Female Sexuality and Sexual Trauma

Stereotypically men have been seen as a dominant individual in society, and that dominance has been widely accepted for most of all of history thus far (Bass, 2016). However, as time has gone on there has been changes to the power relations between men and women—where women have previously been viewed solely as an object of procreation, and men as the societal leaders (Bass, 2016). This view is still largely encouraged in the majority of society to this day. In Anchorage, Alaska a Domestic Violence Protective Order was denied to a woman when the man claimed that he had more knowledge of the woman’s body than she did of her own body, and that he was entitled to conduct certain sexual acts on the woman given that there had been consent a year prior to the incident occurring, and the fact that he felt he was entitled to order the woman to take contraceptives when it conveniences him—disregarding the health risks it posed to this woman (Walker, 2021).

In addition to the controlling of women’s sexual experiences, there is a stigma that men routinely control women’s professional lives as well. Women’s organizations where they have focused on empowering women to perform duties previously only held by men and essentially “doing out with the old-fashioned” is being confronted by lawsuits (Cale, 2018). These lawsuits are strictly by men who believe that by empowering women, it is discriminating against men. Women throughout their lifetime will grow into their sexuality, and their roles, behaviors, and practices of sexual intimacy for many years to come. Women have shown to be at peak sexuality in their thirties and will not drop that peak until around the age of 55 (Rao & Nagaraj, 2015).

Descriptions or Definitions of Key Words and Terms

When talking about the issues surrounding female sexuality and stereotypes, it is important to remember what these topics are defined as. Women empowerment can be described as “promoting women’s sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own choices, and their right to influence social change for themselves and others, (World Vision Australia, 2021), much like how men have a lot of these rights, women are also entitled to them as well. Female sexuality can be defined as a “broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and sexual behavior,” (Wikipedia, 2021). Sexual health can be defined as a “state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality… sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019).

Issues Faced by the Group

Women throughout history have been viewed as objects when it comes to sex, this is no exaggeration. Sexual health is meant to be experienced, and it is meant to be enjoyed free of coercion or violence (CDC, 2019), however it is too often than not that women are looked at as sexual objects—thus, creating a lack of interest in women to continue having sex, or reproducing. Sexual Objectification Theory occurs when a women’s sexual body parts are looked as separate from her or they are singled out as being separated from her own body, and thus being simply placed here to satisfy the male sexual desire (Bartky, 1990). Women primarily being objectified in today’s society, is different than it used it be (well, outside of extreme religious organizations anyway), “greater female objectification may be promoted by observers’ negative stereotypes of promiscuous women,” (Kellie et al, 2019).

Sexual objectification of females is a problem in society. When taking a look at a romantic relationship between two partners, partners that have previously consented to have sexual relations together, it is key to understand what sexual objectification means because it can and does play a large part in sexual violence. Women that are looked as objects, or have negative stereotypes associated with them because of being an attractive female who has sex with a man, can be labeled as promiscuous (Kellie et al, 2019). These stereotypes are discriminatory, but they are also dangerous, because when a man and a woman date or otherwise have sexual relations and the man falls into the category of viewing a woman as solely a sexual object—it should matter that she later rescinds her consent previously given a year prior. However, when a man has shown a history of progressively increasing his confidence in his demands for sexual activities and denying the woman’s refusals or disregarding her feelings in relation to continue having sex with him, this “increases [women’s] probability of suffering sexual victimization,” (Saez et all, 2019).

Sexual assertiveness from a male, in the context of romantic relationships, is incredibly important when reviewing sexual coercion; “Sexual coercion refers to any behavior carried out to make another person to participate unwillingly in vaginal, oral, or anal sex, through the use of verbal pressure, threat, or physical force,” (Saez et all, 2019). It has been shown that individuals that experience sexual coercion or sexual abuse in any form will experience many different negative experiences: (1) lowered sexual self-esteem (i.e., the woman may try to overcompensate for actions that the male desires); (2) increased sexual depression (i.e., the woman may believe that the only way to get her mans attention is through sexual activities, and feels as though the only way to be happy with him is through sex); (3) negative sexual self-perceptions (i.e., the woman could believe that there is nothing she can do about her situation, and this is the future of her sexual experiences); (4) negative emotions (i.e., thoughts of suicide); (5) sexual dissatisfaction (i.e., no longer being satisfied with sexual activities, and thus no longer having a desire to continue having sex) (Saez et all, 2019).

