Sexual pleasure

Question 1

4 factors explaining why humans have sex

Answer 1

Physical factor;
- Stress reduction
- pleasure
- physical desirability
- experience seeking

Goal attainment
- resources
- social status
- revenge
- utilitarian

emotional
- love
- commitment
- expression

insecurity
- self-esteem boost
- duty/pressure
- mate guarding

Question 2

Biggest differences between genders

Answer 2

Pleasure gap; orgasms women tend to regard as ‘not important’ (cognitive dissonance) and have selfless attitude. Those reporting orgasming frequently find it more important and enjoy sex more.

Pain: rate of woman who feel pain is very high, doesn’t stop them

Violence: higher in women, also explained by feeling of not having right to make own decision

Question 3

Capacity for pleasure

Answer 3

No gap here, equally responsive and equal desire. Testosterone only slightly differs drive, doesn’t explain the pleasure gap.

Question 4

The coital imperative

Answer 4

The view that penile-vaginal intercourse is most important. provides women with fewer opportunities for sexual pleasure.

Question 5

Discourse of male sexual drive

Answer 5

Gender differences takes as proof that men are innately sexual and women not or to lesser extent. Utter bullshit and way better explained by psychological factors, eg shame, gender roles etc

Question 6

Life history theory

Answer 6

Theory that explains how people express their sexuality based on the environment and is therefore socially constructed (eg stable or unstable).

Question 7

Libido

Answer 7

Stereotypical explanation of sex drive difference. Not valid; is about incentive motivation. The opportunity to feel pleasure. Decreases in women due to sexual experience. Eg lack of orgasm

Desire is a state, not a trait.

Question 8

The clitoris

Answer 8

the disregard of the clitoris as women’s pleasure organ likely reduces women’s likelihood of experiencing sexual pleasure. Even though the correct anatomy of the clitoris has been known for centuries, this knowledge has vanished from sight many times. For instance, in the first half of the 20th century in
the United States the clitoris was systematically removed from anatomical drawings of female genitalia