Sexual Norms Across Pornography Use, Sexual Fantasy, and In-Person Sexuality.

Sexual norms define perceptions of who is acceptable to partner with, how many partners are appropriate, and what sexual behaviors are acceptable to engage in. This shapes, in part, who has access to sexual pleasure and who is minoritized based on their sexuality. Though well theorized and researched for "in-person" sexuality, much less is known about sexual norms in other contexts/modalities, such as porn use and sexual fantasy, or how norms connect across these contexts. In the present study, we investigated sexual norms in porn, fantasy, and in-person sexuality, and similarities or differences between these. In an online study, gender/sex and sexually diverse participants (N = 706) manipulated digital circles representing porn use, sexual fantasy, and in-person sexuality. They used circle overlap to represent branchedness (i.e., distinction) and coincidence (i.e., similarity) in norm content, and circle size to indicate perceived norm strength. We found evidence that norm content was perceived to be more branched (i.e., distinct) than coincident (similar) and that norm strength for each context was high. This provides evidence that when people engage in each of these sexual contexts, they tend to do so through distinct normative lenses, rather than a singular lens that represents a universal set of norms applying across all sexual situations. This has implications for how we understand the associations between porn use, fantasy, and in-person sexuality, and highlights the importance of attending to sexuality in context.

How Feminist Heterosexual Men Navigate Their Sexual Desire While Following Feminist Principles.

Feminist considerations have influenced how women and men view sex, affecting not only women's perspectives but also men's feelings about sexual desire with regard to gender equity. This might be especially the case among men who self-identify as feminist. However, how men should manage their sexual desire or communicate about it within relationships with women is not always clear in this evolving social climate. Thus, the current study aimed to explore the successes and/or struggles feminist heterosexual men experience while navigating their desires alongside feminist considerations. To explore this, we recruited feminist-identified heterosexual men in long-term relationships. We asked participants (N = 30) a series of questions regarding their sexual desire, considering the context of their long-term relationships and evolving gender norms, during a one-on-one interview via Zoom. Using thematic analysis, we identified 11 themes from the interview data. We found that, though the feminist men in this study were all aware of negative societal perceptions of heterosexual men's sexual desire, most men in this study did not feel conflicts between their feminist principles and their own sexual desires. This is because they reported already following feminist principles; those who felt ambivalent navigated this by communicating with their partners. Findings demonstrate the usefulness and positive impact men report feminism having on them, their sexuality, and their long-term relationships, by allowing them to better engage with their sexuality and partners.

Causal Attributions of Low Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.

Low sexual desire in women partnered with men has been the subject of controversy and research over the past decades, including both as construct and diagnosis. Despite discussion surrounding the causes of low desire, there is a gap in research about how women themselves understand the causes of their low desire and the potential consequences of these causal attributions. In the current study, we investigated this by asking 130 women who had low desire and were partnered with men about their attributions for low desire. Through content analysis, we identified five attribution categories: psychological/individual, relational, biological, sociocultural, and/or sexual orientation/identity/status. Many participants chose more than one category, indicating a multifaceted nature of women's causes of low desire. We then quantitatively assessed women's feelings of responsibility for, and emotions surrounding, their low desire. Our findings indicate that the majority-but not all-of women have negative feelings about their low desire. However, the specific emotions they experience are related to their attribution patterns. This underscores the significance of investigating various facets of women's attributions regarding low desire in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their emotional experiences and desire overall.

Orgasm Coercion: Overlaps Between Pressuring Someone to Orgasm and Sexual Coercion.

Trying to ensure that a partner orgasms during sex is generally seen as positive, but research has yet to assess how this might involve pressuring partners to orgasm in coercive ways. In the present study, we tested whether pressuring a partner to orgasm is a coercive behavior by assessing how this behavior overlaps with sexual coercion (i.e., pressuring someone into having sex). Participants of diverse gender/sex and sexual identities (N = 912, M age = 31.31 years, SD = 9.41) completed an online survey that asked them whether they had ever felt pressured by a partner to orgasm, to describe what partners have said or done to pressure them, and to answer a series of questions about the most recent incident in which this occurred. Mixed quantitative and qualitative results showed that orgasm pressure tactics were analogous to sexual coercion tactics and that being pressured to orgasm was associated with experiencing sexual coercion, faking orgasms, and negative psychological and relationship outcomes. Together, findings challenge the assumption that trying to ensure a partner's orgasm occurrence is necessarily positive and demonstrate that orgasm coercion exists.

Orgasm Coercion and Negative Relationship and Psychological Outcomes: The Role of Gender, Sexual Identity, Perpetration Tactics, and Perceptions of the Perpetrator's Intentions.

