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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) often use GPS-enabled dating apps and websites to facilitate in-person sexual encounters. Many of these encounters are positive and enjoyable. However, there is limited research on GBMSM's negative experiences with partners from hookup and dating apps/websites, especially those characterized by threats to GBMSM's sexual, physical, and/or psychological safety. In this report, we investigated this matter. We analyzed data from interviews with GBMSM (N = 60) and identified four categories of negative sexual experiences, each of which were comprised by sub-categories: 1) sexual violence (physical sexual assault, verbal sexual coercion, intoxicated assault/coercion), 2) sexual health risk behaviors (condom use resistance and coercion, deception related to HIV/STI status), 3) non-negotiated behaviors (undiscussed/unexpected sex acts, rough sex, sexualized racism, undesired substance use by the partner), and 4) threats to physical safety beyond sexual violence (being blocked from leaving, stalked, robbed, drugged). These results can inform future research and interventions that aim to promote safety on dating apps/websites within the GBMSM community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pornography created for (and often by) heterosexual men, it is common for women performers to look directly at the camera. This simulates eye contact with viewers and is intended to create a participatory point of view. Little is known about the function of direct gaze in this context. In other domains, eye contact can increase physiological arousal, but also facilitate nurturant connection. Eye contact in porn may thus have a range of functions, which we explored in a preregistered study. Participants (N = 799) watched a brief sexually explicit video that had a high prevalence of eye contact (n = 399) or no eye contact (n = 400), then completed measures of eroticism, nurturance, guilt, other measures of affect and desire, participatory perspective, and whom they experienced sexual desire for. We found no significant differences in eroticism, nurturance, guilt, or other affect or desire measures across conditions, but found some evidence that eye contact may facilitate a participatory (vs. observational) perspective and desire for the performer in the film (e.g. vs. someone else), .05 < ps < .10. Overall, our findings provide preliminary insight into the function of eye contact in pornography and provide promising avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orgasm coercion occurs when someone pressures a partner to orgasm by implying that not orgasming will have negative consequences. But what happens when the coerced partner refuses to go along with orgasm coercion? And how do perpetrators of orgasm coercion react? In the current study, we analysed 100 participants' (cisgender women, n = 66; cisgender men, n = 24; gender/sex minorities, n = 10) descriptions of refusing orgasm coercion during their most recent orgasm coercion encounter. We assessed how participants expressed refusals, perpetrators reacted to these refusals, and perpetrator reactions connected to relationship and psychological outcomes. Results showed that participants used a variety of refusal strategies that were positively- or negatively-valenced. Some perpetrators (31%) reacted in positive, understanding ways. However, most perpetrators (61%) reacted negatively or with more coercion when confronted. Of note, results suggested that whether perpetrators responded in positive vs. negative ways did not depend on participants' refusal strategies. We also found that positive perpetrator reactions were associated with positive relationship outcomes, but participants reported high negative psychological outcomes regardless of perpetrators' reactions. Findings support that perpetrators of orgasm coercion are not necessarily invested in partners' positive experiences and that orgasm coercion cannot be resolved through better communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orgasms have been promoted as symbols of sexual fulfillment for women, and have perhaps become the symbol of a woman's healthy sex life. However, some research has suggested that this focus on women's orgasms, though ostensibly for women, may actually serve men; but the mechanisms of this are unclear. In the present experiment, we hypothesized that women's orgasms specifically function as a masculinity achievement for men. To test this, we randomly assigned 810 men (M age = 25.44, SD = 8.31) to read a vignette where they imagined that an attractive woman either did or did not orgasm during a sexual encounter with them. Participants then rated their sexual esteem and the extent to which they would feel masculine after experiencing the given situation. Our results showed that men felt more masculine and reported higher sexual esteem when they imagined that a woman orgasmed during sexual encounters with them, and that this effect was exacerbated for men with high masculine gender role stress. These results suggest that women's orgasms do function--at least in part--as a masculinity achievement for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]