Artificial insemination is relatively common today for single women or lesbians. In the dramatic television series “The L Word” the lesbian couple, Bette and Tina, decide to use this procedure to have a baby together. After much consideration they have chosen to use their friend’s sperm in order to have their own biological child, instead of seeking adoption. The most common method of artificial insemination in referred to as intracervical insemination, which mimics male and female sexual intercourse. For instance, the sperm is injected by a syringe into the cervix compare to the sperm is injected in the cervix pathway by a penis. The replication of sex can be done with the assistance of doctor, but also in the home. Bette and Tina decide to do this procedure after a sexual night together; it is referred to as intravaginal insemination when taking place outside of a doctor’s office. In this excerpt from the episode “Let’s Do It!” of “The L Word” Bette and Tina have their own syringe of their friends sperm and insert it after a intimate night together, later you see Tina with her legs together making sure that the sperm has reached the inside of the cervix in order to impregnate her. These scenes illustrate two sides of intravaginal insemination; first a steamy sex scene by Bette and Tina to open up the cervix for sperm followed by a scene where Tina is trying with all her might to make sure that the sperm has reached its destination, the second scene representing the trials and tribulations of not having a penis handy for impregnating Tina.
“New Science, One Flesh” illustrates the theories behind pleasure and reproduction and the necessity for (or lack of) female orgasm. Columbus argues that the clitoris is the site of a women’s pleasure and that this is similar to how pleasure is exerted by the male penis—through sperm (66). He states, “…without these protuberances [the clitoris] which I have faithfully described to you earlier, women would neither experience delight in venereal embraces nor conceive any fetuses (66). However other claims argue that female orgasm is not necessary for conception, “the so-called female seed was essentially irrelevant to conception and that female orgasm was still more irrelevant…women purportedly told him [Giles of Rome] that they had conceived without emission and presumably orgasm (67).” As our studies show today and the author points out it is pretty evident that women do not need to reach orgasm in order to conceive and women who do not orgasm can still conceive (67). For Bette and Tina they emphasis in the this episode that the sexual interaction was crucial to their experience however Tina with her legs in the air trying to make sure the sperm gets to its reproductive home shows that orgasm was not necessary for her to get pregnant it was a matter of biology.
In the section ‘Orgasim and Conception’ from “New Science, One Flesh” Lacquer presents again the idea that the “sperm” of the female serves no purpose except to assist in the please making process. Laquer presents Lemnius’ point of view where “woman’s womb is not simply ‘hired by men’ (99).” In The L Word it is portrayed that the lesbian couple is actually hiring the male sperm to serve their needs. The fact that Bette and Tina share “delight and concussion” does not infer that they will conceive a child because they do not have the sperm inside their bodies however they are able to do so through artificial insemination. However, Bette and Tina also represent “The heat (orgasm) nexus” because they interact sexually in order to open the cervix for the sperm; this was recommended earlier in the episode when they were visiting the doctor.
In the introduction to the episode (I was unable to find a link to this portion) the doctor recommends that Bette pleasure Tina in order to have a better success rate with insemination because they were having problems with getting pregnant. Laquer states that:
“Since the statistical analysis of conception has evolved only very recently, and since doing nothing therapeutically has a remarkable chance of success in curing infertility, it seems probably that almost any advice Renaissance healers happened to give their patients regarding sexual heat and please must have appeared to work often enough to confirm the model on which it was based (Laquer 100).”
After this episode Tina does get pregnant using this method of insemination therefore reiterating the point that although there really is not inherent connection to orgasms and reproduction it happens in correlation often enough that it becomes engrained in reproductive knowledge like it did during the Renaissance. Many of the notions from the history of reproductive theories are actually reiterated in this episode of The L Word and artificial insemination; “To produce sufficient heat in women, talk and teasing were regarded as a good beginning (Laquer 100).” Hence, the episode illustrates the foreplay prior to inserting the semen using a syringe by Bette.
Although medical knowledge has changed drastically pertaining to women’s reproductive ability and the relation with orgasm. I found that this episode reiterates the historical notions of being able to conceive. However, I do believe that these past medical leaders would have scoffed at the idea of lesbians being able to conceive a child and the method of artificial insemination.
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