The objective of this thesis was to determine whether evaluative body image, affective body image, and behavioural body image were predictive of women’s sexual desire, arousal and orgasm. Results are based on self-report and body composition data from 88 women (a subset of a larger data set including men) in heterosexual romantic relationships at the time of data collection. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that poor evaluative, affective and behavioural body image were detrimental to women’s sexual functioning. Specifically, dissatisfaction with one’s body predicted decrements in desire (β = -.31, p <.05) and arousal (β = -.35, p <.01). Similarly, feeling that others evaluate one’s body negatively, predicted decrements in desire (β = .22, p <.05) and arousal (β = .35, p <.01). Feeling negatively about one’s appearance predicted decrements in arousal (β = .26, p <.05). Negative thoughts and feelings about one’s body that influence sexual behaviours (body image self-consciousness) predicted decrements in arousal (β = -.37, p <.01) and orgasm (β = -.25, p <.05). Implications for public health messages, treatment programs, sexual problem assessments and directions for future research are discussed. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The most commonly reported sexual concerns for women are low desire and orgasm difficulties (Laumann, Paik & Rosen, 1999; Laumann et al., 2005). Previous research indicates that women with sexual problems may have different reasons for engaging in sex than women with healthy sexual functioning (Giles & McCabe, 2009; Sand & Fisher, 2007). The current study investigated whether motivations for sex differed by levels of sexual functioning overall and specifically among women with and without problems with sexual desire or orgasm. Seven hundred and eight heterosexual women completed an online questionnaire assessing reasons for sex and sexual functioning. Women with sexual functioning concerns were more likely to endorse insecurity reasons for sex, while women without were more likely to endorse physical reasons for sex. Women experiencing low desire were less likely to endorse emotional and physical reasons for sex. Women experiencing orgasm difficulties were more likely to endorse insecurity reasons. The limitations and implications of the results are discussed.

This study presents cross-cultural research into women's sexuality, and orgasm in particular. Qualitative interviews of women who have undergone excision of the clitoris and women who have not form the core of my data. My analysis indicates that female orgasm in diverse societies is problematized and controlled, causing me to postulate numerous similarities between women despite cultural and physical differences. One of the most significant findings is that similar attitudes toward the clitoris might be invoked to explain both its removal, in excising societies, and clitoral-vaginal theoretical bifurcations in non-excising ones. / The originality of my theoretical approach is to examine various types of social constructionism. I demonstrate its pertinence to an understanding of the literal construction of the body through social practices or social imperatives which determine physical reality. My use of the term constructionism as anti-essentialism also enables me to identify common components of drive theory in diverse cultures, and to demonstrate their lack of correlation with sexual behavior. Finally, constructionism is a crucial element to my analysis of subjective beliefs concerning female orgasm. Interpretation of physiological response supports a belief in clitoral-vaginal opposition in defiance of the interdependence of these two organs, thereby reflecting the constructionist insistence upon reality as socially defined. / The originality of this research lies in its comparative perspective and resulting emphasis on similarities in culturally diverse groups. Female sexuality and orgasm are filtered through social existence. A physiological response can thus be denied or substantiated by social means.

abstract: Reduced space is an important theme in the works of the Marquis de Sade including his epic novel The New Justine and his pornographic performance piece Philosophy in the Bedroom including the political/social treatise "Frenchmen, yet another effort is needed if you want to be a Republic". Through out his life Sade attempted to overcome reduction of space with writing. Tragically, his writing often prolonged the reduction of his space by sending him to or keeping him in prison. It is my theory that his violent, pornographic writing style is "une écriture de surjouissance" or "a writing of over-coming". Surjouissance is my theory for Sade's method, based on textual analysis of Sade's main works, that he combines through his syntactic structure, narrative voice, and semantic themes the orgasm of the mind represented by philosophical discourse with the orgasm of the body represented textually by orgiastic scenes and the language of orgasm to reach an ultimate state of complete freedom. In the political pamphlet "Frenchmen yet another effort..."Sade attempts to set this theory of sur-jouissance, or this transcendent state reached through the combination of physical and philosophical orgasm, as the political foundation for a new republic. Does he succeed in creating a viable political formula for a sustainable republic? My argument states absolutely not. His aristocratic elitism narrows his voice. But he does propose the combination of sexual, literary, and intellectual freedoms as a possible polemic against any form of reduced space. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. French 2011

