“Anger, embarrassment, less than a woman”: the emotional impact of Black women’s sexual pain

ABSTRACT

Limited research has examined the emotions Black women report when thinking about sexual pain. To fill this gap in the literature, we explored the types of emotions that emerged when N = 126 premenopausal Black women thought about pain during sex. Open-ended responses to the following research question were analyzed: “What feelings emerge when you think about sexual pain?” Structural tabular thematic analysis was used to find commonalities in participants’ responses. Findings indicated five families, or categories, of emotions: self-judgment, anger/disgust, sadness, anxiety, and emotions felt somatically. Additionally, women’s reports were predominantly within the feeling state and cognitive appraisal components of emotion. Implications for health providers and therapists are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Black women
• emotion
• sexual health
• sexual pain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially by the Center for Positive Sexuality’s Race and Sexuality grant [Dr. Shemeka Thorpe: PI].