Sex is not a problem: The erasure of pleasure in sexual science research

Abstract

Guided by feminist and a queer intersectional framework, this article explores the discursive production of sexuality in contemporary sexual science research. Specifically, this article examines the absence of pleasure as a topic in research on human sexuality in the sexual sciences. Articles from 2010 to 2015 were sampled from The Journal of Sex Research (JSR) N = 300 and discourse analysis was performed. Contemporary research on sexuality in this journal focuses on risk, disease, and dysfunction and reinforces heteronormativity. This focus examines sexuality from a limited and negative vantage point and, as a result, does not provide us with a holistic portrait of human sexuality. Researchers must discuss pleasure and should make greater efforts to ensure more inclusivity and diversity around issues of gender, race, nationality, age, and sexual identity. Importantly, I show how the three main focal points of this article (the erasure of sexual pleasure, the reproduction of heteronormativity, and the erasure of marginalized racial, gendered, classed, and sexual identities) are mutually reinforcing. Scholars in the sexual sciences can avoid these issues by using feminist and queer intersectional frameworks. Finally, because the empirical findings of scientific research often inform political policy, healthcare policies, workplace policies, and larger societal understandings of human life and experience, we must appreciate that the limited frameworks used by sexual scientists will have an impact on people’s lives and their access to the resources and services they need to survive, and to lead pleasurable—not just healthy—lives.