ABSTRACT
Making sexual pleasure does not read like a recipe for making a pie, complete with ingredients and instructions. The parts might be in place, the people in the correct combination, and the directions followed exactly, but after tasting your final product, you are left wanting a different piece. Pleasure is not guaranteed with the experience. You may order an interesting item from the restaurant menu, but after consuming the dish you find yourself displeased or unfulfilled. Money is not returned and substitutions are not provided. Society does not guarantee pleasure in its many entertainment forms. People have sex hoping for a good time, but only after the event takes place will they know if they succeeded. Just like the gambler rolling the dice, he or she wins based on statistical formulations. Having sex may bring sexual pleasure, but, for some, hitting the sexual jackpot is rare. Pleasurable sex requires many elements, including feelings of attraction, techniques used with skill, and positively labeled bodies that fit well together. Once these diverse factors align, pleasure results. I submit that sexual desire, interest in sex, and sexual behavior mix together to yield pleasure, but, depending on the formula used, produce different versions of pleasure. The answers to the “what,” “how,” and “who” questions determine the “how good” answer. Explaining sexual pleasure requires the disentangling of its components.
