Does Clitoral Knowledge Translate into Orgasm? The Interplay Between Clitoral Knowledge, Gendered Sexual Scripts, and Orgasm Experience

Abstract

Despite some efforts to enhance clitoral knowledge to increase women’s sexual pleasure, a gendered orgasm gap persists. We aimed to provide contemporary data on people’s knowledge about the clitoris and investigate its association with the experience of sexual pleasure. Heterosexual participants (n = 573; 64.2% women) took a quiz on clitoral knowledge and answered sexuality-related questions. Participants answered only 50% of the nine quiz items correctly. Clitoral knowledge predicted sexual pleasure and orgasm in women, mediated via reduced endorsement of gendered sexual scripts. Our results highlight the importance of clitoral knowledge and its interplay with societal barriers for the experience of pleasure.

Declarations of interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability

Data are available at https://osf.io/a3d6g/

Notes

1 Findings on the orgasm gap show systematic differences in sexual pleasure and orgasm experience, with the mechanisms of these discrepancies operating primarily in heterosexual contexts. Therefore, this study focuses on heterosexually identifying cis women and cis men - henceforth referred to as women and men.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 845508 awarded to Verena Klein.