Sexual assaults’ effects on survivors’ sexual pleasure have been well-documented in the literature. However, much of this research is quantitative in nature and focuses on the negative effects of assault on sexual satisfaction. The present study seeks to address a gap in the literature that has failed to ask survivors what they enjoy about having sex and the pleasure they derive from sex. Through a qualitative interview study of a diverse, community sample of sexual assault survivors, we identified several themes around survivors’ sexual pleasure. Prior to the assault, survivors mentioned limited pleasure due to men not being interested in giving them sexual pleasure, but they also enjoyed the emotional connections felt during sex. Some survivors mentioned impacts on their ability to enjoy sex, but this was not universal in the sample. Finally, queer survivors mentioned feeling more sexual pleasure with women, and survivors found empowerment in exploring what they liked about having sex and sexual pleasure with current partners who supported them emotionally. We discuss the importance of a focus on the sexual pleasure of survivors from a sex-positive, rather than a “high risk”, framework in future research, along with suggestions to improve sexual health interventions with survivors.

性侵犯对幸存者性快感的影响已在文献中得到充分记录。然而，这些研究大部分都是定量的，重点关注性侵犯对性满意度的负面影响。本研究旨在弥补文献中的一个空白，即未能询问幸存者他们对性行为的享受以及他们从性行为中获得的乐趣。通过对性侵犯幸存者的多样化社区样本进行定性访谈研究，我们确定了围绕幸存者性快感的几个主题。在袭击发生之前，幸存者提到，由于男性对给予她们性快感不感兴趣，因此她们的快乐有限，但她们也很享受性爱过程中感受到的情感联系。一些幸存者提到了对他们享受性的能力的影响，但这在样本中并不普遍。最后，酷儿幸存者提到与女性在一起时感受到更多的性快感，幸存者在探索他们喜欢与在情感上支持他们的当前伴侣发生性行为和性快感时发现了赋权。我们讨论了在未来的研究中从性积极而非“高风险”框架中关注幸存者性快感的重要性，以及改善幸存者性健康干预措施的建议。