Coming to understand
type: CreativeWork
description: One might presume that human beings would benefit in psychological and indeed relational terms from studying sexual behaviour. Yet research on the female orgasm only gained momentum in the mid – late twentieth century (Kinsey, 1953; Krantz, 1958; Masters and Johnson, 1966). The latter piece of research was conducted at the time of the second-wave feminist movement, which “took up arms” in the clitoral vs. vaginal orgasm debate (Freud, 1931, as cited in Rieff, 1997). It was advocated by feminist writers that female orgasm resulted from clitoral stimulation, which controversially challenged the notion that it occurred in the context of heterosexual penilevaginal stimulation, through sexual intercourse for reproductive purposes. Since this time the body of research on female orgasm has grown, but it is still limited, and has primarily taken a quantitative approach. This research was conducted in part, and in response to the paucity of qualitative research in this area, as well as the more recent medicalization of female sexual “problems”, and the continued oppression and abuse of female sexuality through pornography and practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM). A non-clinical sample of eight women were recruited and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to answer the following research question: “What is the lived experience of reaching female orgasm in the context of a sexual relationship?” An interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out on the data. Three superordinate themes emerged; “Anticlimax”, “This is my orgasm”, and “The challenge of our orgasm”. The women experience this phenomenon through a sense of control and restriction related to painful emotions including anxiety, anger and shame; through a developed sense of freedom in understanding and learning how to satisfy their own sexual needs; and through a contradictory experience of personal freedom versus a female – male relational power dynamic experienced as dominated - dom…
abstract: One might presume that human beings would benefit in psychological and indeed relational terms from studying sexual behaviour. Yet research on the female orgasm only gained momentum in the mid – late twentieth century (Kinsey, 1953; Krantz, 1958; Masters and Johnson, 1966). The latter piece of research was conducted at the time of the second-wave feminist movement, which “took up arms” in the clitoral vs. vaginal orgasm debate (Freud, 1931, as cited in Rieff, 1997). It was advocated by feminist writers that female orgasm resulted from clitoral stimulation, which controversially challenged the notion that it occurred in the context of heterosexual penilevaginal stimulation, through sexual intercourse for reproductive purposes. Since this time the body of research on female orgasm has grown, but it is still limited, and has primarily taken a quantitative approach. This research was conducted in part, and in response to the paucity of qualitative research in this area, as well as the more recent medicalization of female sexual “problems”, and the continued oppression and abuse of female sexuality through pornography and practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM). A non-clinical sample of eight women were recruited and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to answer the following research question: “What is the lived experience of reaching female orgasm in the context of a sexual relationship?” An interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out on the data. Three superordinate themes emerged; “Anticlimax”, “This is my orgasm”, and “The challenge of our orgasm”. The women experience this phenomenon through a sense of control and restriction related to painful emotions including anxiety, anger and shame; through a developed sense of freedom in understanding and learning how to satisfy their own sexual needs; and through a contradictory experience of personal freedom versus a female – male relational power dynamic experienced as dominated - dom…
author: Elliott, Georgina F.
keywords: BF Psychology
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:39:24Z
provider: City University of London
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: City University London