A huge issue facing female sexuality is the ability to cultivate confidence and create expressions of sexuality that is empowering (Katz, 2016). One way that women routinely attempt to take back their own sexuality after situations or incidents of sexual assault or rape, is by labeling the event what it is—rape. Routinely women feel as though they will be labeled as victims if they use the word rape and will therefore be shunned in society. However, by using that word it can help a survivor of sexual assault or sexual coercion overcome their negative emotions (Gagnon, 2015). In fact, Gagnon (2015) says that the first step to taking back your sexual health is to, “Say aloud that you were raped.” You have to then take care of yourself, discover how you feel about the incident, get it out of your system—scream it from the top of the world if you have to—learn about what you experienced, and about other women that have experienced, and again… take care of yourself (Gagnon, 2015).

Human Sexuality Theory

This learner believes that the Psychological Theory associated with Female Sexuality and Sexual Trauma would be the Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory of Sexual Desire in Women. Within the study selected it views female sexuality on a continuous scale of diminished/non-existent to high desire (Cherkassakaya and Rosario, 2019). Instead of viewing women who have a sexual desire or a high sex drive as promiscuous, this study instead focused on sexual esteem, sexual desire, and sexual agency of a woman. Within the Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory (RBET), the theory focuses on two main components: attachment and sexual body self-representations. RBET explains that attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance would also be discovered, not just the high drive sexual desire.

Photo: Cherkasskaya and Rosario, 2019.

It appears as if the discovery of this theory began with a question of, “What does a woman want?” by Freud (1925), and then when individuals concerned with why a woman has a lower sexual drive than they used to. This then was discussed as a sexual interest/arousal disorder according to the DSM-5 (Cherkasskaya and Rosario, 2019). The arousal disorder would directly link this theory to the female sexuality and sexual trauma discussed herein. However, this is not stating that an individual that experiences sexual trauma will always experience the darker emotions discussed herein. An individual experiencing posttraumatic growth will experience, “positive life changes and psychological growth following exposure to trauma,” (Hyde & Delamater, 2020).

“Sex makes the world go around: it makes babies bond, children giggle, adolescents flirt, and adults have babies. It is addressed in the holy books of the world’s great religions, and it infiltrates every part of society. It influences the way we dress, joke, and talk. In many ways, sex defines who we are. It is so important, the eminent neuropsychologist Karl Pribram described sex as one of four basic human drive states,” (Lucas and Fox, 2021).

The study of Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory (RBET) is a “rare study,” and is used “to test the association between female attachment models, genital satisfaction and sexual desire… factors that predicted sexual desire in the RBET may also influence other components of sexual activity, such as sexual arousal,” (Komlenac and Hochleitner, 2020). However, if a woman has experienced sexual trauma, the likelihood of experiencing sexual arousal and genital satisfaction is much lower than others that have not experienced sexual trauma. Understanding the methodology behind RBET, and how there are limitations to any predications, conclusions, or the associations with the theory—it leaves it open for one to question how many of those women that experienced diminished sexual desire (7.8%) or the women that had distressing experiences of diminished sexual arousal (3.8%) or diminished intensity of orgasmic sensations (48.6%) (Komlenac and Hochleitner, 2020), how many of them experienced sexual trauma?

Understanding just how important sexual health is, it is then just as important for us to understand sexual consent. Sexual consent is “not just a lack of no, you need a real yes… say what you want to do, ask what they want to do. Respect the answer no matter what,” (Lucas and Fox, 2021). When sexual assault/rape, or other sexual violence occurs within the context of a romantic relationship, the power of the relationship is thrown off, “just because your relationship is legal, doesn’t mean it’s equal… does your partner pressure you to do things you don’t want to do?” (Lucas and Fox, 2021).