The media form an integral part of our everyday life and have a significant impact on how we perceive, understand and construct reality, our part in it and our own identity. This diploma thesis is therefore concerned with the portrayal of the female orgasm in selected internet media that are aimed primarily at women. Through an analysis of selected internet articles, I show that an orgasm is not (just) a biological phenomenon, but it is more a discursive construct. At the same time, I introduce the ways the media help to (re)produce a common idea of what the female orgasm is, how to experience it, and what the consequences are of (not) experiencing it. On the one hand, the analysed media create an impression of a certain sexual emancipation of women; they stress a woman's right for sexual pleasure and orgasm. On the other hand, the way the topic of female orgasm is described creates a kind of universal formula for doing and experiencing sexuality. Despite declaring plurality and diversity, the media in fact create clearly defined boundaries and marginalize those who do not fit. Key words: gender, sexuality, female orgasm, body, post-structuralism, media

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The present thesis focuses on the relationship between cognitive distractions and female ability to achieve orgasm and female sexual function. The theoretical part summarises current knowledge about female sexual response, the ability to achieve orgasm and explains the concept of cognitive distractions in the context of the spectatoring theory and cognitive interference. The empirical part is split into two phases. First one describes the process of creation, pilot measurements and psychometric evaluation of own measuring tool, Cognitive distractions questionnaire (Dotazník kognitivních distraktorů, DKD). It presents three independent subscales - sexual behavior (DKD-S), negative body image (DKD- B) and bad timing (DKD-C). All subscales were evauated via confirmatory factorial analysis and showed good reliability. The second phase was designed as an explorative correlation study. It focused on finding a relationship between distractions of each subscale of DKD and female ability to achieve orgasm, which was measured with Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI, Rosen et al., 2000). Data was collected via a snowball method with an online questionnaire. Sample consisted of 352 women in the age between 18 and 56 years. Spearman correlation indicated a negative relationship between distractions of sexual...

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The aim of the present thesis is to find deeper knowledge about women’s experiences of sexuality, desire and pleasure during childbirth. In this thesis there are statements of women’s different kinds of pleasurable and sexual feelings and experiences during birth. Furthermore, factors that may influence some women’s feelings and experiences of a sexual kind are discussed in relation to the common notion that women above all feel fear and pain when giving birth. The thesis is based on ten unstructured interviews with women who have all given birth, most of them recently and in some cases more than ten years ago. The women had all stated before the interview that they had had some kind of pleasurable and/or sexual experiences during or in connection with their childbirth.Result: Almost all of the women who were interviewed had, before giving birth, been unaware about the possibility of lustful and sexual dimensions during labour. There was one statement of experiences not being pleasurable at all during the actual birth but this woman mentioned pleasurable sensations after the baby was born. Some of the women experienced pleasurable and lustful sensations during contractions while others experienced orgasm or preorgasmic sensations during the last part of the pushing stage. There were informants who experienced feelings of desire and/or orgasmic sensations in spite of having epidural analgesia. The women who had experiences of desirable and sexual sensations all stated that these were exclusively personal with no participation from their partners. Nearly all of the participating women had kept these desirable and sexual experiences to themselves and not mentioned them to their partners or anyone else. An important finding was that feelings of shame and different kinds of taboos were the women’s main explanations for not talking about it. Discussion: The scientific literature in this field suggests the possibility of talking about four different discourses about birth. In this thesis the first is called “medical discourse”, with pain/painreleif, monitoring/security, riskthinking and technical development. The second one is named “discourse of ’naturalness’ ”, with influences of earthpower, “naturalness”, sexuality and awareness of the body. The third one is called “religious discourses”, with influences from the madonna myth, shame and taboos. The fourth discourse is called “feminist discourses” where rights, independent choices and sexuality are constituents. The findings suggests that these discourses influence each person`s experience while giving birth. The findings also suggest that, in accordance with the Sexual Script Theory, the influences can be seen on an inter-personal level, in an intra-personal level as well as on a cultural level.Conclusion: The Sexual Script Theory might be applicable as a way to understand women's experiences of sexuality while giving birth.

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