Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Little existing research has examined women’s solo masturbation and vibrator usage in a way that highlights the importance of both sexual agency and the sexual/romantic relationship context. This research evaluates if and how social factors, partnership status and the relationship context, and sexual self-concept impact a woman’s behaviors and attitudes toward masturbation and vibrator use. Using cross-sectional survey data from adult women (N=112), descriptive and bivariate analyses were used to explore a variety of factors. Single and partnered women did not differ significantly on a majority of measures, suggesting that partnership status may play an insignificant role in predicting women’s solo sex attitudes and behaviors. Regarding the relationship context, partner communication and positivity toward masturbation and vibrator use significantly varied together. Finally, greater sexual openness and sexual entitlement were associated with higher masturbation frequency. Results from this study suggest that masturbation and vibrator use are common among adult women, and women are capable of sexual agency in relation to masturbation and vibrator use, whether they are in established partnerships or not.

Purpose: The objective of the submitted work is to map the up till now less examined area of masturbation behaviour and masturbation fantasies of Czech population. Another objective is to examine relations between certain aspects of masturbation and sexual behaviour in general. Methods: The data was collected through two questionnaires designed for this purpose. The questionnaires were posted on the internet; links to these web pages were spread by e-mails, social networks and links on other web pages. Data was processed in Excel programme and statistical programme SPSS. Research sample consisted of 1339 women and 1186 men, who completed the whole questionnaire. Results: 94.1% of women and 99,7% of men have an experience with masturbation. The average age of the first masturbation is 13 years for women and less than 12 year for men. Men began with masturbation by the age of 25 at the latest, while for women the age of their first experience with onanism ranged between their birth till the age of 60. Masturbation frequency is higher for men than for women and the difference is statistically significant. Masturbation frequency for both sexes negatively correlates with age, meaning that older research participants masturbate less than the younger ones. Both women and men reach orgasm easier through...

abstract: Based on the Foucauldian understanding that sexuality discourse operates as a powerful instrument for the regulation of societies and individuals, this research considers how internalized gender and sexuality discourses affect young women's embodied experiences of masturbation, and more broadly their sexual subjectivity and health. Drawing on interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on gender, sexuality, health, and embodiment, I examine female sexual health within a positive rights framework. That is, I view the rights to both sexual safety and pleasure as essential components of female sexual health, and conceptualize girls and young women as potential sexual agents. By asking young women about their lived experiences of self-pleasure, this research challenges not only the historical legacy of pathologizing female desire and pleasure, but also scholars' tendency to construct female sexuality solely in a heteronormative, partnered context. Based on focus groups, interviews, journals, and questionnaires collected from 109 female college students from diverse ethnic, religious, and sexuality backgrounds in Arizona and Michigan, I employ grounded theory to analyze individual feelings and experiences in the context of larger societal discourses. My findings indicate that when girls internalize negative discourses about masturbation (e.g. as sin or secular stigma), general heteronormative sexuality discourses, and a silence around female self-pleasure, there are severe negative consequences for how they understand and experience masturbation. I argue that they engage in sexual self-surveillance that often results in emotional and physical struggles, as well as the re-inscription of hegemonic cultural discourses on female masturbation, bodies, desire, and pleasure. By illustrating how even the most private and `invisible' behavior of masturbation can become a site for regulating female sexuality, this research provides important evidence of the power of increasingly covert mechanisms to govern gendered bodies and subjectivities through self-surveillance. Alternatively, this research also highlights the potential of normalizing self-pleasure for increasing girls' and young women's capacity for resisting oppressive gender and sexuality discourses and behaviors, developing an agentic sexual subjectivity, and feeling sexually empowered. Thus, this research also has practical implications for conceptualizing sexual health for girls and young women in a way that includes the rights to sexual safety and pleasure. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Gender Studies 2014

The thesis focuses on female orgasm and its relation to autoerotic activities and dyadic sexual behavior. The first theoretical part focuses on theories describing the function of female orgasms and factors influencing its occurrence. The second part consists of four articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The first article is a review, focusing on the development of expert opinions over time, with specific regard to female orgasms and the division between clitoral and vaginal orgasm. The second article discusses the role of general relationship and sexual satisfaction with respect to the female orgasm. The third article examined the association between first autoerotic experiences and the occurrence of vaginal orgasm. Finally, the fourth article concerned the frequency of dyadic sexual activity and its relation to vaginal orgasm. The findings within each article indicate that autoerotic and dyadic sexual activities together with general relationship and sexual satisfaction have a positive influence on the occurrence of female orgasms.

