Neo-tantra and other forms of sacred sexuality often focus on sexual healing through sexual pleasure as a necessary, worthy and not often-used or socially or culturally accepted path for women. The importance of women intimately understanding their own physiology and anatomy of arousal is paramount. Women should know that this is not based exclusively on physical and biological aspects, but also cultural, historical, psychological and, for some, spiritual influences on women’s sexuality.

When it comes to female turn-on, much is misunderstood within a biased patriarchal cultural history. There is great benefit for both genders to receive a new sexual education that includes, at minimum, a basic understanding of female sexual physiology and the anatomy of arousal. Contemporary sex education should include vital and cutting- edge information about the female erectile network, as many people are unaware that pound for pound, women have as much erectile tissue as men.

No longer are women limited to only two parts—the head, or glans, of the clitoris, and the G-spot—as the main sources of their sexual arousal and pleasure. The female erectile tissue (aka pleasure) network includes the entire clitoral structure, which is by far larger than what most people have been taught. This includes the clitoral head, shaft and legs (crura), the erectile bulbs (vestibular) and two sponges: urethral and perineal. The associated orifices are the vaginal and anal openings.

Sex educator Sheri Winston presents the most accurate and detailed understanding of such new information in Women’s Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure (2010). This award-winning guidebook integrates ancient wisdom, our shared cultural history and lost knowledge about female sexuality with this new accurate view of female anatomy, arousal and pleasure in a way that can be put to immediate practical use for discovering just how pleasurable these erectile structures are.

In ancient and modern tantra, women are considered to have the natural capacity for unlimited pleasure. Now science is catching up with factual evidence that goes beyond the clitoral head having at least 8,000 nerve endings seemingly dedicated almost solely for pleasure. Why is it that only recently has an accurate portrayal of female sexual arousal arisen? One possibility is a shared patriarchal medical paradigm, which focused more upon studying pain than pleasure, and medicating symptoms rather than investigating the underlying causes holistically.

Dr. Emily Nagoski, author of Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, contends that researchers have spent the last decade trying to develop a “pink pill” for women to function like Viagra for men, and in that process, the research brought to light what does work to maximize women’s sexual arousal and overall well-being. A pill is too simplistic and will never work. Nagoski presents the framework of what generally will work, in all its complexity. When asked, “Isn’t it just culture?” she responds, “It could easily be true that in a more sex-positive culture, more women would experience spontaneous desire. In fact I would bet on it, since in a more sex-positive culture there would be fewer things to hit the brakes.”

If every woman and man read even just these two books on female sexuality, they will have an extensive new sexual education that would be of benefit both in, and out, of the bedroom. This new research contributes greatly to the neo-tantric and many women’s spirituality movements’ perspectives that pleasure is healing, even essential, for the feminine to thrive. As sexpert Pamela Madson (author of Shameless: How I Ditched the Diet, Got Naked, Found True Pleasure... and Somehow Got Home in Time To Cook Dinner) says, “Learning to access and use arousal is the beginning of becoming whole. Arousal is the ignition switch of the feminine erotic engine, that potent driver of sexual energy that is life force itself. Is it any wonder that arousal heals?”

Sparked by new research, a tidal wave of new female sex educators and activists, along with the revival of goddess, nature-based and tantric worship and empowerment of the feminine, a female sexual pleasure revolution has begun. The time is ripe for women to reclaim their power, their bodies and their pleasure.

Sacha Fossa, MA, ACTE, is a holistic sexual empowerment coach, educator and healing practitioner. Her business is Sacred Temple Arts, located in Newburyport. Services include customized private sessions, programs and intimate classes, in person or virtual. For more information, call 978- 309-9399 or visit SacredTempleArts.com to sign up for a complimentary consultation.