Female Sexual Pleasure: Cultural and Contextual Influences on Psychological and Sexual Well-Being Among a Sample of Women in Lebanon

Abstract

Background: Female sexual pleasure is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional, context-dependent experience associated with psychological and sexual well-being. However, research remains largely limited in sociocultural contexts like Lebanon, where sexuality is shaped by traditional conservative views and emerging liberal discourses.

Aims: The present study aimed to: (1) explore how heterosexual women in Lebanon conceptualize sexual pleasure and how these meanings relate to cultural sexual attitudes; (2) examine the relationship between sexual pleasure and psychological and sexual well-being; (3) assess whether cultural sexual attitudes moderate these relationships; (4) investigate the role of cultural sexual attitudes in shaping women’s entitlement to and experience of sexual pleasure; and (5) examine whether solitary and partnered sexual pleasure show distinct associations with domains of well-being.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional correlational design, 243 heterosexual women aged 18 years and above were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. Participants completed one open-ended question regarding subjective definitions of sexual pleasure, and an anonymous survey assessing sexual pleasure, cultural sexual attitudes, psychological and sexual well-being, and entitlement to and experience of pleasure. Qualitative responses were examined using thematic analysis, while quantitative data was analyzed using correlational and moderation analyses.

Results: Qualitative findings showed that women conceptualize pleasure as a relational and embodied experience that is also conditional on morals and internalized judgment. Quantitatively, sexual pleasure emerged as a strong predictor of both psychological and sexual well-being. Cultural sexual attitudes did not moderate these relationships, yet a suppression pattern emerged: restrictive attitudes were negatively associated with well- being at the bivariate level, but this association disappeared once sexual pleasure was accounted for. Consistently, conservative sexual attitudes were associated with lower entitlement to sexual pleasure and greater levels of sexual inhibition.

Conclusion: Culture may not determine whether female sexual pleasure enhances psychological and sexual well-being, but it does shape whether it is felt as permissible, deserved and expressible, thereby influencing the conditions under which pleasure unfolds and is experienced.