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This study is concerned with men's sexual fantasies content that appears either within partner's sexual lovemaking or during masturbation. Except fantasy description and classifying it also pays attention to the associations with sexual satisfaction. The study results have proved that they appear much more and in higher variety with masturbation. One of the most popular fantasies is lovemaking with the own partner. Most men state one deviant fantasy at least, homosexual fantasy is an ordinary phenomenon even with heterosexual men. From the point of sexual satisfaction some differences have been approved in the fantasy content in contrast with unsatisfied individuals. Sharing mutual fantasy with the own partner has been approved to be very important.

Résumé. L'art intègre parfois dans ses processus créatifs les témoignages corporels, sexuels, personnels et subjectifs/subjectivants de l'artiste, mais aussi de sujets sociaux qui s'opposent aux constructions sociales et culturelles imposées par le(s) biopouvoir(s) hégémonique(s). Cette thèse présente un art biocritique capable de reconnaître la potentialité esthétique et artistique des témoignages et des vécus qu'il intègre en tant que matériel plastique à sa biocritique artistique. Elle a pour objectif de proposer une théorie et une méthode de déconstruction esthétique permettant d'observer et de rendre observable les potentialités esthétiques des corporalités et sexualités subjectivantes considérées comme " abjectes " par le biopouvoir en tant qu'actions biocritiques esthético-politiques. Pour ce faire, le présent travail a mis en valeur la potentialité esthétique de l'autoérotisme et de l'orgasme, en tant qu'actions biocritiques menées dans le cadre de " l'Œuvre multiorgasmique collective ".

Syftet med studien var att belysa erfarenheter av att använda en sexdocka, så som de framkom i ett svenskt internetforum. Debatten som förs i media kring sexdockor tenderar att återuppliva polariserade ståndpunkter som handlar om genus, sexualitet, pornografi och kommersialism. Samtidigt är sexdockor inget nytt fenomen utan användandet går långt tillbaka i historien och erotiska avbildningar som används sexuellt är införlivade i konsten och mytologin. Forskning som fokuserar på användare av sexdockor saknas dock. Det empiriska materialet består av inlägg från ett svenskt internetforum, där inläggsförfattarna sinsemellan diskuterade ämnet sexdockor. För att få en djupare förståelse för användandet av sexdockor har en hermeneutisk ansats använts. Materialet har sedan analyserats med hjälp av queerfenomenologisk teori. Resultatet visar att flera, vitt skilda erfarenheter och motiv finns hos personer som använder sexdockor. En del av användandet är kopplat till svårigheter med relationer och sexdockor används i dessa fall som substitut till relationer. Erfarenheter av dåliga relationer beskrevs samt erfarenheter av ett ofrivilligt singelskap. Studien bekräftar även tidigare forskning kring att sexdockor används för andra ändamål än för samlag. Ett slags omvårdnad av sexdockan beskrevs i termer av handhavande, hygien, samt att göra dockan fin och tilldragande för ögat. Även det stigma och tabu som omger användandet av sexdockor togs upp och diskuterades i forumet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras att en sexdockeberättelse är en berättelse om lust och åtrå men också om de normer och livsvägar som omgärdar relationer och sexualitet. / The aim of the study was to shed light on experiences of using a sex doll, as they appeared in a Swedish internet forum. The debate that is taking place in the media about sex dolls tends to revive polarized standpoints which surround gender, sexuality, pornography and commercialism. At the same time, sex dolls are not a new phenomenon since the use goes a long way back in history and erotic images for sexual purpose are incorporated into the art and mythology. However, research that focuses on the users of sex dolls is lacking. The empirical material is based on posts from a Swedish internet forum, where the authors of the posts discussed the topic of sex dolls with each other. To gain a deeper understanding of the use of sex dolls, a hermeneutic approach was used. The material was then analyzed with queer phenomenological theory.  The results show that there are several, widely different experiences and motives of persons using sex dolls. A part of the use is linked to difficulties with relationships and sex dolls are in these cases used to substitute relationships. Experiences of poor relationships were described, as well as experiences of involuntary being single. The study also confirms previous research regarding the use of sex dolls for purposes other than intercourse. A kind of care-taking of the sex doll was described in terms of handling, hygiene and making the doll pretty and attractive to the eye. The stigma and taboo surrounding the use of sex dolls is also addressed and discussed in the forum. Finally, there is a discussion about a story of a sex doll being a story about lust and desires but also about the norms and life paths which surround relationships and sexuality.

