Orgasmic bodies

Engaging both with science and popular culture, this project examines the meanings given to orgasmic bodies in contemporary heterosex. Starting from the assumption that orgasm is not a 'natural' or pre-social experience, this project explores how the meaning of 'orgasmic experience' must be learned – sometimes through explicit pedagogical instruction which is wrapped up in gendered ideologies.

Project timeframe

The project ran from July 2013 to July 2015

Project aims

This project examines how bodily experiences of orgasm are worked up as present/absent, complicated/straightforward, too slow/too fast, fake or real, in the doing of masculinities and femininities. The aims of the project are to:

  • Examine how orgasm is constructed in scientific sexological research and the ways in which these constructions are gendered
  • Interrogate the ways in which key classification systems demarcate ‘functional’ from ‘dysfunctional’ sexuality and the role of orgasm within this
  • Investigate the construction of orgasm in popular culture including a detailed analysis of Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health magazines

Project findings and impact

The project found that

  • Orgasm is constructed as imperative to heterosexual sex – an indicator of successful sexual interactions, of healthy relationships and the successful performance of masculine and feminine identities
  • Orgasm is constructed differently for men and women which evoke different entitlements and obligations in heterosex
  • Orgasm is constructed as slower, more mysterious/difficult/complicated for women and as less important for sexual satisfaction
  • Neoliberal imperatives compel sexual actors to ‘work on’ orgasm by improving their sexual skill and embodied responses
  • Despite claims to scientific certainty knowing whether an individual ‘really has’ experienced orgasm is often contested, ambiguous and fuzzy
  • The ways in which popular and scientific discourse construct orgasm has important implications for the ways in which people experience their bodies as sexual functional/dysfunctional, orgasmic/non-orgasmic and appropriately masculine or feminine
  • Discourse about orgasm is a key mechanism in the reproduction of heteronormative sexualities and gendered sexual identities in contemporary culture

Research team

Hannah Frith

 

Output

Frith, H. (2015) Sexercising to orgasm: Embodied pedagogy and sexual labour in women’s magazines. Sexualities, 18(3): 310-328.

Frith, H. (2014) Visualising the ‘real’ and the ‘fake’: Emotion work and the representation of orgasm in pornography and everyday sexual interactions. Journal of Gender Studies, 24(4): 386-398.

Frith, H. (2013) Labouring on Orgasms: Embodiment, Efficiency, Entitlement and Obligations. Culture, Health and Sexuality. 15(4): 494-510.

Frith, H. (2012) Accounting for orgasmic absence: Responses to ‘missing orgasms in heterosexual sex using the story completion method’, Psychology and Sexuality. 4(3): 310-322.

Frith, H. (2012)“CONGRATS!! You had an orgasm”: Constructing orgasm on an internet discussion board. Feminism and Psychology. 23(2): 252-260.

Partners

None