Young women are becoming equal partners in the hookup culture, often just as willing as young men to venture into sexual relationships without emotional ties.
“The notion of sexual liberation, where men and women both had equal access to casual sex, assumed a comparable likelihood of that sex being pleasurable,” Kim Wallen, a neuroendocrinology professor at Emory University who studies female desire told NY Times. “But that part of the playing field isn’t level.”
Casual hookups may not be that much fun for women.
Researchers based out of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University wanted to investigate the level of sexual satisfaction women experience in a culture where casual sex is becoming increasingly prevalent.
According to their new study, women are much less likely to experience an orgasm during casual sex than when having sex within a committed relationship.
One study of 600 college students found that women were twice as likely to reach orgasm from intercourse or oral sex in committed relationships, compared to hookups. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research and at the Annual Convention for Psychological Science.
Justin Garcia, an assistant research scientist at the Kinsey Institute, interviewed the 600 female college students.
"We’ve been sold this bill of goods that we’re in an era where people can be sexually free and participate equally in the hookup culture,” Garcia said. “The fact is that not everyone’s having a good time.”
Another study of 24,000 college students found that about 40 percent of women had an orgasm during their most recent casual encounter. In comparison, 75 percent of women had an orgasm the last time they had sex while in a committed relationship.
Researchers reasoned that casual sex partners tend to neglect to take the time to figure out what pleases their partner sexually.
"We attribute that to practice with a partner, which yields better success at orgasm, and we also think the guys care more in a relationship," study author Paula England, a New York University sociologist said.
"Women are not feeling very free in these casual contexts to say what they want and need," England said. Indeed, young men surveyed in Dr. England’s study often admitted that they are less focused on sexually pleasing a woman they are seeing casually than one they are dating.
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Reviewed November 26, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith