Measuring positive breast experience: Development and psychometric evaluation of the Breast Appreciation Scale (BrAS)

Existing measures of women's breasted experiences have focused on negative experiences, which de-centres women's meaning-making and relationships with their breasts. To rectify this, we developed a novel measure of women's positive breasted experiences, the Breast Appreciation Scale (BrAS), and examined the psychometric properties of this novel measure across four studies. Study 1, with 307 United Kingdom women, led to the extraction of a 9-item, unidimensional model of BrAS scores that showed adequate composite reliability and 4-week test-retest reliability. Study 2, with 297 United Kingdom women, showed that the unidimensional model of BrAS scores had adequate fit and evidenced convergent, concurrent, discriminant, and incremental validity. Study 3, with 295 women from the United Kingdom, provided additional support for factorial validity and concurrent validity, and additionally provided evidence of known-groups validity insofar as mothers had greater breast appreciation than non-mothers. Study 4 showed that the BrAS was scalar invariant across women from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (N = 573) and provided additional evidence of concurrent validity. Based on these results, we conclude that the BrAS is a psychometrically valid measure of women's positive breasted experiences that can be utilised in future research.

“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.