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Sexuality & Culture (2013) 17:666685 DOI 10.1007/s12119-013-9167-4
ORIGINAL PAPER
Breanne Fahs Eric Swank
Published online: 21 February 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract While previous studies have addressed symbolic implications of lesbian dildo usage and quantitative ndings about womens vibrator use, little research has assessed womens subjective feelings about using sex toys. This study draws upon qualitative interviews with twenty women from diverse ages and backgrounds to illuminate six themes in womens narratives about sex toys: (1) emphasis on non-penetrative use of phallic sex toys; (2) embarrassment about disclosing use to partner(s); (3) personifying vibrators and dildos as male; (4) coercion and lack of power when using sex toys; (5) embracing sex toys as campy, fun, and subversive; and (6) resistance to sex toys as impersonal or articial. Emerging patterns revealed that queer women more often constructed sex toys as subversive, fun, and free of shame while heterosexual women more often believed most women self-penetrate with sex toys, that sex toys threatened male partners, and they described more coercion involving sex toys. This article explores implications for sexual identity and sex toys, along with womens negotiation of the masculine presence of sex toys in their narratives about using sex toys.
Keywords Sex toys Dildos Vibrators Womens sexuality Gender norms
Heterosexuality Queer sexualities Sexual subjectivities Qualitative research
Introduction
For the last several decades, women in the United States have successfully advocated for the recognition of their right to sexual pleasure, with access to sex
B. Fahs (&)
Arizona State University, Glendale, AZ, USA e-mail: [email protected]
E. Swank
Morehead State University, Morehead, KY, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Adventures with the Plastic Man: Sex Toys, Compulsory Heterosexuality, and the Politics of Womens Sexual Pleasure
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Adventures with the Plastic Man 667
toys representing one possible avenue to womens self-pleasure. As the call to take pleasure into your own hands has grownin part due to recognizing the role of clitoral stimulation and the importance of sexual self-reliancesex toys have entered more womens sexual lives in both private and partnered sexual experiences. Building upon this momentum, much scholarly debate has ensued about whether phallic-shaped sex toys utilized in sex play between women represent literal phalluses or symbolic subversions of patriarchal power (Findlay 1992; OKeefe et al. 2009). While those...