Orgasm Coercion: Overlaps Between Pressuring Someone to Orgasm and Sexual Coercion

The Prioritization of Women's Orgasms During Heterosex: A Critical Feminist Review of the Implications for Women's Sexual Liberation

Orgasm is considered by many to be an essential part of women's ideal sexual experiences. As a result, sexual liberation narratives have often advocated for the prioritization of women's orgasms - particularly during heterosex - framing them as a central indicator of "good," healthy, liberated sex. However, scholars have increasingly critiqued these narratives, arguing that they result in an orgasm imperative that has negatively impacted women's sexual lives. Perspectives that promote the prioritization of women's orgasm and those that warn against the negative repercussions strive for the same thing - to draw attention to women's sexuality in ways that will lead to more pleasurable, enjoyable, and equitable sex for women overall. Yet, together, they offer contradictory messages about the role that women's orgasms can or should play in women's sexual liberation. For example, one could argue that it perhaps makes sense to prioritize women's orgasms given that they often are highly pleasurable for women, center a unique form of embodied pleasure, and offer a supposedly clear objective for women and their men partners. On the other hand, such narratives frame women's orgasm absence as abnormal, concede to men's sexuality in problematic ways, and constrain more comprehensive possibilities for women's sexual pleasure. In this critical feminist review, I offer a summative outline of these and other contradictions, focusing on how narratives prioritizing women's orgasms can have simultaneous benefits and negative repercussions when it comes to (1) women's sexual pleasure, (2) the medicalization/pathologization of women's orgasms, and (3) heterosex norms.

Managing Concealable Sexual Health Stigma Through Disclosure

Individuals with concealable stigma continually decide whether, and if so, how to disclose to others. These complex decision-making processes are evident across various stigmatized sexual health contexts, including sexually transmitted diseases and infections, LGBTQ+ identities, and sexual trauma, among others. One context that has received less attention within communication scholarship is difficulty orgasming among women. Due to the stigma associated with this experience, women are often reluctant to disclose their orgasm difficulties to others, especially their sexual and/or relational partners. However, the motivations women have for, and the factors they consider prior to disclosure have yet to be identified. Building upon extant sexual health communication, concealable stigma, and disclosure research, this study used semi-structured interviews (N = 31) to examine how women disclose orgasm difficulties within their sexual and/or romantic relationships. Our findings highlight several motivations women have for (non)disclosure, and various contextual and situational factors that complicate their disclosure processes. This study contributes to our theoretical understanding of the disclosure processes model (DPM) and the disclosure of concealable (sexual health) stigma. This study also offers practical insights for improving disclosure and experiences with stigma within this context.

Sex or Socialization? Replicating Heterosexual Couples' Gender Differences in the Association between Orgasm and Satisfaction in Same-Gender/Sex Couples

Orgasm is commonly considered an important aspect of sexual activity. The current study sought to replicate and extend prior work by examining gender/sex differences in the association between orgasm and satisfaction in a sample of same-gender/sex couples. We also examined how desire for an orgasm moderated this association. Although prior research found a curvilinear association between orgasm and satisfaction for heterosexual women (but not men), we found that orgasm curvilinearly predicted relationship and sexual satisfaction across genders/sexes, indicating more frequent orgasm was associated with higher satisfaction only to an extent for all individuals in our sample. We also found that when desire for orgasm was high, orgasm was associated with higher relationship and sexual satisfaction than when desire was low, suggesting that desire for orgasm may differentially affect how orgasm is related to satisfaction. We discuss our findings in terms of sexual scripting theory, contextualizing our results by considering the socially constructed nature of sexuality and how sexual scripts may vary across individuals with different sexual and gender identities.

Sexual Repertoire, Duration of Partnered Sex, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Findings from a US Nationally Representative Survey of Adults

In a confidential U.S. nationally representative survey of 2,525 adults (1300 women, 1225 men), we examined participants' event-level sexual behaviors, predictors of pleasure and orgasm, and perceived actual and ideal duration of sex, by gender and age. Event-level kissing, cuddling, vaginal intercourse, and oral sex were prevalent. Sexual choking was more prevalent among adults under 40. While women and men reported a similar actual duration of sex, men reported a longer ideal duration. Participants with same-sex partners reported a longer ideal duration than those with other-sex partners. Finally, findings show that gendered sexual inequities related to pleasure and orgasm persist.