The purpose of this study is to show the discourses that we can see in the texts from RFSU (2015) and “Rädda Barnen” (2013) about children's sexuality, we connect this empiricism to the preschool curriculum. Furthermore, we highlight the gaps that we can see are the different discourses in the texts and how present or absent physical factuality is. We also want to examine what it could mean for our didactic work with body factuality. Generally, there are a lot of texts about the importance of playfulness and many expressions that leave room for interpretation to the reader. We believe that concepts like playful, positive, equality, security, develop a responsible sexuality, private body parts, intimately, and so forth leaves subjective to interpretation of each individual preschool teacher. Children are described exploring their sexuality through play, were the body are in focus, but are often described limited as children's sexuality. Children's bodily feelings and sexuality described indistinct and confused resulting in that the body is made invisible. The discourses make themselves prominent in our discourse analysis is sexuality discourse, disquieting and fear discourse, discourse of norms, materialistic corporal discourse and the invisible discourse.

Imagine a theater. Build one in your mind. I do not care if it is the largest theater in the universe or if it is the size of a shoebox. The theater can be an elaborate construction with gilded cherubs and priceless jewels. If you would prefer the theater to be a minimal design, imagine it that way. Maybe the theater is made out of glass or crystal. You can be all alone in the theater or maybe you are seated next to an alien, a cave man, or a robot. As the curtain rises an enormous pipe organ is spewing out J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The sound is colossal. The stage is designed to look like a filthy and bleak art studio. Sculptures that look like decaying flesh hang from the ceiling. Papers and dirty painting rags are scattered all over the floor. A roach crawls towards some moldy food in the wastebasket. A piece of beef jerky sits next to a pile of paint tubes and paintbrushes. Canvases are stacked against the wall. Dried paint is splattered everywhere. A woman enters stage left. As she begins to speak, the music fades… “My most recent paintings are meant to serve as gateways between daily life and an exotic utopian fantasy. These strange psychological spaces function as portals into a new frontier inhabited with the most stupendous creatures. Active volcanoes, carnivorous plants, terrible lizards, pink Chihuahuas, flesh-eating insects, unidentified flying objects, and a host of other amazing things coexist in this cruel tropical paradise. “Everything I do is a self-portrait and a disguise. I imagine the characters in my paintings to be mutant clones. The act of painting is like looking in the mirror. I like to spend most of my time doing one or the other. I am driven by an insatiable urge to see what I truly look like. I suffer from an unfulfilled desire to meet myself. I am frustrated with impressions and reflections. These confessions reveal my work as possibly the most disgusting display of narcissism in the entire history of art. “The act of painting is an absurd and self-indulgent enterprise. I paint with the ridiculous and frivolous purpose of delighting the eye. Nevertheless, my hope is that my paintings capture an important aspect of my utopian fantasy with their sumptuous surroundings embellished with rainbows, natural disasters, butterflies, exotic grasses and bizarre costumes. “My paintings can be read on many different levels from surface to deep allegory. The finished product is the result of hours upon hours of painting, pondering, and dreaming. Below the surface lies a nauseating abyss. “My work is a delicious feast for the aesthetic consumer. I am a villainous mad scientist with a hunger for immortality. My eyes are gluttonous fools. I am a mystery and a deception. Vermillion is my opulent fetish. Lemon yellow is my nemesis.” The music grows louder again. The woman begins to cackle. She then takes a deep breath and a deeper and more dramatic bow. She exits stage right--you find that you want to applaud--but unfortunately, this story is not over. I suggest that you get yourself a snack like some popcorn, chocolate, or gummy bears before reading any further. The curtain slowly and elegantly comes down.