News & GK Sounds of erotica: This orgasm library tells what female pleasure really sounds like!

[Rohitkapoor]

Sounds of erotica: This orgasm library tells you what female pleasure really sounds like!

The 2:04 minute video kicks off with an orgasm.

"Vamos, vamos. Ohhhh siii…" the woman moans, as the first visual emerges:

"70% of Spanish people believe that this is the sound of a female orgasm."

The text gives way to an adult film star in the act. It is her voice we hear — or so it seems before dubbing actress Balbina del Rosario appears, intoning the words and moans in a recording studio as the film plays in the background.



This is the digital advertisement for #### an initiative by Barcelona-based Bijoux Indiscrets calling on women to donate that most intimate of possessions: their orgasms.
"We needed to catch people's attention over female pleasure, and thought of inviting them to discover what it really sounds like without conforming to porn or Hollywood film theatrics," says Marta Aguiar, CEO and co-founder of the erotic products brand. "There are over 250 uploads now, and it doesn't stop."

Named after Denis Diderot's 18th century erotic novel Les Bijoux Indiscrets (The Indiscreet Jewels), the 10-year-old company — of, by and for women — undertook the Fiction versus Reality in Sex study in 2015. Their findings: 60 per cent of women moan simply to excite partners during sex, 30 per cent believe orgasms should be mechanical (versus 42 per cent of men), and 43.2 per cent fake it to end unsatisfactory intercourse.

Fiction versus Reality in Sex took shape after Bijoux Indiscrets launched Twenty One, the diamond-shaped vibrator. "At the end of 2014, we realised there was still a lot of confusion around female pleasure. That was the seed of the study," says Aguiar.

Orgasm Sound Library may be a supplementary project, but it's also the show-stealer. More than 100 women made themselves heard in the first week of its launch last month, their orgasms being listened to 110,000 times in five days. #OrgasmosReales (#RealOrgasms) trended on Spain Twitter and across the Atlantic, Conan O'Brien featured it on his TBS talk show Conan.

But this female orgasm repository is more than an audio library. A median between research, awareness and performance art, the Orgasm Sound Library website (####.com) is also home to beautiful data art that unfolds as you play an audio file. Each spiral, cloud or line — in its varied hues — is unique to an orgasm, blipping and growing with the slightest modulation in pitch and frequency. One can filter through the library by most views, most popular, most shared, orgasm duration, or even use specific search terms. Regardless of what you listen to, no two graphics are identical, ringing the gong on an important point: each orgasm is distinctive.

"Since we wanted to visually show the uniqueness of each orgasm, we worked extensively on a data art algorithm to create a unique image per sound. The results are beautiful," shares Aguiar. "Moans and sound in general, when real, are great communication tools during sex, and communication is key. But when sounds are performed instead of felt, they make less sense."
The library's personal treatment also extends to the anonymous uploads. Women can tag and name their orgasms any way they wish, resulting in a cornucopia of appellation delights: The Weekender', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Midnight Train', 'The Five Point Exploding Heart Technique', 'My Finger, My Love So True' and more across 20 pages. One also observed that the most common tags include #alone, #toy and #clitoris.

Orgasm Sound Library isn't the first online audio-visual homage to real orgasms. Thirteen-year-old Beautiful Agony is a project where uploaders share videos of themselves climaxing, with a sole focus on their expressions ("Beautiful Agony began as a multimedia experiment, to test a hypothesis that eroticism in human imagery rests not in naked flesh and sexual illustration, but engagement with the face," says the website). But with its focus on the plurality of the female orgasm and data art as a metaphor for said diversity, Orgasm Sound Library rubbishes the notion that ear-splitting moans equal great orgasms. Your orgasm can sound like anything from a creaky door and expletive-ridden gibberish to a faint sigh or guttural grunt and still be sexy.

Although Marta Aguiar and co-founder Elsa Viegas are yet to analyse geographical data on Orgasm Sound Library, Aguiar admits she's curious to see if there are notable audial variances by country.

"Women who enjoy their own pleasure are still slut-shamed and that is the biggest brake to real pleasure. It's not possible to have fun when you are scared of what people may think or say about you," she concludes, underlining the macro aim of this project.

Come as you are, ladies. And make yourselves heard.