While conversation around physicality and sexuality in Indian society is only now bring broached, women's pleasure is a subject that is still largely ignored. It's considered so taboo that it is barely even discussed with partners. The disparity between men and women experiencing pleasure, in most cases, may be at the opposite ends of the spectrum, which is where the term 'pleasure gap' originates from. Plainly put, it's the broad difference of the importance given to male and female pleasure. Male pleasure has always dominated the space throughout advertisements, messaging and more. Despite the growing awareness of gender equality and women's rights, the pleasure gap continues to exist with the conventional mind set focusing on procreation rather than pleasure.
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In a research study conducted by MsChief in confluence with Unomer, over 81% of women reported being dissatisfied with their sex lives. In fact, 73% of women rarely reach their climax. However conversations about sex and pleasure between partners seem to be practically non-existent because only 3% of males think their partner "never or rarely" experiences orgasms. This highlights the blatant disparity and one could draw conclusions that women are faking it. Far too many women experience dissatisfied sex lives, and far too many relationships have been strained because of a lack of communication between partners and an unequal distribution of power between them. This needs to be rectified; not only for the sake of pleasure.
Sexual well-being is an integral part of one's life and is associated with increased happiness and overall well-being. There are many studies that validate the fact and one worth mentioning here is research done in 2006 by Laumann Edward O, across 29 different countries and 27,000 individuals. The study concluded that both physical and emotional sexual satisfaction predicted higher levels of overall happiness especially for women and older adults while lower sexual well-being suppressed their overall happiness. Further studies also show that optimal sexual health can lead to lifelong benefits including economic stability, longer life, better relationships and accomplishment of life goals, as well as overall life satisfaction.
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