The Mask of a Thousand Faces

Our face offers a full range of expressions. Joy, sadness, anger, horror, fear, and many others that we sometimes do not even know ourselves, and we are horrified when we see ourselves in the mirror. Some of us are even ashamed. And one of those expressions is undoubtedly the one that is drawn on our face when we orgasm. This famous term has been explored by a wide range of individuals, from photographers to scientists. The latter recently published a new study that reveals that culture also affects our expression during orgasm.

Most people, at least in the beginning, are afraid of their orgasmic face because we have certainly noticed a strange grimace in our partner, which causes us to panic. What is going on? Why is he making faces like that? Oh, if he looks like this, how the hell am I looking? When I saw my partners's orgasmic face for the first time in my life, I panicked, looking for a phone to call an ambulance. It seemed to me that what usually happens in movies is like someone who has a heart attack or stroke during sex. The eyelids were shut tight, all the muscles in the cheeks tensed, and the mouth drew something unimaginably strange. Vinegar stroke could not have described better the expression during orgasm, as it is similar to the one we would show if someone held a spoonful of vinegar in front of our nose. The expression during orgasm is identical to the one we would show if someone held a spoonful of vinegar in front of our nose. 

There is not much research into facial expressions during orgasm. One of the most important ones was a study by Spanish scientists who analyzed facial pictures during orgasm in 2011. 92% of the people in the photographs closed their eyes during orgasm, 67% opened their jaws, and as a result, their lips also parted, and 48% raised or lowered their eyebrows. Based on these recordings, scientists have concluded that some of these expressions are similar to reflexes - muscle tension is released before or during orgasm, the main reason why our face looks odd, to say the least. Unless we specifically train ourselves, we have no control over our face at the moment of orgasm. What was discovered at the time and confirmed in a newer study is that our expression during orgasm is very similar to the one we make when expressing pain.  

Seven years later, scientists took it a step further and explored orgasmic expressions in different cultures. In this study, they focused on the expressions of pain and orgasm and noticed that they differ from culture to culture. Very similarly, people express pain, so they concluded that orgasm would cause the same, but this is where the most significant differences appear. 

The model below shows the differences between the expression of pain and orgasmic ones, but besides that, you can also notice the cultural difference. The colors indicate the number of observers whose specific facial parts were activated (larger numbers - red color, smaller - blue). During orgasm, eyebrows are most often raised in both cultures, and eyes are closed. Mouths in Eastern cultures are more likely to draw a smile, while in Western cultures they are wide open. In pain, the complete opposite of orgasm, but triggering the same brain centers, the eyebrows drop in both cultures, the cheeks rise, the nose wrinkles, the lips stretch into a straight line, and the upper lip rises. During this research, they proved that our facial expression when we experience pain or orgasm is mentally conditioned. This means that the imprint of our mental cultural image influences our facial expression. So it is not entirely without influence, as the Spaniards claimed. It is unconscious, but it still hides a cultural pattern.  

However, the expression on the face drawn during the "petit mort" was of interest not only to scientists but also to various artists. Among them is the photographer, Marcos Alberti, who captured the expressions of twenty women in his lens, before, between, and after the orgasm. Women came from diverse cultural backgrounds, including the US, France, China, and Singapore. Clayton Cubitt embarked on a very similar project, except that he filmed women while reading books and masturbating at the same time. Since 2012, the videos have been viewed more than 90 million times. They are both educational and fun. 

Our O face is often strange, if not weird. You will observe it more effectively next time with your partner, noticing how the muscles move and what the mask reveals. In doing so, be aware that next time, he will also study yours. And don't worry, there are two in this game, both with strange faces that will force a pleasant smile full of relief from now on.