Despite all that sex toys have helped us, female sexuality still has a long way to go, especially if we are talking about the social expectations that affect us.
Porn, the female image projected in advertisements, movies or series, the reflection of sex in the media are examples of unrealistic and overly limited images (there are sex beyond penetrationthanks) that end up affecting us according to this study.
How the sex we see affects the sex we have
womanizer has been the sex toy brand in charge of carrying out the survey in collaboration with Lucid in May 2022. 11,350 women from
15 countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States).
According to the survey, heHalf of the women around the world do not believe that what is shown in magazines, television, movies or series really reflects sex, sexual desires and even sexuality. In our opinion few series are saved. sex education is an example of how it can be done a good series reflecting a real sex from which we can even learn something.
But that this image is not the real one has more impact than we think. Almost a third of the Spanish, 31% have questioned their sexuality and sexual image because of what they see in the media. The sexualization in the media affects the self-image that women have of ourselves and of our sexual life.
The sexologist Ana Lombardía explains that “We are constantly bombarded by the media with a highly idealized and limited idea of sexuality. it does not reflect the variety of sexual experiences that are actually possible. This makes many women feel dissatisfied with their sexuality and get frustrated trying to achieve a pleasure that does not exist or forcing themselves to enjoy practices that are not really satisfactory for them.”
The fact that it affects us causes the sexual self esteem be worse and cost us share our fantasies and desires with our partners as Lombardia explains, since “these unreal images in the media create shame if someone does not fit into them.” Besides, women are not taught to communicate openly and safely with their partners. In fact, 77% of Spanish women have sexual fantasies regularly but 17% of women do not talk about them with their partner.
We continue to suspend sex education
the sexologist Raquel Graña already told us in this interview “it is important to treat sexuality naturally and sincerely and forget about focusing sex education only on condoms and pregnancy.” And it is that sex education is still a pending issue.
According to the survey, 20% of the population continues to say that they have learned from sex watching porn, the worst school in the world for this. Outdated gender roles, a female profile far removed from reality, practices that are not always common, unrealistic and exaggerated behaviors, and a long etcetera that show an image that is not in keeping with reality and that ends up generating sexual expectations that are not always met.
Elisabeth Neumann, Head of User Research for the Womanizer brand, says that “these results show how important it is to educate about the anatomy of pleasure, sexuality and the desire. Mainstream porn is made for the male gaze and therefore has created unrealistic expectations about body images and sexual practices. Cis women face a wide variety of expectations about sex. Whether it’s having the perfect body, orgasming from penetrative sex alone, or being submissive in the bedroom.”
Photos | Dainis Graveris, Unsplash and Alexander Fajtek in Unsplash
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