Performing pleasure: a dive into the phenomenon of fake orgasms
Graphic by Sie Douglas-Fish.
Fake orgasms are a lot more common than you might expect — in fact, data from the
Journal of Sex Research indicates that nearly 70 per cent of heterosexual women report having faked an orgasm. With such a large population regularly faking it, there are a variety of rationales including a lack of understanding regarding female pleasure, a desire to please a partner, and expectations for sexual gratification created by the media.
“I would just get bored of sex. It would be happening, and then I would just be like, ‘oh, my God, is this done yet?’,” said 23-year old Sam.* “I would just fake an orgasm, so they knew that they had done a good job — or so they thought that they had done a good job.”