"It's complicated" : the lived experience of female sexual desire : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Health Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
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Date
2017
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Massey University
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Abstract
‘What is sexual desire and how do women experience it?’ is the central
question of this hermeneutic phenomenological study. The goal was to
challenge the pathologisation of women’s sexual desire by highlighting
its complexity, situatedness and temporality. In-depth interviews and
autobiographical art data elicited in partnership with seven participants
were interpreted and analysed using a life course perspective to
highlight how both positive and negative experiences, as well as the
acceptance or resistance of cultural scripts and double standards,
contribute over time to a woman’s sense of her own access to sexual
desire, agency around sexual decision-making, and entitlement to
sexual pleasure. In line with the study’s meta-theoretical principles, the
researcher completed a parallel reflexive writing and art practice to
deepen her engagement with participant experience. In analysing all
data, it became evident that women’s sexual desire, develops through
a complex multistage process over the lifetime. Participants all reflected
MacNeil and Byers’ (2005) finding that the more comfortable and
agentic a woman feels in expressing her sexuality and communicating
her desires, the greater her feelings for intimacy and the higher likelihood
that she will derive satisfaction in sex.
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Keywords
Sexual excitement, Women, Sexual behaviour, Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychology