How Poor Genital Self-Image Affects Women's Sexual Pleasure

In her best selling book, The Vagina Bible, author Dr. Jen Gunter dedicates the book to “every woman who has ever been told—usually by some dude—that she is too wet, too dry, too gross, too loose, too tight, too bloody, or too smelly.”

Given the surge of products that claim to “improve” vaginal quality (such as douching and labiaplasty), social stigma and shame around menstruation, and exposure to unrealistic depictions of vulvas in pornography, it’s no wonder many cisgender women are left feeling less than positive about their genitals.

In fact, in a recent study, researchers found that 18% of women (i.e., approximately 1 in 5) reported feeling some degree of unhappiness with their genitals, including concerns about their appearance, smell, taste, and function.

While negative genital self-image is concerning enough in its own right, it stands to reason that if women feel negatively about their genitals, it may spill over into other areas of a woman’s life, including her sexual life.

The New Study

In a new study, just published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, researchers sought to understand how poorer genital self-image and sexual pleasure might be related; the authors were specifically interested in the potential roles of cognitive distractions and anxiousness.

The study included 1,619 cisgender women participants who were 18 years or older (the mean age was 26.11 years old). The vast majority (85.4%) were white. Most women (58.%) were heterosexual or straight and a sizable minority (31.9%) were bisexual.

The women in this study were required to have had sex in the previous four weeks. For the purpose of this study, sex was defined as “penile penetration of the vagina or anus, receptive oral sex, manual stimulation of their genitals or stimulation of their genitals with a sex toy.”

The women were asked to answer scales that tapped into their a) genital self-image, b) body dissatisfaction c) distraction (specifically, appearance-based distraction, performance-based distraction, and sexual embarassment), d) sexual pleasure, e) sexual functioning, f) anxiousness, and g) social anxiety.

The Findings

Overall, sexual pleasure was associated with better sexual functioning for women in this study. That is, sexual pleasure was positively associated with sexual desire, moderately associated with lubrication and lack of pain, and largely, positively correlated with arousal, orgasm, and overall sexual functioning.

Further, the authors concluded that, during sex, women with negative genital self-image were more distracted by concerns about their appearance, performance, and feelings of embarrassment; and in turn, higher levels of these three forms of distraction were associated with less sexual pleasure.

Anxiousness and social anxiety significantly moderated the indirect effect of genital self-image on pleasure via appearance-based distractions.

What Do These Findings Mean?

Among women in this study, negative genital self-image was associated with less sexual pleasure and lower sexual functioning. More specifically, the findings suggest that women with negative genital self-image were more distracted by their genitals’ appearance, their sexual performance, and by feelings of embarrassment during sexual activity. These distractions were theorized to lower women’s ability to focus on erotic cures during sex that, in turn, resulted in women experiencing less pleasure and lower sexual functioning.

Takeaway

Women who feel negatively about their genitals may face greater barriers to sexual pleasure and sexual satisfaction. It stands to reason that if women feel negatively about their genitals, they might be less likely to touch, explore, and learn how to stimulate their vulvas and vaginas, and may be reluctant to ask their partner(s) for manual or oral sex; all three activities which have been found to be strongly and positively associated with women’s sexual pleasure and satisfaction.

There are, however, some possible interventions that may help women feel more positively (or at least, less negatively) toward their genitals and, in turn, increase sexual pleasure. First and foremost, discussions and depictions of the natural variation of women’s genitals, with broader representation, can help women feel more normal about, and perhaps even more comfortable with, their bodies. Additionally, mindfulness may be a helpful practice to decrease distractions and negative evaluations for some women during sexual activity, and instead invite our attention to the present moment, erotic cues, and sexually pleasurable sensations.