With information on the above theory, the below studies will work to explain the theory in research study format. When we look at a study conducted on female sexuality after sexual trauma or sexual violence, it is documented that satisfaction and pleasure in sexual activities may diminish for at least a year in victims, but sometimes these incidents lead to fear, arousal and desire dysfunctions which causes the women to lose all attraction to the idea of opening up to a man sexually again, (Berlo and Ensink, 2000). It was found that after a traumatic sexual incident, finding a loving and understanding partner can be correlated to protection for the woman—i.e., having a sexual assault occur by a stranger and having a partner that is loving and understanding, or later meeting a man that is loving an understanding can help open a woman up to sexual intimacy again. However, feelings of anger toward self, shame and guilt directly after the sexual trauma will be the determining factor of whether an individual will severely struggle of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression following the sexual assault or sexual violence (Berlo and Ensink, 2000). However, while the effect of sexual trauma can be drastic for some women, some women will actually thrive post-assault.

“Research with rape victims—or, more accurately, rape survivors—confirms that some of them do report positive life changes, such as an increased ability to take care of themselves, a greater sense of purpose in life, and greater concern for others in similar situations” (Hyde & Delamater, 2020).

Another study when looking at the impact sexual violence has on female sexual function has shown that thirty-three out of 46 participants, all having experienced a form of sexual violence, had sexual dysfunction (Mohammed and Hashish, 2014). The study showed that 99.3% of women involved in the study were exposed to verbal harassment by their abuser, 2% were exposed to pornographic harassment (i.e., being coerced or forced to send or create pornography for their abuser), 38% were sexually assaulted in one way or another, and 8.7% were raped. The study then goes into further clarification what occurred during these assaults or rapes, and the percentages of how many women it occurred with.

The key findings of this study showed that violence can be, (1) verbal, (2) emotional, (3) physical, and (4) sexual (Mohammed and Hashish, 2014). The study further states that women will often experience psychological dissociation or flashbacks to the abuse during sexual activity, therefore while some women try to erase the incident from their mind by sleeping with someone else… another woman may not be able to fathom having a relationship with anyone for a long time (Mohammed and Hashish, 2014). There has been a need established within this area, and we will need to review further documentation and studies regarding the effects of sexual violence in women—as the child bearers of the future, it could impact future generations if sexual violence is not put to a stop.

One Study Selected from the Articles Provided

The study selected, which was provided to this learner by means of the course room is the one authored by Tanya M. Bass, 2016 titled Exploring Female Sexuality from the North Carolina Medical Journal. Of the topics covered thus far, we can see an issue with male dominance—well, male dominance can be described as the compensation of male related dominance in society and thus that becomes their role in reproduction. Some societies throughout the world will view women as strictly objects to reproduce, thus they stay home and care for the young, meaning that the men will then need to leave the house and make a living to house their wife and family (Bass, 2016). This simple explanation can show a dangerous, and treacherous path toward male dominance in sexual intimacy.

The study additionally looked at health services relating to women of childbearing years, and of non-childbearing years. It was concluded that health services are publicly available to women of childbearing years while women of non-childbearing years may have a more challenging time finding public health services (Bass, 2016). The reason for this is because society as a whole tends to focus on creating healthy pregnancies for women and is also associated with “legal issues of family planning and policies for reproductive health and contraceptive service provision,” (Bass, 2016). There are companies on either side of the gate (i.e., one is to protect pregnancy, and the other to end pregnancy) that will assist with health-related concerns when it comes to the fact the woman is pregnant or trying to become pregnant. It appears as though society as whole is pushing the reproductive agenda as well.

