Women's Sexual Arousal and Affect: The Effect of Feminist Identification and Male Dominant Versus Female Dominant Sexual Scenarios‪.‬

ABSTRACT: The purposes of this study were to examine the differences in women's sexual arousal and affect toward male dominant and female dominant sexual scenarios, and to determine if a woman's level of feminist identification (as measured by the Feminist Identity Development Scale) was related to her sexual arousal and affect toward the sexual scenarios. Four hundred and one women were tested on the Feelings Scale before and after they read a male or female dominant sexual scenario. They also completed a Demographic Questionnaire and the Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS) on which a woman is categorized into one of four stages based on her feminist identity. The four stages on the FIDS from lowest to highest feminist identity are: Passive Acceptance; Revelation; Embeddedness; and Active Commitment. Contrary to predictions, women who read the female dominant scenario, not the male dominant scenario, did not have a larger increase in either reported sexual arousal or positive affect. As predicted, women who read the male dominant scenario, not the female dominant scenario, had a larger increase in reported negative affect. As predicted, positive and negative affect toward the scenarios was different depending on the woman's stage of feminist identification. Women in the earliest feminist stage (Passive Acceptance) had larger changes in positive affect toward the male dominant scenario, while women in the second feminist stage (Revelation) were just the opposite -- larger changes in positive affect toward the female dominant scenario than the male dominant scenario. There were large differences in negative affect toward the two scenarios for the women in the second feminist stage (Revelation) and the third feminist stage (Embeddedness), and minimal differences for the least feminist women (Passive Acceptance) and the most feminist women (Active Commitment). Key words: Sexuality Feminism Women Sexual arousal Dominance