Orgasm coercion involves pressuring a partner to orgasm by implying that not orgasming will have negative consequences. In the present study, we used mixed methods to explore (1) how various individual and contextual factors-i.e., frequency of orgasm coercion, orgasm frequency, gender/sex, sexual identity, the orgasm coercion tactics used, and perceptions of the perpetrator's intention-affect relationship and psychological outcomes associated with orgasm coercion, and (2) how different individuals characterize these outcomes. Cisgender women, cisgender men, and gender/sex minority participants (N = 308, M age = 30.44 years, SD = 8.16) described the most recent encounter in which they experienced orgasm coercion and then rated and described the positive and negative relationship and psychological outcomes associated with the incident. Quantitative results showed that the following predicted significantly higher negative relationship and psychological outcomes: a higher frequency of experiencing orgasm coercion, lower frequency of orgasming with partners in general, and experiencing orgasm coercion via physical or emotional threats. Believing that the perpetrator was motivated by altruism or social pressures mitigated these effects. And, experiencing orgasm coercion via implied fault predicted significantly higher negative relationship outcomes only for cisgender women. Additionally, being a sexual minority predicted higher negative relationship (but not psychological) outcomes, whereas being a gender/sex minority predicted higher negative psychological (but not relationship) outcomes. Qualitative results showed that relationship and psychological outcomes varied; for example, participants discussed making a partner happy, disappointment with their partner's behaviors, ending the relationship, and lasting feelings of anxiety, guilt, and abuse. Together, findings offer new insights into how orgasm coercion affects those who experience it.

Gender Inequities in Household Labor Predict Lower Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.

Low sexual desire in women is usually studied as a problem, one that is located within women. However, other possibilities exist, including known gender inequities related to heteronormative gender roles. In this study, we provide the first test of the theory that heteronormativity is related to low sexual desire in women partnered with men, focusing specifically on inequities in the division of household labor. In two studies with women who were partnered with men and had children (Study 1, N = 677; Study 2, N = 396), performing a large proportion of household labor was associated with significantly lower sexual desire for a partner. Together, the results suggest that this association was mediated by both perceiving the partner as a dependent and perceiving the division of labor as unfair. These results support the heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men, and show that gender inequities are important, though understudied, contributors to low desire in women partnered with men.

The Heteronormativity Theory of Low Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.

Low sexual desire in women partnered with men is typically presumed to be a problem-one that exists in women and encourages a research agenda on causation and treatment targeting women. In this paper, we present a distinct way forward for research on low sexual desire in women partnered with men that attends to a more structural explanation: heteronormativity. A heteronormative worldview assumes that relationships and structures are heterosexual, gender (usually conflated with sex) is binary and complementary, and gender roles fit within narrow bounds including nurturant labor for women. We propose the heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men, arguing that heteronormative gender inequities are contributing factors. We outline four hypotheses and their predictions related to: inequitable divisions of household labor, blurring of partner and mother roles, objectification of women, and gender norms surrounding sexual initiation. We discuss some mechanisms-social, physiological, and otherwise-for the heteronormativity theory, especially related to stress, objectification, and nurturance. We close by noting some limitations of our paper and the ways that the heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men provides a rigorous, generative, and empirical way forward.

Sexual Orientation Across Porn Use, Sexual Fantasy, and In-Person Sexuality: Visualizing Branchedness and Coincidence via Sexual Configurations Theory.

Sexual orientation describes sexual interests, approaches, arousals, and attractions. People experience these interests and attractions in a number of contexts, including in-person sexuality, fantasy, and porn use, among others. The extent to which sexual orientation is divergent (branched) and/or overlapping (coincident) across these, however, is unclear. In the present study, a gender/sex and sexually diverse sample (N = 30; 15 gender/sex/ual minorities and 15 majorities) manipulated digital circles representing porn use, in-person sexuality, and fantasy on a tablet during in-person interviews. Participants used circle overlap to represent the degree of shared sexual interests across contexts and circle size to indicate the strength and/or number of sexual interests within contexts. Across multiple dimensions of sexual orientation (gender/sex, partner number, and action/behavior), we found evidence that sexual interests were both branched and coincident. These findings contribute to new understandings about the multifaceted nature of sexual orientations across contexts and provide a novel way to measure, conceptualize, and understand sexual orientation in context.

Translating Knowledge of Sexual Configurations Theory via Instructional Videos.

