an erogenous zone, the whole body surface being so sensitive as to make gentle contact in any region a potentially sensual experience.”
Consider the seductive appeal of Renaissance art that highlights the delicate smoothness of female skin. Then for some men, a shaved head is a phallic effrontery exuding confidence that challenges a social norm.
Nor should the delicate softness of shoulder skin should not be underestimated. Outfits that expose the shoulders invite a light touch of the hand on the exposed skin.
That slipped strap may hint at what the man may hopes will follow.
However, bear shoulders are found in even regal occassionsas withthe younger Queen Elizabeth II or Princess Diana.
Even the navel is a genital echo according to Morris. He points out that in seductively stretching her torso a women is able have the round shape mimic a genital slit.
You may not think of knees as a man’s number one turn on, but female knees are curvier than a mans and crossing her legs exposing her thigh and the smooth skin of the knee is exploited in fashion.
No wonder we often talk about leg men, breast men and bum men’s when it comes to preferences.
For Morris, these sexual cues are essential since we tend to cover up our genitalia. Unlike the reddened rear end of a monkey, the human female has mimicked her gentials by her reddened luscious lips.
Like, their sexual counterparts, lips engorge with blood during arousal which may explain the popularity of lip implants, injections and lip stick.
“The glistening, moist and creamy look of on lips is chosen for cheesecake photos, because that look mimics aoudad genitals” state Lynn champion and Judy Scott-Kemmis.
The primal urge physical attractiveness is just as important for woman’s lusting for a male. Since men have an average of 15% body fat, compared to a woman’s 28%, so it follows that a harder, more muscular body, with deeper voice and square jaw, enhancing the hairier physique would be attractive to women.
In poorer counties where health may be an issue of survival for future children, a square masculine jawed physique is statistically preferred by women.
According to Lynn Champion and Judy Scott-Kemmis women have an incredible ability to assess visible attractiveness cues and “they will decide in your favour if you match 75% of their visual expectation list.”
Then, according to Champion and Scott-Kemmis what and how you speak will over ride the visual cues.
Mae West knew what she was on about when she said “it’s not what you say but how you say it”
Or as behavioural researchers Loretta Malando and Larry Barker wrote in Nonverbal Communication “the minute you begin to speak, your spoken image becomes dominant and over rides your visual image.”
“When you talk to someone you can either destroy or reinforce the non-verbal messages you are sending via your clothing, gestures, facial expression, posture and other non verbal communication>’ they wrote.
However, beware of turning her off by what you talk about:
- Avoid too many “I’ statements or self centred conversation.
- Avoid talking too much and failing to listen
- Be sensitive to topics interesting your partner – don’t be a bore
- Develop the art of asking questions
Then there is the power of scent.
Freud claimed that the olfactory sense were the most powerful erotic senses and the growth of the perfume industry exploits psychological, sometimes even cultural memories with the exotic perfumes of flowers
“Your biggest sex organ is the one between your ears,” says Dr. Granzig of Maimonides University in North Miami.
“What is desire, after all, other than the hope that you can fulfill your sexual fantasies? And that’s all in your mind.”
Our minds are layered with eons of sexual imagery and fantasy – and smells.
Cleopatra supposedly seduced Mark Antony on a cedarwood ship in a room carpeted with roses. Judith “bathed her body with water and anointed herself with precious ointment” (Judith. 10:3) and seductively slayed Holofernes.
The Biblical Shulamite describes the beloved as “a bag of myrrh, lodged between my breasts…a cluster of henna blooms, from the vineyards of En-gedi…perfume poured out… the scent of … breath like apples” bathed in the fragrances of myrrh, frankincense, aloes, flowers, sweet fruit, and the perfumes of Lebanon (Song of Songs 1: 1-14) The Persian King Ahasuerus had nubile beauties bathed for “six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s cosmetics” before choosing a new queen (Esther 2:14).
Write 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire:
“Your undone braids conceal
Desert, forest scents,
In your exotic countenance
Lie secrets unrevealed.
Over your flesh perfume drifts
…
Your hips themselves are romanced
By your back and by your breasts:
By your languid dalliance” .
However, there is nothing quiet like the fresh smell of clean skin.
Whilst humans don’t tend to smell each other as do dogs for instance, a lovers scent on a favourite jacket can evoke memories even years later.
Functional magnetic resonance imagery proves The smell of men’s sweat can tell women if men are sexually attracted to them, according to a study from Rice University.
The smell of sweat from men who were sexually aroused was detected in right orbitofrontal cortex, right fusiform cortex, and right hypothalamus of women.
“When a survey of sex appeal was carried out in 200 different cultures,” claim Champion and Scott-Kemmis “it was discovered that clean skin was the single most important feature. It is a powerful erotic signal for our species.”
The Power of Touch
Humans need touch.
“Without touch we shrivel” said Champion and Scott-Kemmis. Touch breaks down barriers, ” it expresses a ‘like factor’ we feel toward others.”
Each of us have a body contact quotient we require and people with high body contact requirenents are comfortable with their sexuality.
Psychaiatrist Marc Hollender even suggests that a small number of women who had extremely high contact scores resembling an addiction, based on a testing protocol he devised. These women felt insecure without a high dose of physical contact that was best met through sex.
Yes, we need touch although our culture has tended to minimize its importance.
Just begin gently, around the wrists and elbows – away from the genitals. Build closeness and warmth – and trust.
The Colour and biology of Sex
When arousal approaches our sense are heightened and our body’s biology and colour changes.
Blood infuses our skin, drawn from our internal organs, it permeates our surface areas making it redden or pinken in tone.
We feel warm and sensitive with this rush of blood, aware of the lightest most sensitive touch. It is no surprise that women seek a gentle caress in these moments and not heavy handed overkill.
For some women the pronounced flushing of the skin can become almost measle-like over the stomach, upper abdomen and breasts – even the face and neck.
The nipples darken and become erect – lengthening by one centimeter in some women. The areola deepens in colour for women, and her breasts become firmer and rounder with arousal, increasing an average 25% in size.
Unable to carry away the rush of blood to the skin surface, the ears, nose and other soft body parts swell slightly. No wonder the softest blowing or nibbling on an ear lobe can drive us wild. For others the increased sensitivity of the nipples screams to be touched as does the now hardened penis and blood engorged labia.
As our entire body is sensitive to the increased blood flow, the fun begins a we enjoy learning what it is that our lover most enjoys.
Engorged by blood more than at any time, our lips darken sensitive to to the delights of kissing. It is no wonder that lip stick is such a powerful erotic signal.
Blood pressure doubles, pulse and respiration excitedly increase to an orgasmic climax, quickly peaking and subsiding.
With one exception, Champion and Scott-Kemmins remind us.
“Most humans sweat a little or a lot after orgasm” they state “This film of sweat develops on the back, the thighs, the upper chest, the palms of the hand and the soles of the feet.”
As written above, women can smell the arousal in a man – sweat is a powerful signal.
So while few will experience the visual orgasmic rainbow experienced by some. Those moments of magical, mind blowing pleasure are indeed deeply colourful, as hot red as the orgasmic passion that fuels our desire.
Regardless of culture, the visual, vocal, scent and touch signals that arouse us are very similar. Regardless, of culture, the biology and colour of sex is identical.
(Source: Primarily this article is based on theresearch of Lynn champion and Judy Scott-Kemmis in The Colour of Sex.)
