In Sweden there is no commonly accepted word for female masturbation, so a women's sex education group has launched a competition to establish one.
RFSU
– an organisation that promotes an 'open, positive view of sex and
relationship issues' – has so far received more than a thousand
suggestions after launching the contest earlier this month.
Top suggestions so far include 'Klittra', 'pulla' and 'selfa'.
Kristina Ljungros, a spokeswoman for the association, hopes the competition will encourage healthy discussions about sexuality.
She told The Local: 'Rather than sit around amongst ourselves talking about it, we thought we would launch a nationwide competition.
'We
are trying to put sexuality on the agenda - the positive aspects, not
just the negative ones like sexual abuse. We want to focus on the good
parts, the lust'.
'When
it comes to masturbation, people mostly think about just men doing it
and we don't think of it as common for women. If we don't have a word in
the language, how can we even talk about it?'
The
contest follows news that researchers have discovered that although
many women assume they know exactly what turns them on, their brains and
their lady bits often disagree.
Scientists
at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender,
and Reproduction, used a 'vaginal photoplethysmograph'- a small glass
tampon-shaped instrument that measures sexual arousal by blood flow - to
demonstrate this mind-body disconnect.
Writer
Melanie Berliet, 33, based in New York City, underwent the test herself
and discovered some surprising discrepancies between what she believed
she found sexy, and what her nether regions responded to.
'I've always thought of myself as self-aware sexually,' Miss Berliet writes for Cosmopolitan.
'I
consider myself a non-judgmental heterosexual woman who enjoys various
positions and toys and is open to the possibility of a threesome if the
urge strikes.'
In the
interests of the experiment, Miss Berliet was required to insert the
probe into her vagina and seat herself on a leather chair while various
erotic and non-erotic video clips were played before her.
Erick
Janssen, PhD - whose work in sexual pleasure has reportedly earned him
the monkier Dr. Feel Good - and evolutionary biologist Justin R. Garcia,
PhD, both leading the study, were controlling the videos from a
separate room.
Campaign: The most popular suggestions submitted have been 'Klittra', 'pulla' and 'selfa'
'The probe looked and felt like a glass tampon, so it was easy to forget that it was inside me,' Miss Berliet tells MailOnline.
The device, she explains, measures blood flow to the surrounding tissue, or the 'pulse' of the vagina, which indicates arousal.
'It
was definitely a challenge to stay still, but overall I was
comfortable. Since I was focused on watching porn, any discomfort I
might have felt was probably eclipsed by the graphic imagery inches from
my face.'
As
Dr Janssen explains, arousal is made up from a balance between two
brain systems; sexual excitation, 'your gas pedal', and sexual
inhibition, 'your breaks'.
Miss
Berliet was exposed to wide range of visual stimuli; from
'neutralizing' kitten videos and scenes from uplifting films, to
hard-core porn and a disturbing clip from The Silence of the Lambs.
For
each video, she was asked to rate her emotional responses - excitement,
relaxation, fright, sadness, guilt and shame, for example - on a
five-point scale.
Miss
Berliet then told researchers, off the top of her head, that she was
generally aroused by concepts including lesbian sex, a threesome and
female masturbation.
She
also declared some concepts that she didn't consider arousing;
homosexual male sex, foot fetishism and bonobo monkeys mating, for
example.
After
sourcing video clips relevant to Miss Berliet's preferences, she was
invited to view them and rate how aroused each clip made her feel on a
scale of one to ten. This created some mental conflicts.
'As
a proponent of gay rights, for instance, I wanted to be turned on by
sex between men, but I found the sight of two erect penises off-putting.
'And as much as I wanted to believe that neither animals nor feet could
excite me, I had to concede a minimal level of attraction to both.'
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