“You Feel Like Normal Sex is not Enough Anymore”: Women's Experiences of Coercive and Unwanted Anal Sex with Men

In this article, we explore the gendered dynamics of coercion described by 18 women we interviewed about their experiences of unwanted and nonconsensual heterosexual anal sex. Several women referred to what they believed to be the normative status of heterosexual anal sex. In many cases, the socially coercive effects of perceived norms intertwined with threads of interpersonal coercion, leaving women feeling pressured to agree to, or little room to refuse, anal sex they did not want. We discuss the ways that new sexual norms can translate into new pressures for women within the gendered framework of heterosexual relationships.

The front lines of the “back door”: Navigating (dis)engagement, coercion, and pleasure in women’s anal sex experiences

Despite the frequent depiction of heterosexual anal sex in pornography, and growing indications that heterosexual couples engage in anal sex, almost no research has examined women’s subjective experiences with receptive anal sex with men. This study draws upon qualitative interviews with 20 American women (mean age = 34, SD = 13.35) from diverse ages and backgrounds to illuminate five themes in women’s narratives about receptive anal sex: (1) initial resistance followed by submission; (2) initial interest followed by withdrawal from subsequent anal sex experiences; (3) violence and coercion surrounding anal sex; (4) social norming (e.g. men’s male friends normalizing heterosexual anal sex; seeing anal sex as normative after watching pornography); and (5) pleasurable experiences with anal eroticism. Implications for the re-evaluation of consent, imagining a continuum of sexualized violence, heteronormative assumptions about access to and power over women, silences surrounding non-penetrative anal eroticism, and women’s (dis)engagement with anal sex are explored.