Gender/sex and sexual diversity are increasingly understood by the public as complex. But, scientific frameworks that address the complexity of gender/sex and sexual diversity are few and not well situated for the public. Sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015) is one approach that provides a visual framework for understanding and measuring gender/sex and sexual diversity. But how might knowledge users and creators actually use it? To make SCT more accessible to researchers, educators, clinicians, and the general public, we created three instructional videos (individual gender/sex, gender/sex sexuality, and partner number sexuality) that explained SCT and demonstrated how to use its diagrams. Participants (N = 242) of diverse gender/sex and sexual identities, including professionals who work in gender/sex- and sexuality-related fields, watched one of the three videos, filled out the diagrams, and evaluated the video and diagrams via scaled and open-ended questions. Results demonstrated that the SCT videos were sufficient for most participants to fill out the diagrams. Participants evaluated the video generally positively, with some variation by condition, identity group, and professional status. These results indicate that instructional videos are able to translate SCT, potentially facilitating uptake of SCT by clinicians, researchers, and educators as well as increasing awareness of gender/sex and sexual diversity more broadly within the public.

When Orgasms Do Not Equal Pleasure: Accounts of "Bad" Orgasm Experiences During Consensual Sexual Encounters.

Orgasms during consensual sex are often assumed to be wholly positive experiences. This assumption overshadows the possibility that orgasm experiences during consensual sex could be "bad" (i.e., negative and/or non-positive). In the present study, we employed an online survey to explore the possibility that orgasm experiences could be "bad" during consensual sex by asking participants of diverse gender and sexual identities (N = 726, M age = 28.42 years, SD = 7.85) about a subset of potential bad orgasm experiences. Specifically, we asked participants whether they have ever had an orgasm during coerced sex, compliant sex, and/or when they felt pressured to have an orgasm (i.e., orgasm pressure). We also asked participants who had such an experience to describe it, resulting in qualitative descriptions from 289 participants. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative analyses, we found compelling evidence that orgasm experiences can be "bad" during consensual sex. Specifically, many participants described their experiences in negative and/or non-positive ways despite orgasm occurrence, reported that their orgasms were less pleasurable compared to other experiences, and suggested that their orgasm experiences had negative impacts on their relationships, sexuality, and/or psychological health. Participants also suggested that social location shaped their bad orgasm experiences, citing gender and sexual identity, gender identity conflict, race/ethnicity, and religion as important to their perceptions of and responses to their experiences. Results directly challenge the assumption that orgasms during consensual sex are always and/or unilaterally positive experiences.

Sexual and Gender Diversity Among Sexual and Gender/Sex Majorities: Insights via Sexual Configurations Theory.

Recent research on gender and sexual majority individuals suggests that their attractions, identities, and experiences may not be as homogenous or easily generalizable as is often assumed. Sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015) is a framework for conceptualizing individuals' partnered sexualities and gender/sexes with a focus on gender/sex and sexual diversity. SCT has been successfully used in recent empirical work with gender and sexual minority individuals (Schudson, Manley, Diamond, & van Anders, 2018), but it has not yet been tested with heterosexual, cisgender individuals. In the present study, we tested the use of SCT in qualitative interviews with 26 gender and sexual majority participants to address the following research questions: What are the strengths and weaknesses of SCT for representing heterosexual, cisgender individuals' gender/sexes and partnered sexualities? How do gender and sexual majority individuals use SCT to express their gender/sexes and partnered sexualities? And, what insights about sexual and gender diversity can be gained from using SCT with a gender and sexual majority sample? Using thematic analysis, we evaluated how participants interacted with SCT and the SCT diagrams. Results showed that our participants used components of SCT to convey comprehensive and nuanced interests, which included gender/sex and sexual diversity outside of what is typically expected in research on heterosexual, cisgender individuals. We discuss findings and challenges specific to working with majority participants and offer implications for future work on gender/sex and sexual majorities and on gender/sex and sexual diversity in general.

Average Associations Between Sexual Desire, Testosterone, and Stress in Women and Men Over Time.

Sexual desire and testosterone are widely assumed to be directly and positively linked to each other despite the lack of supporting empirical evidence. The literature that does exist is mixed, which may result from a conflation of solitary and dyadic desire, and the exclusion of contextual variables, like stress, known to be relevant. Here, we use the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds as a framework for examining how testosterone, solitary and partnered desire, and stress are linked over time. To do so, we collected saliva samples (for testosterone and cortisol) and measured desire as well as other variables via questionnaires over nine monthly sessions in 78 women and 79 men. Linear mixed models showed that testosterone negatively predicted partnered desire in women but not men. Stress moderated associations between testosterone and solitary desire in both women and men, but differently: At lower levels of stress, higher average testosterone corresponded to higher average solitary desire for men, but lower solitary desire on average for women. Similarly, for partnered desire, higher perceived stress predicted lower desire for women, but higher desire for men. We conclude by discussing the ways that these results both counter presumptions about testosterone and desire but fit with the existing literature and theory, and highlight the empirical importance of stress and gender norms.

