Fifty shades of unsaid: Women’s explicit and implicit attitudes towards sexual morality

Abstract

The movie Fifty Shades of Grey has created a great deal of controversy which has reignited the debate on unusual and alternative sexual practices such as bondage. Erotophobic individuals have negative affect towards the type of sexual libertinism conveyed by the movie, while erotophilic persons have a positive attitude and emotional feelings towards this kind of sexual emancipation. Using the Implicit Association Test, this study aimed to explore the extent to which there is a difference in women's attitudes towards sexual morality on an explicit and implicit level. Our findings found that erotophobic and erotophilic women differed only on an explicit level of sex guilt and moral evaluation, while no difference in the implicit measure was found.

Bondage-Discipline, Dominance-Submission and Sadomasochism (BDSM) From an Integrative Biopsychosocial Perspective: A Systematic Review

“…Yost 39 identified 4 categories of stigmatizing attitudes: (i) BDSM is socially and morally wrong, (ii) BDSM is associated with non-consensual violence, (iii) a general lack of tolerance toward SM practitioners, and, finally, (iv) the notion that submissive or dominant traits translate to other domains in everyday life (eg, behavior toward children). Although few studies looked into the characteristics and traits facilitating these stigmatizing attitudes, stigma was found to be higher in women who were less sexually emancipated 40 . In a large sample of SM-identified women, half reported they had experienced some form of physical assault or discrimination because of their SM practices, and another 30% were refused or ejected from social, recreational, political, educational, and spiritual groups 41 .…”

“…As was shown by Herbenick et al 22 in a large sample of the general population (n = 2,021), more women (14.2%) than men (8.5%) find experiencing pain as part of sex (very or somewhat) appealing. Women also demonstrate significantly higher interest in submissive sexual fantasies 16 and express a preference for a dominant man 40 . In addition to these differential affinities for BDSM roles between men and women, men apparently become aware of these interests on average 5 years earlier than women 60, 77…”

Sexual Attitudes, Erotophobia, and Sociosexual Orientation Differ Based on Relationship Orientation

“…Individuals high on erotophobia have negative attitudes towards sex and sexuality (Lanciano, Soleti, Guglielmi, Mangiulli, & Curcia, 2016). Those who are erotophobic tend to have more conservative sex roles and attitudes towards sex (Fisher et al, 1988b;Johnson, Giuliano, Herselman, & Hutzler, 2015), experience guilt when they partake in numerous sexual activities, including masturbation and oral sex (Lanciano et al, 2016), have fewer sexual fantasies, less sexual familiarity, and are less likely to engage sex-related health care or utilize contraception (Fisher et al, 1988a;Gerrard, Kurylo, & Reis, 1991;Lanciano et al, 2016;Rudolph, 2016).…”

“…Conversely, erotophilic people report positive attitudes towards sex and sexuality (e.g., are more "sex positive," see Ivanksi, 2017). An erotophilic person is more likely to engage in diverse facets of sexuality (Lanciano et al, 2016;Rye, Serafini & Bramberger, 2015), to think about sex more often, to masturbate and fantasize more frequently, and have more intercourse partners than erotophobic individuals (Fisher et al, 1988b). Erotophilic people are also more likely to engage in sex-related health care and to use contraception (Fisher et al, 1988b;Herbenick, Reece, & Hollub, 2009;Labranche, Helweg-Larsen, Byrd, & Choquette, 1997;Rudolph, 2016).…”

Programa de intervención breve de educación sexual desde el modelo biográfico en adolescentes de enseñanza secundaria: Un estudio piloto

“…Por otra parte, las personas con actitudes más erotofóbicas, van a aceptar peor la sexualidad en cualquiera de sus manifestaciones, van a experimentar mayor culpabilidad y ansiedad sexual, así como menor nivel de conocimiento en cuanto a los riesgos que conllevan ciertas conductas sexuales, y estar menos predispuestos al uso de métodos contraceptivos (Heras et al, 2016;Ruiz et al, 2019). De hecho, en un estudio ya clásico se encontró que hombres erotofóbicos eran menos tendentes a utilizar condones que aquellos erotofílicos (Fisher, 1984;citado por Gómez-Zapiain, 1994), de forma que van a relacionar lo sexual con peligro, perjuicio, angustia, temor, como algo que aboca a provocar dolor y sufrimiento, llegando incluso a estigmatizarlo (Lanciano et al, 2016). Asimismo, la erotofobia ha sido también asociada a menor experiencia sexual, menor interés por lo erótico, menos fantasías sexuales, subestimar la posibilidad de relaciones sexuales, menor confianza sexual, encontrándose estas personas más expuestas a conductas de riesgo, dado que no habían previsto los encuentros sexuales como tampoco los recursos y métodos de protección adecuados (Gómez-Zapian, 2013;Johnson et al, 2015).…”