ich Machs kurz:
A surprising finding from studies we conducted in the 1990s (see Laan and Everaerd, 1995, for a review) was the ease with which healthy women become genitally aroused in response to erotic films. While watching a film depicting explicit sexual activity, most womens vaginal blood flow increases as measured with vaginal photoplethysmography (a technique of measuring blood flow with a light-sensitive device a woman puts inside her vagina) (Laan et al., 1995). This increase occurs within seconds after the onset of a film, which suggests a rela- tively automatic response not requiring conscious cognitive processes. Even when the erotic film is disliked, or induces little or no feeling of sexual arousal, genital responses still occur. Strength of genital arousal was found consistently to vary with the explicitness of the film, defined as the extent to which sexual organs and sexual behaviors are shown (Laan et al., 1995). This automatic response occurs in young women without sexual problems, in women with deficient levels of the hormone testosterone (Tuiten et al., 1996), and in post-menopausal women (Laan et al., 2001). Such responses are also found during non-consensual sexual activity (Levin and van Berlo, 2004).