Burton tentatively concluded that rhesus females do indeed have the ability to climax. But she noted that under natural circumstances copulations were far briefer – lasting a mere matter of seconds. The level of stimulation required to bring the monkeys to orgasm could only be achieved in the wild after several copulatory bouts with stimulation that was accumulative. Say, for instance, with a succession of males. To evolutionary psychologists like Donald Symons this orgasmic response is ‘dysfunctional ’ – the result of the clitoris being little more than a useless homologue of the penis, with
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