Some are even ready to fake orgasms, thus relegating their own pleasure to the background.

When it comes to the bedroom, many men are obsessed with their performance “obligations.”

To such an extent that their female partners sometimes feel “obliged” to compliment them, or even to fake an orgasm… with the sole aim of appeasing their egos.

Published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, the research compiles several surveys on how women seek to help their partners feel masculine, particularly if their ego is fragile.

One survey of 283 women found that the more women think their partner’s masculinity is threatened, the more anxious they feel and the less they communicate with them about sex.

According to another survey cited in the study, women who earn more money than their partners are twice as likely as others to fake orgasms.

A reaction that underlies the idea (obviously still widespread) that the fact that a man in a heterosexual couple earns less money is equivalent an attack on his virility.

“These women privilege what they think are the needs of their partner at the expense of their own sexual needs and their satisfaction,” outlined lead author Jessica Jordan of the University of South Florida.

An attitude that can be associated with the idea of mental load, women’s tendency to take care and consider the needs of those around her and to try to please them.

Men, meanwhile, are negatively impacted by what is called toxic masculinity. A concept used in psychology to designate the societal pressures that weigh on men. In particular that of “being manly” or, when it comes to sex, having an impressive performance.

While sexual (mental) charge and toxic masculinity are two very different sociological phenomena, what they have in common is that they harm both genders in how they relate and communicate.

“When society creates a standard of masculinity that is impossible to maintain, no one wins,” Jordan points out.