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Sensual gratification from sexual activities

Sexual stimulation is any stimulus (including bodily contact) that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to orgasm. Sexual arousal is usually triggered through sensitive nerves in the genitals or other erogenous zones, which cause the release of pleasure-causing chemicals (endorphins) that act as mental rewards to pursue such stimulation.

Articles

Against Sex Education—A Letter to The Humanist, by Ralph Raico, Reason, Feb 1974
Letter to The Humanist criticizing Mary Calderone's views on sex education in public schools, presented in an interview in their May/June 1973 issue
The arguments I will use in no way ... do they point to the notion that sex is sinful, Man depraved, etc., etc. ... I recall Paul Goodman's reply when I asked him what he thought of the issue ...: that there shouldn't be sex education in the schools, there should be sex! ... Such programs should be dismantled or not allowed to come into effect. Let kids find out about sex to the degree they individually wish from books, but best of all at parties, in bars, in johns, when their parents are out, in cars, ... from older women and men, and even in the liberals' version of hell, "the gutter."
Related Topics: Compulsory Education, Ethics
The Case Against God Sequel, by George H. Smith, 31 Jul 1999
Speech given at the Freedom From Religion Foundation mini-convention in San Francisco; based on excerpts from then to be published Why Atheism?; published in Freethought Today, March 2000
It is nice to think that God deliberately bestowed upon us the gift of laughter ... A traditional method of exploring this kind of issue is to speculate on the nature of prelapsarian man, i.e., human nature before Adam's lapse, or fall, into sin. According to St. Augustine, for example, prelapsarian man would have engaged in sexual intercourse for the purpose of procreation, but the pleasure of sex would not have been nearly as intense as it now is. Sexual lust (including the orgasm) is a consequence of original sin and was therefore unknown to Adam and Eve prior to the Fall.
Related Topics: Atheism, Humor
"Date Rape" on Campus, by Murray N. Rothbard, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, Feb 1991
Discusses an alleged epidemic of "date rape" on college campuses, citing the 1987 study by psychologist Mary Koss
To a libertarian, or indeed to any sensible person, there is no problem: if the sex was coercive, and took place against the will of one of the parties, then it was rape and if not, not. If it was, you call in the gendarmes, and if it wasn't, you don't ... [W]e find that many men are confused about these rising protests by college females. The guys charge that "women with whom they have had sex did not say 'no' and did not physically resist, yet later complained of date rape." Other "angrier" men claim that "in some cases women have encouraged their advances."
Sexuality, by Robert Nozick, 1989
Chapter 7 of The Examined Life; discusses various aspects of sexual interactions: excitement, pleasure, experimentation, knowledge of your partner and yourself, orgasm and attitudes, from tender to aggressive
The most intense way we relate to another person is sexually. Nothing so concentrates the mind, Dr. Johnson noted, as the prospect of being hanged. Nothing, that is, except sexual arousal and excitement: rising tension, uncertainty about what will happen next, occasional reliefs, sudden surprises, dangers and risks, all in a sequence of heightened attention and tension that reaches toward resolution.

Interviews

Interview with Nathaniel Branden, by Nathaniel Branden, Karen Reedstrom, Full Context, Sep 1996
In two parts; topics range from David Kelley, objectivism, Ayn Rand, his memoir Judgment Day, Barbara Branden, Leonard Peikoff, homosexuality, self-esteem and more
Branden: ... Many years ago [a woman] was dating a friend of mine ... [O]ver lunch I said how are you and so-and-so getting along ... And she said: "I'm actually thinking of ending the relationship." I said: "[D]o you feel like telling me why?" She said: "... I'm a fairly experienced woman, and he is by far the best lover I have ever known, and he is in many ways a terrific man to be with." So I said ... "Then why are you ending the relationship?" She sighed ... : "... [H]e's too eager to please." ... In other words ... there wasn't enough male animal self-assertiveness in the relationship.
Playboy Interview: Ayn Rand, by Ayn Rand, Alvin Toffler, Playboy, Mar 1964
Topics discussed include objectivism, ethics, guilt, having a productive or creative purpose, emotions, women and family, romantic love, sex, marriage, religion, compassion, other writers, government, various politicians and altruism
You have denounced the puritan notion that physical love is ugly or evil ... Would you say that discriminate and selective indulgence in sex is moral?
... I say that sex is one of the most important aspects of man's life and, therefore, must never be approached lightly or casually. A sexual relationship is proper only on the ground of the highest values one can find in a human being. Sex must not be anything other than a response to values. And that is why I consider promiscuity immoral. Not because sex is evil, but because sex is too good and too important.

Books

The Joy of Sex
    by Alex Comfort, 1974
The Pregnant Couple's Guide to Sex, Romance, and Intimacy
    by Tiffany Million, Nov 2002
XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography, by Wendy McElroy, 1997
Partial contents: Pornography As an Industry - Feminism and Porn: Fellow Travelers - A Critique of Anti-Pornography Feminism - Liberal Feminism: The Glimmer of Hope - Individualist Feminism: A True Defense of Pornography - Interviews with Women in Porn

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sexual stimulation" as of 28 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.