How did women gain the right to orgasm?

26.06.2012 | By: Alex F.

Check out the excellent and educational article on how women gained the right to orgasm, sex toys and sexual openness.

In the past, women weren’t as sexually open as they are nowadays. (PhotoXpress)

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In the 1960s – women discover no-strings-attached sex

From the 1960s on, the balance of power between the male and female sexual participation was destroyed: if in the past it was normal that a woman passively subordinated to male (sexual) dominance, it was morally acceptable to many women in the 1970s to openly worship the ‘zipless fuck’– or in other words, sex with no strings attached. (Jong, 1973).

Feminists rejected Freud’s hypothesis about the vaginal orgasm and argued for the clitoral pleasure. Sex because of sex itself, or pure eroticism, became one of the potential and acceptable alternatives to a sexual practice, although it was realised in its most purified form among homosexuals. Even women who argued for the idea of the freedom of pleasure shared with most women a desire for sex that wasn’t infected with male dominance. However, the harmony between sensual pleasures and a desire for an intimate relationship proved to be problematic; liberation from traditional morals forgot the demands that followed.

In the 1980s - a decisive NO to faking orgasms

In the 1980s, attention was focused on differences between the sexes instead of differences between generations. The female movement debated on issues of sexual violence, sexual harassment and pornography. In discussion groups, women established that there were many of them who faked orgasms. In her 1970 book Sexual Politics, Kate Millet attacked the hostility of the male-oriented culture and claimed that only free sex could lead to a healthy relationship, while Shulamith Firestone found the solution to liberation from the yoke of sexual duality, which is the core of sexual, class and racial dominance, in artificial insemination. The demand to control their own bodies was expressed in the fight for the legalisation of abortion and the legal definition of rape as a crime.

Radical feminists attack pornography

They fostered the belief that pornography encourages men to be violent towards women. All men were denoted as oppressors (person who catches you in a spider web) and sexuality as a weapon that serves their needs. The anti-pornographic movement condemned harshly, and sometimes even aggressively, the entire genre, regardless of a number of studies showing that pornographic images arouse both men and women and that there are no significant differences between the experiences of female and male users of pornography. So, where’s the irony? It lies in the fact that the solution to the problem of sexual emancipation was found in the attack on male oppression, which was the expression of women’s fear against expressing oneself as a sexual object.

Revolt against male dominance or we also want orgasms!

On the opposite pole of sexual emancipation, women revolted against male dominance with outright rejection of an intimate relationship according to the principle “Don’t go for happiness, just go for orgasm”, as says Rubinstein. In fear of losing power before men, they accepted only eroticism and sacrificed love for it. These two extremes, rejection of eroticism and rejection of intimacy, illustrate how women are torn between intimacy and love in the time when they have the chance to express both sides and not just one...

Developments in the late 1980s – porn movies for women

In the late 1980s, feminists tried to find reasons for men’s oppression in well-established social patterns and personality structures. In parallel with that, there was a growing interest in women’s issues regarding sexuality. In contrast to the anti-pornographic movement, which was denoted as Puritanism, pornographic movies for women were put on the market. They showed women’s pleasure and women as initiators of sexual activity.

Women thought more lightly about things that used to be solely the domain of men: to have more than one relationship at the same time, to experience a one-night stand with a complete stranger, etc. We can assume that the views of women and men on sexual pleasure gradually became alike at that time.

In the 1990s – an abundance of sex toys for women

In 1993 and 1994, the demand for pornographic movies and erotic toys for women, particularly vibrators, increased by 25% in Germany (Wouters, 1999). Pornography and experimenting became the common ways of spicing up a relationship and many women also turned to ‘kinky sex’ and ‘body piercing’. There was more oral sex (partially because of fear of aids). A good example of new views on different sexual practices is illustrated by a protagonist in the movie Clerks, who claims that she’s still a virgin because she only performs oral sex.

Forgotten intimacy – revived again

In the 1990s, there was a growing desire for intimacy and relationships. Sex life was again considered as a part of a relationship. In general, eroticism serving its own purpose was in decline. The motto “sex for the sake of sex is out” was also commonly used by teenagers. The share of teenagers, both boys and girls, who preferred sex in a love relationship in the long run increased in comparison with those who opted for a one-night stand.

Power-feminism

A concept was formulated that supported the possibility of cooperating with men and defined feminists who still emphasised men’s oppression as “victims”. Social interaction between the sexes was more observant as well as more delicate for the sake of mutual trust that became the key element in a relationship. The emancipation of women’s sexuality has therefore reduced the contrast between the male and female manifestation of sexual desire in favour of greater variability.

In general, women show more initiative than in the past and freely discuss their sexual desires and preferences. Likewise, the age of women with an active sex life is significantly higher and today their share is proportionate to the share of men – in the past, sex after the age of 50 was almost exclusively practiced by men, while today it’s common that men and women age in a similar way.