Effects of gendered behavior on testosterone in women and men.

Testosterone is typically understood to contribute to maleness and masculinity, although it also responds to behaviors such as competition. Competition is crucial to evolution and may increase testosterone but also is selectively discouraged for women and encouraged for men via gender norms. We conducted an experiment to test how gender norms might modulate testosterone as mediated by two possible gender→testosterone pathways. Using a novel experimental design, participants (trained actors) performed a specific type of competition (wielding power) in stereotypically masculine vs. feminine ways. We hypothesized in H1 (stereotyped behavior) that wielding power increases testosterone regardless of how it is performed, vs. H2 (stereotyped performance), that wielding power performed in masculine but not feminine ways increases testosterone. We found that wielding power increased testosterone in women compared with a control, regardless of whether it was performed in gender-stereotyped masculine or feminine ways. Results supported H1 over H2: stereotyped behavior but not performance modulated testosterone. These results also supported theory that competition modulates testosterone over masculinity. Our findings thus support a gender→testosterone pathway mediated by competitive behavior. Accordingly, cultural pushes for men to wield power and women to avoid doing so may partially explain, in addition to heritable factors, why testosterone levels tend to be higher in men than in women: A lifetime of gender socialization could contribute to "sex differences" in testosterone. Our experiment opens up new questions of gender→testosterone pathways, highlighting the potential of examining nature/nurture interactions and effects of socialization on human biology.

Multifaceted Sexual Desire and Hormonal Associations: Accounting for Social Location, Relationship Status, and Desire Target.

Sexual desire is typically measured as a unitary erotic phenomenon and is often assumed by biological and biomedical researchers, as well as the lay public, to be directly connected to physiological parameters like testosterone (T). In the present study, we empirically examined how conceptualizing sexual desire as multifaceted might clarify associations with T and contextual variables. To do so, we used the Sexual Desire Questionnaire (DESQ), which assesses multifaceted dyadic sexual desire, to explore how contextual variables such as social location, relationship status, and desire target (e.g., partner vs. stranger) might be meaningful for reports of sexual desire and associated hormonal correlations. We focused on women (N = 198), because sexual desire and testosterone are generally unlinked in healthy men. Participants imagined a partner or stranger while answering the 65 DESQ items and provided a saliva sample for hormone assay. Analyses showed that the DESQ factored differently for the current sample than in previous research, highlighting how sexual desire can be constructed differently across different populations. We also found that, for the Intimacy, Eroticism, and Partner Focus factors, mean scores were higher when the desire target was a partner relative to a stranger for participants in a relationship, but equally high between partner versus stranger target for single participants. DESQ items resolved into meaningful hormonal desire components, such that high endorsement of Fantasy Experience was linked to higher T, and higher cortisol was linked with lower endorsement of the Intimacy factor. We argue that conceptualizing desire as multifaceted and contextualized when assessing hormonal links-or questions in general about desire-can clarify some of its complexities and lead to new research avenues.

Sexual Desire in Sexual Minority and Majority Women and Men: The Multifaceted Sexual Desire Questionnaire.

Sexual desire is increasingly understood to be multifaceted and not solely erotically oriented, but measures are still generally unitary and eroticism-focused. Our goals in this article were to explore the multifaceted nature of sexual desire and develop a measure to do so, and to determine how multifaceted sexual desire might be related to gender/sex and sexual orientation/identity. In the development phase, we generated items to form the 65-item Sexual Desire Questionnaire (DESQ). Next, the DESQ was administered to 609 women, 705 men, and 39 non-binary identified participants. Results showed that the DESQ demonstrated high reliability and validity, and that sexual desire was neither unitary nor entirely erotic, but instead was remarkably multifaceted. We also found that multifaceted sexual desire was in part related to social location variables such as gender/sex and sexual orientation/identity. We propose the DESQ as a measure of multifaceted sexual desire that can be used to compare factor themes, total scores, and scores across individual items in diverse groups that take social context into account. Results are discussed in light of how social location variables should be considered when making generalizations about sexual desire, and how conceptualizations of desire as multifaceted may provide important insights.

Identification with Stimuli Moderates Women's Affective and Testosterone Responses to Self-Chosen Erotica.