Coercive Sexual Experiences that Include Orgasm Predict Negative Psychological, Relationship, and Sexual Outcomes

Psychological sexual coercion is known to negatively impact those who experience it, yet sexual encounters where orgasm is present are often presumed to be positive and absent of coercion. In the present study, we conducted an online survey with women (n = 179) and men (n = 251) to test associations between sexually coercive experiences that include orgasm and negative psychological, sexual, and relationship outcomes. To do so, we focused on three experiences: having an orgasm during coerced sex (CS), having a coerced orgasm during desired sex (CO), and having a coerced orgasm during coerced sex (COS). Using structural equation modeling, we found that ever having any of these coercion-plus-orgasm experiences with a current partner predicted significantly higher avoidance motivations (i.e., engaging in sex to avoid conflict with one's partner), which in turn predicted significantly worse psychological distress, sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and sexual functioning (but not dyadic sexual desire). We also found that CS, CO, and COS predicted negative outcomes to a similar degree. However, testing gender/sex as a moderator clarified that CS predicted significantly lower sexual satisfaction, sexual functioning, and sexual desire for women but not men. Furthermore, CO predicted faking orgasms in women, but COS predicted faking orgasms in men. Together, results demonstrate that experiencing psychological sexual coercion and/or orgasm coercion is significantly associated with negative outcomes even if the coerced person's orgasm occurs.

“Don’t fake the big O”: Portrayals of faking orgasm among women in Cosmo and Glamour

Many women report faking orgasm, at least on occasion, during heterosex (i.e., heterosexual sexual activities). The reasons for the practice include validating the skill of a male lover, a way of ending sexual encounters, and to avoid pathologization that is often associated with orgasmic absence. Constructions of heterosex, female sexuality, and sexual pleasure are influenced by multiple sources including the media. However, there is a lack of systematic research on how faking orgasm is presented in the media. This gap in research provided an opportunity to investigate women’s magazines’ portrayals of the practice. Using constructionist thematic analysis, 69 online articles, published by two popular women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, were analyzed. From the examined articles, two major themes emerged: faking as a common practice (especially via women’s first-hand accounts) and instructing the reader not to fake. It is our contention that together the two themes create a distinctly postfeminist portrayal of faking orgasm. On the one hand, the magazines included and highlighted women’s own experiences and reasons for faking orgasm. On the other hand, female readers were instructed to avoid faking in the name of personal responsibility and empowerment. Notably, the magazines omitted any discussion of gender power relations in their appeals for choice and sexual agency. Overall, this study expands our understanding of women magazines’ contradictory portrayals of women’s sexuality, sexual pleasure, and navigation of its absence.

Orgasm Coercion and Negative Relationship and Psychological Outcomes: The Role of Gender, Sexual Identity, Perpetration Tactics, and Perceptions of the Perpetrator's Intentions

Orgasm coercion involves pressuring a partner to orgasm by implying that not orgasming will have negative consequences. In the present study, we used mixed methods to explore (1) how various individual and contextual factors-i.e., frequency of orgasm coercion, orgasm frequency, gender/sex, sexual identity, the orgasm coercion tactics used, and perceptions of the perpetrator's intention-affect relationship and psychological outcomes associated with orgasm coercion, and (2) how different individuals characterize these outcomes. Cisgender women, cisgender men, and gender/sex minority participants (N = 308, M age = 30.44 years, SD = 8.16) described the most recent encounter in which they experienced orgasm coercion and then rated and described the positive and negative relationship and psychological outcomes associated with the incident. Quantitative results showed that the following predicted significantly higher negative relationship and psychological outcomes: a higher frequency of experiencing orgasm coercion, lower frequency of orgasming with partners in general, and experiencing orgasm coercion via physical or emotional threats. Believing that the perpetrator was motivated by altruism or social pressures mitigated these effects. And, experiencing orgasm coercion via implied fault predicted significantly higher negative relationship outcomes only for cisgender women. Additionally, being a sexual minority predicted higher negative relationship (but not psychological) outcomes, whereas being a gender/sex minority predicted higher negative psychological (but not relationship) outcomes. Qualitative results showed that relationship and psychological outcomes varied; for example, participants discussed making a partner happy, disappointment with their partner's behaviors, ending the relationship, and lasting feelings of anxiety, guilt, and abuse. Together, findings offer new insights into how orgasm coercion affects those who experience it.