Abstract:
Previous research holds that the gendered orgasm gap is not the result of women’s biologically limited abilities, but the culturally dominant discourse on gender and sex prescribing penis-in-vagina sex as “normal” sex. Yet, earlier studies have not examined why this typical understanding of sex is culturally dominant in the first place and which actors are involved in shaping, maintaining, or contesting it. Extending previous research, by a feminist critical discourse analysis, this study finds that, first, in the Global North particularly (young) cisgender heterosexual men are influential in determining what “normal” sex is and, second, the penis-in-vagina understanding of sex relates to illegitimately lacking access to sexual pleasure for women and the LGBTQ+ community. Tracing back to the historical origins of women’s sexual anatomy, the paper holds that sexual inequality is embedded in a wider dismissal of women’s lives. Hence, to deconstruct the saliency of cisgender heterosexual men in sexual pleasure and the wider society alike, gender-inclusive and gender-neutral discourse is a promising avenue
