Men’s engagement in and enjoyment of cunnilingus: The role of gendered attitudes, sexual scripts, and masculinity

Abstract

There is currently little research investigating men’s lack of engagement in cunnilingus. This study explored reasons why some men do not engage in cunnilingus, as well as characteristics that distinguish those who engage from those who do not. A convenience sample of 935 straight and bisexual/pansexual male participants were asked to indicate whether they have ( n = 833, Mage = 37.14, SDage = 14.12) or have not ( n = 102, Mage = 21.63, SDage = 6.11) engaged in cunnilingus. Additionally, we interrogated participants’ sexual history, precarious manhood belief, sexist beliefs, sexual narcissism, homophobia, and attitudes toward women’s genitals. Our results indicated that engagement in cunnilingus is very common among men who have sex with women, with 89.09% of our sample having performed oral sex at least once and the overwhelming majority of engagers (94.47%) indicating enjoyment. However, we also identified that men who do not engage in cunnilingus demonstrated greater levels of homophobia, had more negative attitudes toward women’s genitals, and were less likely to be sexually narcissistic than men who did engage in cunnilingus. Endorsement of precarious manhood belief, benevolent sexism, and hostile sexism did not influence engagement in cunnilingus. Results also indicated that the primary reason men do not engage in or enjoy cunnilingus—aside from lack of opportunity—was the perception that cunnilingus is “gross.” Further, men who engaged in oral sex but did not enjoy it demonstrated greater endorsement of both precarious manhood belief and hostile sexism, as well as higher levels of homophobia and more negative attitudes toward women’s genitals.