↓ Skip to main content

Are Women’s Orgasms Hindered by Phallocentric Imperatives?

Overview of attention for article published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, February 2018
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (96th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
6 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
37 X users
wikipedia
5 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

dimensions_citation
47 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
62 Mendeley
Title
Are Women’s Orgasms Hindered by Phallocentric Imperatives?
Published in
Archives of Sexual Behavior, February 2018
DOI 10.1007/s10508-018-1149-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Malachi Willis, Kristen N. Jozkowski, Wen-Juo Lo, Stephanie A. Sanders

Abstract

Women who have sex with women (WSW) are more likely to report experiencing an orgasm during partnered sex, compared to women who have sex with men (WSM). We investigated whether this difference can be partially accounted for by phallocentric imperatives-gendered sexual scripts that prioritize men's sexual experience. For example, these imperatives emphasize vaginal-penile intercourse (i.e., the coital imperative) and men's physical pleasure (i.e., the male orgasm imperative). We reasoned that a larger variety of sexual behaviors indicates less adherence to the coital imperative and that more self-oriented orgasm goals for women indicate less adherence to the male orgasm imperative. Consistent with previous work, we expected WSW to report higher rates of orgasm than WSM when taking frequency of sex into account. We also hypothesized that this difference in orgasm rates would dissipate when controlling for variety of sexual behavior and women's self-oriented orgasm goals. In a sample of 1988 WSM and 308 WSW, we found that WSW were 1.33 times (p < .001) more likely to report experiencing an orgasm than WSM, controlling for frequency of sex. This incidence rate ratio was reduced to 1.16 (p < .001) after taking into account variety of sexual behavior and self-oriented orgasm goals. Our findings indicate that certain sexual scripts (e.g., phallocentric imperatives) help explain the orgasm discrepancy between WSW and WSM. We discuss masturbation as another male-centered practice that may be relevant to this gap, as well as implications for intervention and future research.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 37 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 62 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 62 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 11 18%
Student > Master 10 16%
Researcher 6 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 8%
Professor > Associate Professor 4 6%
Other 7 11%
Unknown 19 31%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 18 29%
Social Sciences 8 13%
Nursing and Health Professions 3 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 3 5%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 2%
Other 5 8%
Unknown 24 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 83. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 June 2024.
All research outputs
#534,419
of 26,047,917 outputs
Outputs from Archives of Sexual Behavior
#306
of 3,813 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,005
of 347,601 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Archives of Sexual Behavior
#4
of 62 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,047,917 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,813 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 33.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 347,601 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 62 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.