What is the state of European women’s sexuality in a pandemic context that is most harmful to their mental well-being in general and their sexual activity and sociability in particular?
- 13% of French women never have an orgasm.
- 30% of women have already felt pain during intercourse.
According to a new Ifop survey for The Poken Company, it is in France that there are the most women dissatisfied with their sex life: 35%, much more than in northern countries such as Germany (23%) or the United Kingdom (27%). The dissatisfaction of French women is closer to the level observed in Mediterranean countries such as Italy (30%) and Spain (28%).
Rise in sexual inactivity
And this gap between France and its main neighbors is rather tending to widen, if we judge by the sharp rise in female sexual dissatisfaction in France: +4 points between 2016 (31%) and 2021 (35% ) in France, compared to an average increase of +1 point in the 5 countries studied (28%).
This study, carried out in a particular health context (March 2021), also shows a rise in sexual inactivity among European women: 37% had not had sexual intercourse in a month (compared to 32% in 2016), knowing that this France (41%, +10) and the United Kingdom (47%, +4) had the most sexually inactive women.
“Less subject to the risks of opprobrium still weighing on women who have multiple partners, northern European women display a greater number of sexual partners (more than 5 partners in their life) (42% in Germany, 38% in the United United) than those of the Mediterranean and Catholic countries (23% in Italy, 31% in Spain)”, also note the pollsters.
With a sexual biography similar to that of northern countries (37% have had at least 5 partners in their life), “French women are therefore closer to predominantly Protestant societies where a certain liberal ethic in matters of morals reduces social control and the forms of stigmatization that can surround their sexual behavior”, they add.
Less “biffle” or facial ejaculation
The evolution of their sexual repertoire is marked by a certain disaffection of European women for the sexual games popularized by X films and marking a form of symbolic submission to their male partner such as “biffle” (-10 points between 2016 and 2021, at 22%) or facial ejaculation (-5 points, at 26%).
Finally, if we still observe a greater trivialization of passive anal practices in Latin countries – with a record 51% of women initiated into sodomy in France, against 43% in Germany and 35% in the United Kingdom -, the exploration of the anal side of sexuality also goes hand in hand with anal practices where they are active.
Many women have already penetrated their partner’s anus with a finger (22%), the tongue (17%) or an object (13%). “Admittedly, these practices where the woman penetrates the man are far from common in their sexual repertoire, but they illustrate their propensity to assume an active sexual role, including by transgressing gender norms”, concludes Ifop.
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