OUR BODIES AND OUR SEXUAL RESPONSE: SEXUAL STIMULUS
Our bodies respond to the world around us. Anything that makes our bodies respond is called a stimulus. We sense stimuli by our five senses: touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste. We may see our bodies’ response to a stimulus, such as sweating; when it’s hot or getting goose bumps when we’re scared. Or we may not see the response—it may be inside our bodies, such as digestion of food when we eat, increase in heartbeat when we’re scared. These responses happen involuntarily—we don’t even have to think about them.
АД of our senses pick up sexual stimuli just as they do other stimuli. Sexual arousal can be caused by what we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. Our bodies become sexually aroused in predictable ways.
Often we think of touch as the main sexual stimulus when we think of sexual activity. Touching our own skin or someone else’s can be very sexually arousing. Areas of our body where the skin is very sensitive to sexual stimulation are called erogenous zones. Our external sex organs are highly sensitive to touch—such as the glans of the clitoris or penis. However, other parts of our skin can be touched and also produce sexual arousal: arms, legs, back, neck, nipples, buttocks, ears, fingers, feet. In fact, any part of our skin can be an erogenous zone. People have different likes and dislikes about where they like to be touched. Our erogenous zones are unique to each of us.
Touch is not the only sexual stimulus. As we grow, we learn to associate certain sounds, such as music or voices, and sights—parts of the body, for example—with sexually stimulating experiences or thoughts. This is also true of smells and tastes. In each society and culture, there are characteristics, personalities, and behaviors that are thought to be attractive and sexually stimulating. For example, long hair, dancing, a certain physical stature, or shyness may be very attractive and sexually stimulating for someone. Tight clothing or certain kinds of underwear may be stimulating for someone else.
When and how we learn about these characteristics, behaviors, and personalities will affect what we fund attractive and sexually stimulating. Later on in life when we see car hear those things again, our bodies respond. What each of us learns and experiences is different from any other person. This learning and experiencing continues throughout the rest of our lives. We are never too old to find stimuli and new sources of sexual stimulation. Nor do we forget t that aroused us during our younger years.
Imagination can produce stimuli that can be seen, heard, tasted: touched, and smelled in our minds. Sometimes our sexual experiences begin and end in our imaginations. We can also heighten sexual responses with imagination. The use of our imagination sexual arousal is called fantasy. It can be the most stimulating aspect of our sexual experience.
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