A cultural question

Philippe Kempeneers put things into perspective: “Most men think they ejaculate prematurely. Objectively, the average periods of penetration are somewhere between 5 and 7 minutes (from intromission to ejaculation); yet when they are questioned about it, both European and American men consider a duration of 10 to 13 minutes to be normal! Therefore there is a gap between biological capabilities of what is a reflex and sociocultural aspirations”. Is this the reason why premature ejaculation has become the most widespread complaint in Western countries?

What is certain is that these kinds of subjective reference points make it difficult to establish prevalence figures: according to studies, they vary from 10% to 50%! In addition to the fact that the definition of the disorder can vary according to studies, culture has a non-negligible influence. The GSSAB survey (Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors), which included around 14,000 men between 40 to 80 years of age, shows that 30% of those living in South-East Asia state that they ejaculate prematurely as against 12% in the Middle-East; in Western Europe the figure is 20% while for non-European westerners (Americans, Canadians and Australians) the figure is around 27%. Everything cannot be attributed to biological differences! For example, in some regions of the Far-East, ejaculation is (was ?) traditionally considered to be a loss of vital substance. On one hand, extending the coitus period does not have the same importance in all cultures and on the other hand, the reported timing is not connected to the suffering that is felt. Let’s take the example of the Middle-East and Turkey: there is a reported lower level of the duration of coitus than in certain countries of Western Europe (according to studies, between 3.7 and 4.4 minutes, as against 7.6 and 10 minutes in the United Kingdom for examples); nevertheless, the GSSAB survey shows that it is here that the lowest number of men complain of the condition… One of the explanations might be that Middle-Eastern culture attaches less importance to prolonged penetration and coitus. Perhaps eroticism is richer more diverse in this region…

Could the increase in pornography, which features scenes of prolonged penetration, be having an influence?  “We have not had enough time to assess this influence in statistical terms”, explains Philippe Kempeneers. “However, we can attempt to answer the above question in terms of erotic culture. In the 40’s, the famous Kinsey study showed that the average duration of penetration at that time was about 2 minutes; today it is between 5 to 7 minutes. But could the occurrence of other events such as woman’s sexual revolution which has made women more demanding also have had an influence? In many religious traditions sexual relations were intended only for reproduction, outside this context it was seen as fornication and the devil’s work. Moreover, among bourgeois couples, the ‘respectable’ woman did not have an orgasm! In this context, given that pleasure was not sought after, women’s’ sexual frustration had little chance of being seen as legitimate and brief coitus was no problem as long as there was intravaginal ejaculation. At the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s, pleasure became central to aspirations, particularly among women. However the norm was based on coitus while over-emphasizing sexual fulfillment. For example, if we take popular films as an example, whenever there is a love-making scene the ultimate fulfillment is coitus! And if possible, the achievement of simultaneous orgasm which is far from being the norm! This is also evident in the words used to describe sexual activities: ‘foreplay’ is a kind of appetizer before the main course, coitus; and what is referred to as a ‘complete’ sexual contact is intravaginal ejaculation…”