Women And The Epistemologies Of Pleasure: An Analysis Of Female Sexual Appetites And ...

333 Pages·2014·1.34 MB·English

by  Heather Wakeman

Bucknell University
Bucknell Digital Commons
Honors Theses Student Theses
2013
Women And The Epistemologies Of Pleasure: An
Analysis Of Female Sexual Appetites And Practices
At Bucknell University
Heather Wakeman
Bucknell University, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at:https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses
Recommended Citation
Wakeman, Heather, "Women And The Epistemologies Of Pleasure: An Analysis Of Female Sexual Appetites And Practices At
Bucknell University" (2013).Honors Theses. 170.
https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/170
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Women and the Epistemologies of Pleasure:
An Analysis of Female Sexual Appetites and Practices at Bucknell University

by Heather K Wakeman

An Honors Thesis in Women’s and Gender Studies
Bucknell University
May 2013

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Women and the Epistemologies of Pleasure:
An Analysis of Female Sexual Appetites and Practices at Bucknell University

By Heather Wakeman

Committee:

___Coralynn Davis__________
Adviser

___Bill Flack_______________
Second Reader

___Sheila Lintott____________
Third Reader

___Erin Jablonski____________
Honors Council Representative

___Coralynn Davis___________
Department Chairperson

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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank Coralynn Davis for inspiring my studies
as a Women’s and Gender Studies major. She has given me the language to be a feminist
and has motivated me to think differently about the world. She believed in this project
from its inception (two weeks before the proposal was due), and her incessant support
and patience with my excited thought processes has helped me to enact my research and
analysis with clarity and confidence. She has offered tremendous amounts of guidance
along the way with stimulating perspectives and suggestions. I am so grateful I was able
to share my project and work with her.
I would also like to thank Bucknell’s faculty who played a role in motivating me
with their convictions in my study and those who helped my argumentation with
invaluable resources. Martha Verbrugge was the first to hear about my idea, and she was
the one who encouraged me that to think bigger with my initial idea and carry it through
as a thesis. Nicki Young showed her support with her positivity and her open door
attitude. Bill Flack provided me with the tools necessary to carry out human participant
research safely and effectively, and Sheila Lintott gave me countless resources, both
scholarly and enjoyable, and insight in order to philosophize about the topic of sexual
pleasure. I would also like to thank the faculty associated with the Women’s and Gender
Studies Department at Bucknell who either let me knock on the doors of their classrooms
or spread the word of my research; Carrie Pirmann, who provided me with some of my

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most pertinent sources; and Sabrina Kirby and Megan Mulligan who were patient while I
changed what I had already written to “what I wanted to say.”
And to my family and friends who either sat with me, sent me Snapchats of the
world outside the library, picked up the phone, joked with me on G-Chat, Skyped or
bought me a cake while I transcribed and wrote and transcribed some more, thank you. I
would not be sane without you all. I am so glad I finally got you all talking about female
sexual pleasure, and it was quite interesting to learn and share “secrets.”
Finally, this study would not be possible without the voluntary participation of my
research subjects. I am grateful for each of their time and openness as well as their equal
enthusiasm in my study and in igniting change.

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Table of Contents
List
 of
 Tables
 ............................................................................................................................
 vi

List
 of
 Appendices
 .................................................................................................................
 vii

Introduction
 ..............................................................................................................................
 1

Methodology
 ............................................................................................................................
 11

Review
 of
 Literature
 .............................................................................................................
 22

Chapter
 1:
 The
 Constructions
 of
 Ignorance
 Around
 Female
 Sexual
 Pleasure
 .
 .43

Chapter
 2: Coming from Knowledge: What is Female Sexual Pleasure?

 .................
 61

Chapter
 3:
 “It’s
 all
 about
 my
 pleasure!”
 or
 is
 it?

 ........................................................
 83

Chapter
 4:

 The
 Pleasure
 Of
 Communication
 ...............................................................
 99

Conclusion
 .............................................................................................................................
 112

Bibliography

 ........................................................................................................................
 117

Appendices
 ...........................................................................................................................
 120

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List of Tables
Table 1: Interview Participants, p. 16
Table 2: Focus Group Participants, p. 18
Table 3: Feminist Theories on Sexuality, p. 38

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List of Appendices
Appendix A: Interview Consent Form
Appendix B: Focus Group Consent Form
Appendix C: Focus Group Non-Disclosure Agreement
Appendix D: Transcriptions

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Introduction
My Own Coming to Know
My first orgasm? It “just happened” when I was fully clothed, making out with
my high school boyfriend in his basement. The TV was blaring. I remember thinking,
“Wow, that felt really good!” And two minutes later I started the motions again on my
own accord. I tried my best to hide my secret, personal mission towards pleasure from
him. For some reason, I didn’t want him to know; it was all about me! When it transpired
again, I didn’t make a noise; I didn’t know I was supposed to. I didn’t applaud his efforts.
I didn’t feel the need to “return the favor,” and I didn’t collapse in ecstasy. I didn’t know
how to make sense of it myself, because I didn’t even know that females could orgasm—
an obvious sign of my ignorance and lack of understanding sexual pleasure. I was
probably fifteen. The possible behaviors that I omitted from that experience show my
ignorance to the female social scripts of performing pleasure, the phallocentric view of
pleasure in a sexual experience, and even the normative ways to achieve an orgasm. It
has been interesting for me to reflect on the experiences afterwards and on how I came to
realize what had occurred.
Like every teenager, I took sex-education class. You would think, then, that I
would have had a better understanding of sex during my adolescence, but the subject
matter usually consisted of a non-judgmental, “unbiased” overview of contraception,
sexually transmitted diseases, and heteronormative understandings of sexual partnership.
Never did we receive instructions on how to climax or other subjects of female pleasure.

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