Overall people share the widespread belief that women are less entitled to sexually pleasurable experiences than men in both casual and relationship contexts

The Role of Gendered Entitlement in Understanding Inequality in the Bedroom. Verena Klein, Terri D. Conley. Social Psychological and Personality Science, November 29, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211053564

Abstract: Five studies (using U.S. samples) examined whether men’s higher entitlement contributes to a sexual pleasure gap that disadvantages women. Participants indicated that men receive more sexual pleasure from their partners, whereas women provide more pleasure (Study 1a). Participants believed that men have more of a right to experience orgasm in both hook-up and relationship encounters and attributed higher negative affect to the male target than to the female target when the target did not experience an orgasm in a sexual scenario (Study 1b). In concert with the idea that pleasure is a privilege that men are perceived as being more entitled to, participants preferred men’s orgasm when forced to choose between the male and the female partner in an orgasm allocation task (Study 1c) and in an experiment (Study 2). Study 3 examined why people believe that men are more entitled to pleasure than women. Men’s higher sense of entitlement as an obstacle to gender equality in sexuality is discussed.

Keywords: entitlement, gender inequality, sexuality, gender differences, deservingness, fairness

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Overall people share the widespread belief that women are less entitled to sexually pleasurable experiences than men in both casual and relationship contexts.