Feminist Men and Sexual Behavior: Analyses of Men’s Sex with Women

Abstract

Men’s identification with and support for feminism has attracted the interest of masculinity scholars. This study explores an under-researched dimension of this phenomenon, investigating the relationship between feminist identification and sexual behavior. In heterosexual encounters, do feminist men report having sex more recently than those who do not call themselves feminists? During sexual encounters, do feminist men behave differently than non-feminists? In particular, do feminist men organize their sexual behavior in a way that prioritizes their partners’ sexual pleasure to a greater extent than non-feminists? Using representative survey data of Canadian adults, we examine the self-reported sexual behavior of heterosexual Canadian men. We find that self-identifying feminist men report having sex more recently and are more likely to report engaging in breast stimulation and performing oral sex on their partners than non-feminists. We discuss the implications of these findings on the sociological literature on gender and sexuality.

Climax as Work: Heteronormativity, Gender Labor, and the Gender Gap in Orgasms

“…however, the same heteromasculinity contributes to a "phallocentric imperative" that undermines women's claims to clitoral stimulation (Wade, Kremer, and Brown 2005;Willis et al 2018). Cultural narratives of masculinity are closely associated with sexual practices, such as in the relationship between heterosexual men's willingness to claim a feminist identity and their greater likelihood of performing oral sex on women partners (Stick and Fetner 2021). heterosexual men, especially those who occupy dominant racial categories, may simply feel more entitled to orgasms than their women partners do (Jones 2018;Manne 2020).…”