Lesbian Sexual Practices - Research

Research

In 1953, Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female showed that, over the previous five years of sexual activity, 78% of women had orgasms in 60% to 100% of sexual encounters with other women, compared with 55% for heterosexual sex. Kinsey attributed this difference to female partners knowing more about women's sexuality and how to optimize women's sexual satisfaction than male partners do. Similarly, studies by several scholars, including Masters and Johnson, concluded that lesbian sexual behaviors more often have qualities associated with sexual satisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts, or that female partners are more likely to emphasize the emotional aspects of lovemaking. Masters and Johnson 1979 study on lesbian sexual practices concluded that lesbian sexual encounters include more full-body sexual contact, rather than genital-focused contact, less preoccupation or anxiety about achieving orgasm, more sexual assertiveness and communication about sexual needs, longer lasting sexual encounters and greater satisfaction with the overall quality of one's sexual life.

Research contrasting the conclusion that women in same-sex relationships are more sexually satisfied than their heterosexual counterparts are studies by Pepper Schwartz and Philip Blumstein (1983) and Diane Holmberg and Karen L. Blair (2009). Schwartz concluded that lesbian couples in committed relationships have less sex than any other type of couple, and that they generally experience less sexual intimacy the longer the relationship lasts, though this study has been subject to debate (see Lesbian bed death). Holmberg and Blair's study, on the other hand, published in The Journal of Sex Research, found that women in same-sex relationships enjoyed identical sexual desire, sexual communication, sexual satisfaction, and satisfaction with orgasm as their heterosexual counterparts.

With regard to the easiness or difficulty of achieving orgasm, Hite's research (while subject to methodological limitations) showed that most women need clitoral (exterior) stimulation for orgasm, which can be "easy and strong, given the right stimulation" and that the need for clitoral stimulation in addition to knowing one's own body is the reason that most women reach orgasm more easily by masturbation. Replicating Kinsey's findings, scholars such as Peplau, Fingerhut and Beals (2004) and Diamond (2006) found that lesbians have orgasms more often and more easily in sexual interactions than heterosexual women do.

Preferences for specific sexual practices among female same-sex relationships have also been studied. Masters and Johnson's concluded that vaginal penetration with dildos is rare and that lesbians tend to do more overall genital stimulation than direct clitoral stimulation, which is also often the case for heterosexual relationships. Concerning oral sex, the common belief that all women who have sex with women engage in cunnilingus contrasts research on the subject. Some lesbian or bisexual women dislike oral sex because they do not like the experience or due to psychological or social factors, such as finding it unclean. Other lesbian or bisexual women believe it is a necessity or largely defines lesbian sexual activity, asserting that there is a problem if lesbians or other women who have sex with women dislike engaging in oral sex. Often, lesbian couples are likely to define a woman's dislike of oral sex as a problem more than heterosexual couples are, and commonly seek therapy to overcome an oral sex inhibition. Similarly, there are lesbians who like anal sex and others "who cannot bear the thought of it". In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado. When asked what techniques they used in their last 10 sexual encounters, 100% reported kissing, sucking on breasts, and manual stimulation of the clitoris; more than 90% reported French kissing, oral sex, and fingers inserted into the vagina; and 80% reported tribadism. Lesbians in their 30s were twice as likely as other age groups to engage in anal stimulation (with a finger or dildo).

In 2003, Bailey et al. published data based on a sample from the United Kingdom of 803 lesbian and bisexual women attending two London lesbian sexual health clinics and 415 women who have sex with women (WSW) from a community sample; the study reported that the most commonly cited sexual practices between women "were oral sex, digital vaginal penetration, mutual masturbation, and tribadism (frottage with genital-to-genital contact or rubbing of the genitals against another part of the partner's body), each of which occurred in 85% of ". Like older studies, the data also showed that vaginal penetration with dildos or such penetration with other sex toys among women who have sex with women are rare.