Women are often looked as the “Good girl or the bad girl,” and are given that label until a severe incident occurs, and then when the incident occurs it can either be written off or pushed into importance based on their label. As women become more prominent in society either politically, socially, or financially, it is becoming very widespread that the need for health and safety outreach programs are necessary for women, for all occasions (Bass, 2016). It is because of the women that continue to stand up and speak up that this issue has been raised and will continue to be raised. Sexual violence is unfortunately not going away any time soon, but neither is female sexuality. We will continue to study female sexuality and the importance it plays in reproduction and surviving sexual violence.

Conclusion

This learner believes that the study selected is relevant to the topic of female sexuality and sexual violence because it shows a great gap of what is available to women, in regard to public health services—thus, showing a societal push for reproduction in women. While the services are there, they are only there when pregnant, trying to become pregnant, sustaining your family, learning how to breastfeed, etc. The services provided are all of the services necessary to fulfill the males objectivity of women. Thus, when each and every service offered to women focuses solely on reproduction, and the potential for reproduction it becomes a social norm that it forces on women to offer sexual gratification to a man in order for reproduction to take place. Coupled with men that use that their benefit and force or coerce women into committing certain sexual acts for or with them, it creates an environment where sexual violence thrives.

Future research could focus on public health services that could instead be offered to women, or in addition, and services offered to women (publicly) that would allow for grace and recovery from such horrible acts of sexual violence—including rape.

References

1. Bartky, S. L., (1990). Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York, NY: Routledge.

2. Bass, T. M., 2016. Exploring Female Sexuality. North Carolina Medical Journal. https://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/content/77/6/430

3. Berlo, W. V., Ensink, B., 2000. Problems with Sexuality After Sexual Assault. National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11351833/

4. Cale, R., 2018. When Men Sue Women’s Empowerment Orgs for Gender Discrimination. Slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/men-are-suing-womens-empowerment-organizations-for-gender-discrimination.html

5. CDC, 2019. Sexual Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/sexualhealth/Default.html

6. Cherkasskaya, E., and Rosario, M., 2019. The Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory of Sexual Desire in Women. PubMed.Gov. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29926262/

7. Gagnon, C. M., 2015. Life After Rape: 5 Keys to Growth and Health for Women. Good Therapy. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/life-after-rape-5-keys-to-growth-and-healing-for-women-0217155

8. Freud, S., 1925. Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes. Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291867855_Some_psychological_consequences_of_the_anatomical_distinction_between_the_sexes

9. Hyde, J. S., & Delamater, J. D. (2020). Understanding human sexuality (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

10. Katz, N., 2016. It’s 2016—Why is There Still a Stigma Connected to Women and Sex? Time Magazine. https://time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/

11. Kellie, D. J., Blake, K. R., and Brooks, R. C., 2019. What Drives Female Objectification? An Investigation of Appearance-Based Interpersonal Perceptions and the Objectification of Women. US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6707629/

12. Komlenac, N., and Hochleitner, M., 2020. Attachment-related Anxiety is Associated with Poor Genital Satisfaction and Sexual Problems in Women. BMC Women’s Health. https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-020-01110-6

13. Lucas, D., and Fox, J., 2021. The Psychology of Human Sexuality. R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (EDS), Noba Textbook Series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. https://nobaproject.com/modules/the-psychology-of-human-sexuality

14. Mohammed, G. F., Hashish, R. K. H., 2014. Sexual Violence Against Females and its Impact on Their Sexual Function. Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences, Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090536X14000562

15. Rao, T.S.S., and Nagaraj, A. K. M. Female Sexuality. Indian Journal of Psychiatry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539874/

16. Saez, G., Alonso-Ferres, M., Garrido-Macias, M., Valor-Segura, I., and Exposito, F., 2019. The Detrimental Effect of Sexual Objectification on Targets’ and Perpetrators’ Sexual Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Sexual Coercion. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02748/full

17. Walker, 2021. Domestic Violence Protective Order. Third Judicial District at Anchorage, State of Alaska.

18. Wikipedia, 2021. Human Female Sexuality. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_female_sexuality

19. World Vision Australia, 2021. Understanding Women’s Empowerment. Australian Council for International Development. https://www.worldvision.com.au/womens-empowerment/