Category Archives: sex and sexuality
Women React to Sexy Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford on Rolling Stone cover
Want to know how women and men experience skin-revealing images of men and women?
I recently asked my students to write down what thoughts came to mind when looking at nearly-nude pictures of Cindy Crawford and Sly Stallone.
My participants included 35 straight women and 19 straight men, from three different women’s studies classes that met during the 2014-15 school year. I surveyed them on the second or third day of class.
First, let’s look at how women experienced Cindy. Read the rest of this entry
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Homophobes Aroused by Gay Porn
You’d think homophobic men would be the least likely to get aroused by homoerotic images.
Think again.
Researchers at the University of Georgia surveyed young men on the degree of homophobia they felt, as measured by their self-described levels of aversion to gay men, and specifically, the intensity of “dread” they experienced interacting with them. Read the rest of this entry
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Sexual Fluidity & Emotional Connection
Sexual Fluidity by Lisa Diamond
Women seem to be more sexually fluid than men. Why?
One reason might involve the way we tie sex and emotional connection together for women.
Not to mention that women are more likely to become deeply connected to same sex friends. Read the rest of this entry
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Casual Sex Distresses Women?
The double standard
Women who do casual sex are, on average, more distressed than other women.
Men who do casual sex are, on average, more confident than other men.
That’s what sociologists, Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, found as they researched their book, Premarital Sex in America.
That means the double standard is neither good nor bad. It just is. They say. Read the rest of this entry
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Loose Women Don’t Wear Corsets
The corset
Plenty of women’s fashions restrict them — intended or not — whether we’re talking girdles, spiked heels, bound feet, or wearing curlers to bed (who can sleep?!)
And how about that corset?
This ubiquitous pre-20th-century garment was so tightly laced that organs could be pushed around. And they promoted lung disease. Those things were not comfy!
Despite the health risks, some 19th century doctors believed that women’s bodies were too weak to hold themselves up, so they needed the contraption. (Scientists of the time also thought that education shrunk a woman’s womb!) Read the rest of this entry
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Sex-Negative Societies & Non-Orgasmic Women
Sex-positive societies create easily orgasmic, and multiply orgasmic women.
So it’s no surprise that sex-negative societies do the opposite.
In some places women’s pleasure is deliberately cut by damaging or removing the clitoris. In other places something more akin to a psychological clitoridectomy is performed. Let’s take a look at how that can happen. Read the rest of this entry
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Ogling: Boys Will Be Boys?
Boys will be boys?
“Boys will be boys,” said one third of the women who answered my survey on ogling.
The survey asked why some men stare at women’s body parts. Most of these women said their partner’s lingering eyes bothered them at least a little. But if men are “just that way,” maybe they’re less annoyed? Read the rest of this entry
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Is Male or Female Sexuality Better?
I heard so many of my friends saying, ‘Why can’t I have sex and feel nothing?’ It was amazing: that this was the new goal.
That’s what 25-year-old Lena Dunham told New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni as they discussed her Sex-and-the-Cityish HBO series, “Girls,” which she writes, directs and stars in.
Dunham points out that numerous cultural cues press women to take on non-emotional, non-connected, “empowered” sexuality. Read the rest of this entry
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Can Men and Women be Friends?
Harry told Sally that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
The question remains.
Short answer: Yes, they can.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be romantic undertones; in fact, there usually are. Typically, “he” starts a relationship hoping for sex, but “she” isn’t interested. Yet he stays friends because he likes her. And he’s often expecting that more will come of it. Read the rest of this entry
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Repression Shutting Down Sexuality
Repressive forces can shut down sexuality.
But how?
I’ll start with my own experience. Read the rest of this entry
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