SUZANNE B. KURTH, BETHANY B. SPILLER, AND CHERYL BROWN TRAVIS We argue, along with other authors in this section, that women’s sexuality is one of the arenas in which cultural beliefs about women and mandates for women’s behavior permit men to exercise power over them without their consent.1 An interesting feature of one form of […]

How can a culturally defined autonomous sexuality for women be created? How can the individual woman conceptualize her sexuality in more functional terms than as either nonexistent or degrading? Clearly, an important step is to work toward sexual fantasies that are not based on dominance and submission. If arousal means images of dominance and submission, […]

There are two principal strategies currently available for women to prevent sexually transmitted disease (STD): abstinence and condom use. Both strategies require negotiation and assertiveness with a partner. This necessity is perhaps the greatest impediment to protection against disease for women. As with pregnancy prevention, negative consequences for fail­ure to protect fall more heavily on […]

The effects of restrictions on women’s sexual assertiveness will be examined in two situations: relationship satisfaction and sexually trans­mitted disease prevention. How Sexual Assertiveness May Influence Relationship Satisfaction Typically, a strong correlation is found between sexual satisfaction and general relationship satisfaction (Morokoff, 1994). Therefore, the question is posed, how does lack of sexual assertiveness affect […]

Does having sex with another woman avoid the problems of having sex with a man? Arguably, many of the barriers to sexual assertiveness do not exist in lesbian relationships, and no biological explanations of height­ened sex drive justify predatory behavior. Thus, in theory, two women should be able to define a positive, egalitarian sexuality not […]

Sexual assertiveness and women’s full, empowered participation in sexual decision making are clearly restricted. Each of the factors discussed here—gender expectations, social controls, childhood victimization, and the various sources of dependence on men—can be conceptualized indi­vidually, but operate in an interactive manner to limit women’s sexual autonomy. Nevertheless, these factors do not determine negative outcomes […]

Sexual victimization is one way of achieving social control of sexu­ality in women. Rape is often used in societies as a means of controlling women’s sexuality. Sanday (1981) describes the Kikuyu, where “a band of boys belonging to a guild roamed the countryside in search of a woman to gang rape as a means of […]

Women’s sexual behavior is subject to social control in most if not all societies. Techniques of social control include genital mutilation, sur­veillance of sexual behaviors, lowered social standing for socially inappro­priate sexual behavior, and increased economic value for a virginal bride. I will draw on the anthropological literature to briefly outline some com­mon strategies for […]

Assertiveness requires that the individual attempt to ensure her rights in a specific area or to actualize an internalized view of self through inter­action with others. I will therefore posit that the extent to which women assert themselves sexually depends on the extent to which women have an accurate, nondistorted, internalized conception of their own […]

A presumption of a weak sexuality for women also leads to the po­tential for lack of full sexual functioning in women. Sexual functioning, including a full experience of arousal and orgasm, seems to involve im­mersing oneself, self-centeredly, in a sexual experience (Mosher, 1980). As I have previously discussed (Morokoff, 1990, 1993), the gatekeeping role may […]