To mark Movember, the month dedicated to raising awareness of prostate cancer, Ifop and LELO have published a major survey on the taboos associated with anal sex, the clichés associated with it and their effects on the health and sex lives of French people. It’s true that this highly taboo dimension of intimacy crystallizes a number of issues, whether in terms of health – with obstacles to colorectal cancer screening – identity – with the persistence of homophobic representations associating anal penetration with homosexuality – or relationships – with power dynamics within heterosexual couples. Conducted as part of the LELO Observatory of French Sexuality, this survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,000 French men and women highlights the profound changes in men’s relationship to their bodies and to anal sex, while revealing the persistence of gender inequalities in women’s experimentation with these practices.
A) ISN’T ANAL SEX FOR “REAL MALES”? THE STIGMA THAT STILL SURROUNDS ANAL SEX PERMEATES REPRESENTATIONS OF MALE SEXUALITY, TO THE POINT OF HINDERING COLORECTAL CANCER SCREENING
A historically stigmatized practice, male anal penetration is still the subject of virilist representations, to the point of altering men’s health, particularly when it comes to colorectal cancer screening.
1 – The stigmatization of passive male anal penetration appears to be a major obstacle to colorectal cancer screening, judging by the limited proportion of men who would agree to be screened by a health professional: barely one man in two would be willing (51%), and they are even less inclined among men who have never been sexually penetrated (32%).
2 – Men are still imbued with a traditional vision of sexuality, in which masculinity is seen as antithetical to any form of passive anal intercourse: the idea that “being penetrated anally when you’re a man is an attack on your masculinity” is shared by nearly four out of ten men (37%), particularly the most religious (51%).
3 – This rigid conception of sexuality is also reflected in support for masculinist or homophobic ideas, such as the idea that “anal intercourse is a practice reserved for homosexual men” (28%), or that a “real man” won’t let a finger be inserted into his anus, even if it gives him pleasure (24%).
B) FAR FROM BEING THE SOLE PRESERVE OF WOMEN, PASSIVE ANAL SEX NOW TAKES MANY FORMS, WITH THE MOST PROGRESSIVE MEN THE FIRST TO EMBRACE IT
Despite the weight of this stigma, the study shatters the clichés surrounding prostatic pleasure, revealing a trivialization of these practices, particularly among the most progressive bangs of the male population.
4 – For the first time in a study, a majority of men admit to having already been penetrated anally in their lives (52%), and their level of passive anal practice is no longer in any way inferior to that observed among women, as can be seen for digital penetration (40% vs. 46% of women), anilingus (34% vs. 33% of women) or sextoy use (14% vs. 16%).
5 – The practice of sodomy among heterosexual couples, meanwhile, seems to be marking time… For while this practice has risen sharply since the 1970s (14% in 1970, 24% in 1992, 37% in 2006), it now seems to be stabilizing: 49% of women aged 18 to 69 have already practiced sodomy in the course of their lives, a rate close to that measured a decade ago (46% in 2014).
6 – A more agentive female anal sexuality is emerging, with women no longer passive objects of male penetration, but actors in scenarios where traditional gender roles are “reversed”: 30% of women thus declare having already anally penetrated a partner, twice as many as eight years ago (16% in 2017).
7 – But this interchangeability of the “penetrator/penetrated” role is more visible in certain circles. While the most progressive, affluent and feminist men more readily accept a passive role, men belonging to the most conservative and popular fringe of the male gender generally demonstrate greater rigidity in reversing gender roles.
C) OFTEN THE RESULT OF MALE PRESSURE, ANAL SEX CAN NEVERTHELESS BE A SOURCE OF PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SUFFERING FOR MANY FEMALE PRACTITIONERS
Women’s lesser enthusiasm for anal sex needs to be put into perspective with the gender inequalities that characterize the experience of anal sex, with women often associating it with male coercion, whereas for men, it’s more of a voluntary, hedonistic experience.
8 – One of the most important findings of this study is the existence of a “grey zone” of consent when it comes to female anal sex. Less than half the women (45%) reported that they really wanted to be sodomized the first time it happened to them, in contrast to men whose anal initiation was mostly voluntary (74%).
9 – Analysis of the motivating factors for anal sex also shows that it is often the result of male pressure within the couple, or of certain cultural injunctions valuing sexual scripts that are out of the ordinary. 39% of women said they had accepted this practice “to please their partner when they didn’t really want to”.
François Kraus, director of Ifop’s “Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Health” unit, explains:
This study on anal sex highlights the “sexual archipelitisation” of a society with contradictory trends among both men and women…
Among men, passive anal sex reflects a process of deconstruction of traditional masculinities driven by the most progressive bangs of the male population. But in another fringe of the male population, a powerful taboo persists around male anal sex in religious and conservative circles, standing in the way of these developments, and hindering their access to care.
Among women, a similar “progressive/conservative” divide structures the exploration of the anal side of their sexuality. On the one hand, active practices augur a more egalitarian sexuality that subverts traditional sexual roles. But on the other, the considerable gap between men and women in consent to anal initiation testifies to the persistence of a power asymmetry within heterosexual couples, particularly in working-class environments where female anal sexuality appears to be more under the sway of male pressures.
Ultimately, anal sex must no longer remain an object of scorn, mockery or disdain in social research: this study perhaps proves that, more than any other sexual practice, anal sex highlights the ruptures of the sexual revolution of recent decades, but also the road still to be travelled to achieve truly egalitarian sexuality.
