title: In their own words: a qualitative content analysis of women's and men's preferences for women's genitals.
abstract: Research increasingly shows genital attitudes have an impact on sexual well-being and health seeking behaviours. This study explored what women and men like and dislike about women's genitals. Data are from open-ended items, part of a cross-sectional Internet-based survey anonymously completed by 496 women and 198 men. Overall, both women and men had positive attitudes towards women's genitals, although there was overlap between likes and dislikes. Some of the most common likes for women related to aesthetics and for men related to tactile and sexual aspects. Men listed more likes than dislikes. The emphasis on both positive and negative messages provides a more complete image of the complex ways people interact with their own and other's bodies and can help tailor clinical and educational messages.
authors.affiliation: Center for Sexual Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Margo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mullinax
authors.affiliation: Center for Sexual Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Debby
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Herbenick
authors.affiliation: Division of Management, Policy and Community Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schick
authors.affiliation: Department of Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.affiliation: Center for Sexual Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reece
keywords: genital attitudes; genital education; genital images; vulva