Sexual thoughts are sufficient to increase testosterone (T) in women, yet erotic films are not. A key confound in past studies is autonomy in stimulus selection: women choose the content of their sexual thoughts but films have been selected by researchers. We hypothesized that self-chosen erotic films, compared to researcher-chosen erotic films, would (1) increase women's self-reported arousal, enjoyment, and identification with stimuli, and decrease negative affect; and (2) increase T. Participants (N = 116 women) were randomly assigned to a neutral documentary condition or one of three erotic film conditions: high choice (self-chosen erotica from participants' own sources), moderate choice (self-chosen erotica from films preselected by sexuality researchers), or no choice (researcher-chosen erotica). Participants provided saliva samples for T before and after viewing the film in the privacy of their homes. Compared to researcher-chosen erotica, self-chosen erotica increased self-reported arousal and enjoyment, but also unexpectedly disgust, guilt, and embarrassment. Self-chosen erotica only marginally increased identification with stimuli compared to researcher-chosen erotica. Overall, film condition did not affect T, but individual differences in identification moderated T responses: among women reporting lower levels of identification, the moderate choice condition decreased T compared to the no choice condition, but this difference was not observed among women with higher identification. These results highlight the importance of cognitive/emotional factors like identification for sexually modulated T. However, self-chosen erotica results in more ambivalent rather than unequivocally positive cognitive/emotional responses, perhaps because stigma associated with viewing erotica for women becomes more salient when choosing stimuli.

Defining Pleasure: A Focus Group Study of Solitary and Partnered Sexual Pleasure in Queer and Heterosexual Women.

Solitary and partnered sexuality are typically depicted as fundamentally similar, but empirical evidence suggests they differ in important ways. We investigated how women's definitions of sexual pleasure overlapped and diverged when considering solitary versus partnered sexuality. Based on an interdisciplinary literature, we explored whether solitary pleasure would be characterized by eroticism (e.g., genital pleasure, orgasm) and partnered pleasure by nurturance (e.g., closeness). Via focus groups with a sexually diverse sample of women aged 18-64 (N = 73), we found that women defined solitary and partnered pleasure in both convergent and divergent ways that supported expectations. Autonomy was central to definitions of solitary pleasure, whereas trust, giving pleasure, and closeness were important elements of partnered pleasure. Both solitary and partnered pleasure involved exploration for self-discovery or for growing a partnered relationship. Definitions of pleasure were largely similar across age and sexual identity; however, relative to queer women, heterosexual women (especially younger heterosexual women) expressed greater ambivalence toward solitary masturbation and partnered orgasm. Results have implications for women's sexual well-being across multiple sexual identities and ages, and for understanding solitary and partnered sexuality as overlapping but distinct constructs.

Beyond Sexual Orientation: Integrating Gender/Sex and Diverse Sexualities via Sexual Configurations Theory.

Sexual orientation typically describes people's sexual attractions or desires based on their sex relative to that of a target. Despite its utility, it has been critiqued in part because it fails to account for non-biological gender-related factors, partnered sexualities unrelated to gender or sex, or potential divergences between love and lust. In this article, I propose Sexual Configurations Theory (SCT) as a testable, empirically grounded framework for understanding diverse partnered sexualities, separate from solitary sexualities. I focus on and provide models of two parameters of partnered sexuality--gender/sex and partner number. SCT also delineates individual gender/sex. I discuss a sexual diversity lens as a way to study the particularities and generalities of diverse sexualities without privileging either. I also discuss how sexual identities, orientations, and statuses that are typically seen as misaligned or aligned are more meaningfully conceptualized as branched or co-incident. I map out some existing identities using SCT and detail its applied implications for health and counseling work. I highlight its importance for sexuality in terms of measurement and social neuroendocrinology, and the ways it may be useful for self-knowledge and feminist and queer empowerment and alliance building. I also make a case that SCT changes existing understandings and conceptualizations of sexuality in constructive and generative ways informed by both biology and culture, and that it is a potential starting point for sexual diversity studies and research.

Beyond masculinity: testosterone, gender/sex, and human social behavior in a comparative context.

Largely based on pre-theory that ties high testosterone (T) to masculinity, and low T to femininity, high T is mainly studied in relation to aggression, mating, sexuality, and challenge, and low T with parenting. Evidence, however, fails to support this, and the social variability in T is better accounted for by a competition-nurturance trade-off as per the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (van Anders et al., 2011). Four key domains are discussed: adult-infant interactions, sexual desire, sexual behavior, and partnering. Empirical engagements with gender/sex are shown to lead to important insights over assumptions about masculinity-femininity. Humans are discussed within a comparative framework that attends to cross-species principles informed by human insights alongside human-specific particularities like social constructions, which are critical to evolutionary understandings of the social role of T. This paper thus integrates seemingly orthogonal perspectives to allow for transformative approaches to an empirically-supported social phenomenology of T.