On Orgasm as one of the Fine Arts

Thomas De Quincey once wrote a book with a title similar to this one. I remembered this reference not only because I find the analogy particularly intriguing, but also because that book discusses death and orgasm, which sometime in the late 19th century was dubbed "petite mort", and has long been linked to physical transcendence, the transformation of consciousness, and the passage to a plane beyond the concrete and even the real.

The energetic explosion resulting from orgasmic pleasure has given rise to the most diverse theories and myths throughout the ages, fueling all kinds of stories, beliefs, and ideals, but above all, religious, scientific, and political evolutions (and revolutions).

I come, therefore I am!

The notion of orgasm as an existential zenith has contributed many times to the most uncontrolled libertinism and the most oppressive conservatism in different societies, almost always with the same justification: it’s not really known what it is, but it’s known to be “too good.”

Before science qualified and quantified the processes of the sexual response, myths about orgasm ranged from divine or diabolical possessions, to transuniversal cosmic energies, to witchcraft and spiritualism, to epileptic or hysterical crises and other more or less healthy or even desirable physical and mental conditions.

These beliefs marked and conditioned the behaviors of men and women, but especially women, who held within themselves the greatest of mysteries.

From the beginning of time, based on simple agricultural logic, it was understood that seeds sown on the ground fertilized the land, but no one understood how the land itself managed to transform the seeds into plants and fruits.

In the mythological stories of early societies, the act of creating life in the world and the universe almost always stemmed from orgasmic ejaculations of divine entities, who fertilized the cosmos void or the Earth (woman/mother) with their semen (seed). Everything else was a mystery. From this mystery arose various theories on how to deal with orgasm, some more holistic and universal than others (for example, in several ancient civilizations of the Middle East, before colonization, the understanding and knowledge of sexual pleasure encompassed men and women equally), but which were, over time, mainly influenced by empires of monotheistic religions from completely different realities and regions, suppressed and replaced by increasingly restrictive definitions of sexual pleasure.

With scientific evolution, these theories ceased to be based on assumptions and myths and began to be based on empirical analysis. However, according to Foucault, this incessant search for a concrete answer to the mysteries of life removed a vital component from sexual pleasure and orgasm: its transcendence.

In the same way that monotheistic religions were limited and even oppressive in the face of diversity, science was also governed by conservative technicians, not given to attributing relevance to minority variants.

Much was normalized, but what deviated from the “norm” was ostracized even further. Orgasm became a matter of accounting, weight, and measurement. It became a defined objective, a rule, a law. It became a flag and a weapon, a requirement and a demand, a point on a to-do list and, when crossed off, a prize, a goal, a trophy.

Having an orgasm became synonymous with a “happy” ending and sexual independence, removing it once again from collective pleasure and placing it within individual pleasure.

Orgasm has ceased to be an art and has become a science, ultimately becoming political.

In his extraordinary book "The Intimate History of the Orgasm", historian Jonathan Margolis demonstrates how these cycles of acceptance and oppression of orgasm have repeated (and continue to repeat) themselves in the evolution of human organizations, with a much greater relevance than one might imagine.

Civilizational structures have had all sorts of rules to manage their societies in what most affects them: birth and death rates. In a scalable way, whether in a family, community, village, town, city, state, country, region, empire, etc., the basis of survival and sustenance has always been primarily placed on how people interacted sexually, which, until less than a century ago, before the advent of the contraceptive pill, had a direct and almost immediate impact on the ratio between births and deaths, which are quantifiable.

But while sex is measured by quantity, orgasm only exists in quality.

And just like in artistic expression, no orgasm deserves to be the same, obligatory, forced, or executed according to statistics and diagrams. That is industry, not art. Orgasm is a sublime act because it is a sublimation of body and mind, it is a surrender, a loss, an act of courage and even faith. An act that can and should be experienced individually, for self-knowledge and intimate discovery, but which gains a whole other dimension and purpose when it happens in communion with someone, for a simple reason: it is in the encounter with others that everything we are is most reflected. 🔥

Curious to know more? Book an Erotic Coaching session.