Labouring on orgasms

Embodiment, efficiency, entitlement and obligations in heterosex

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15099112
AutoresH Frith (0000-0003-1244-0495, University of Brighton, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen15
Número4
Páginas494-510
Fecha de publicación2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2013.767940
PMID23464744
OpenAlexW2164902508
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas37
Referencias citadas43

Women's orgasms have long been subject to vociferous scientific debate, but over the last 10-15 years a small but growing body of largely feminist qualitative research has begun to explore how the sociocultural construction of orgasm finds contemporary articulation in popular culture and in lay accounts of heterosex. This work is explicitly concerned with gendered power relations and how these operate. This paper provides a critical review and synthesis of this work by exploring three discursive imperatives: (1) orgasm and the coital imperative (2) efficient orgasms and hard work (3) and the ethic of reciprocity. Drawing on these insights, this paper outlines how a focus on embodiment, on situated meaning-making and on everyday sexual practices would further extend our understanding of the social construction of orgasm. Finally, the paper argues for the importance of locating these processes of meaning-making in relation to socially structured material realities

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Political science · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology