Laurie Mintz on Becoming Cliterate and Bridging the Orgasm Gap – Smart Sex, Smart Love with Dr. Joe Kort

Did you know that only fifty-seven percent of women say they orgasm from penetrative sex with their partner, whereas ninety-five percent of men say they orgasm nearly every time? Why is this? And, how unfair is this for women! This week on Smart Sex, Smart Love, Joe chats all things cliterate with Laurie Mintz – champion of bridging the orgasm gap and award winning college professor, who’s book, ‘Becoming Cliterate - Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It’ is making the New York Times sit up and take climax notes. Laurie explains that we’ve been thinking about sex all wrong. Standard penetration is how men most reliably achieve orgasm. The problem is, women don’t orgasm this way. Laurie chats to Joe about the broader cultural problem that’s perpetuating this orgasm gap, and what we can do about it. The revolution is cuming—and Laurie offers a radical, simple solution to progress and pleasure for all. “Good communication is the bedrock of all relationships,” says Laurie. “And, good communication can literally, make The. Bed. Rock!”

Joe Kort: All right. Welcome to Smart Sex, Smart Love. Today I'm going to be talking with Laurie Mintz, who is the author of the topic of this podcast today called Becoming Cliterate. Her book is called Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters And How To Get It. It was a book that was actually reviewed by the New York Times.

Laurie Mintz, PhD, is an award-winning college professor. She currently teaches Psychology of Human Sexuality to hundreds of students a year at the University of Florida, and has had over 20 years of experience working with private clients on sexual issues. Dr. Mintz has received numerous professional awards, and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She's published over 50 research studies, writes a Psychology Today blog, and has been quoted in many outlets, including Cosmopolitan, Women's Day, Prev, women's Health, Men's Health, CNN.com, Oprah.com, and the Huffington Post. You can find more about her at her website at www.DrLaurieMintz.community, which we'll say at the end. Welcome, Laurie.

Laurie Mintz: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Joe Kort: I'm excited to have you here because this is such an important topic. You know, I always say to people, because I'm gay and all my writings and trainings are gay, people don't realize that 75% of my practice is with heterosexual clients. Actually straight people call and they'll say, "Do you see straight people?" I feel like that kid in The Sixth Sense, "I see straight people", like I have to like inform them. So to me ... And so I know in my work with people, and with women especially, that they struggle with becoming cliterate, and men struggle with becoming cliterate.

So I thought we could start with the question of, "Why did you write this book?" What was your hope in writing this book?

Laurie Mintz: Well, my hope in writing this book ... And it's a great question, is to help both women and men in the world at large become more cliterate, and to close the orgasm gap. Stated really simply, the orgasm gap is the fact that during heterosexual sexual encounters, the men are having way more orgasms than the women are. Really striking statistics on this topic. One of the most striking, I collected myself with my students that 55% of men versus 4% of women say they orgasm during first time hookup sex. So I wrote the book to empower women to orgasm and to close the orgasm gap.

Joe Kort: That's so awesome because so many women, they don't organism, they don't think they need to orgasm and they don't know ... They don't understand that PIV, penis and vagina intercourse isn't the main way women orgasm. Right?

Laurie Mintz: Exactly. In Becoming Cliterate, I talk about many, many cultural reasons for the orgasm gap, but I say that the number one reason ... And I believe this so strongly,