Walking the walk: gait infers sexual history

by Terri Potratz | September 4, 2008 at 12:13 pm

2550 views | 5 Recommendations | 13 comments

Sexologists (where do you go to school for that?) can now determine your sexual history just by watching you walk. In the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researcher Stuart Brody of the University of West Scotland outlines how he and his research team were able to accurately determine whether 16 female Belgian university students had experienced vaginal orgasm by examining their gait.

The results showed that the appropriately trained sexologists were able to correctly infer vaginal orgasm through watching the way the women walked over 80 percent of the time. Further analysis revealed that the sum of stride length and vertebral rotation was greater for the vaginally orgasmic women. "This could reflect the free, unblocked energetic flow from the legs through the pelvis to the spine," the authors note.

Previous research has suggested vaginal orgasms lead to better mental health, and therefore a number of related factors may be at play here:

Vaginally orgasmic women may feel more confident about their sexuality, which might be reflected in their gait. "Such confidence might also be related to the relationship(s) that a woman has had, given the finding that specifically penile-vaginal orgasm is associated with indices of better relationship quality," the authors state.

If blocked pelvic muscles are a factor in preventing women from reaching orgasm, this research could lend considerable insight into treating this dysfunction, as training exercises like stretching and breathing may alleviate those blockages.

"Women with orgasmic dysfunction should be treated in a multi-disciplinary manner" says Irwin Goldstein, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine."Although small, this study highlights the potential for multiple therapies such as expressive arts therapy incorporating movement and physical therapy focusing on the pelvic floor."

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S I G U R

at 16:37 on September 4th, 2008

Photo taken during the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavík, 2007. After the concert people flock to the street for partying, filling up clubs, bars and off venues. This results one of the climaxes in Reykjavík's booming nightlife.

S I G U R has contributed a photo to this story.

MaplessInSeattle

at 16:55 on September 4th, 2008

Photo was taken near the International Fountain, at the Seattle Center.
The young woman in the photo and her friends were very nice people. So after having a small conversation I took these candids from a greater distance.

As for the study, I don't know if I fully believe it. However if at the end of the day they are actually attempting to help women with difficulties, it could be a nice breakthrough for some couples that are having dysfunctional relationships due to such an issue. Personally I would feel that a 90% or greater success rate would lend more credibility to the study.

MaplessInSeattle has contributed a photo to this story.

bdnegin

at 17:51 on September 4th, 2008

Photo of the three women was taken in Seoul, South Korea, August 2007.

stevemcdonald

at 18:44 on September 4th, 2008

And my wife says thats all I think about!

stevemcdonald has contributed a photo to this story.

pniak adam

at 21:02 on September 4th, 2008

Added a photo of a woman strolling down Krakow's main city square. (Poland, August 2008).

pniak adam has contributed a photo to this story.

Padre Karras

at 02:20 on September 5th, 2008

I took this photo at ''Giardino Scotto'' in Pisa (Tuscany,Italy) cause I was enchanted by her way of walking and I wanted to immortalize the moment and the movement .. ;-D

Padre Karras has contributed a photo to this story.

romerojpg

at 06:50 on September 5th, 2008

The lady in Red in my image was eye catching thats for sure, I looked, as did the man in the image and you can guess where he was looking. Taken in the UK, Newcastle in the rush hour foot traffic as people are on the way for their trains

The study? well its a hard one to get your head around, I dont agree, but hey I am no expert. People walk how they want to, if they had a good day they may walk very different to a bad day, its a situation thing who knows what reason they are walking like that for, on that day at that time.

Terri Potratz

at 14:30 on September 5th, 2008

Thanks for all the great photos, everyone!

AbbieJayne

at 17:27 on September 5th, 2008

AbbieJayne has contributed a photo to this story.

David Bradley Sex Writer (not verified)

at 09:47 on September 6th, 2008

Was this a serious scientific research paper?

If so, could you ask the authors what are units used to the measure the "energy" mentioned in this sentence from their paper?

"This could reflect the free, unblocked energetic flow from the legs through the pelvis to the spine"

The reason I ask is that it sounds like so much New Age nonsense. What energy flows from the legs through the pelvis to the spine? Perhaps they mean neuronal electrical energy, in which case how does the "flow" of this energy from the legs (as opposed to the genitals) relate to vaginal orgasm and thence gait?

(Do I need to get out more, rather than worrying about this kind of thing? If so, you might be interested in an item I wrote on Sciencebase entitled Sex Gets Up Womens' Noses to which I've linked on my comment byline.

picardpierre

at 10:28 on September 6th, 2008

Two young girls walking near the Grand hotel of Prishtina. Kosovo, July 2007. Freedom and peace signs after the war.

picardpierre has contributed a photo to this story.

Diamond Header

at 04:49 on September 22nd, 2008

A very lucky photograph of a woman walking down the riverside with the setting sun shining throuh her brightly coloured sheer dress. She knows how to look after herself and has taken the time to paint her toe nails in a bright scarlet.

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Barbara McPherson

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:47 on September 22nd, 2008

Terri Potratz, I like this story. It's good stuff. Did they test for the difference between walking in stilettos and flats? Gosh, I walk differently when my shoes don't hurt.