Focus Group discussions

Gender is known to be tied to affect, but research has largely focused on the negative feelings tied to conflicts between assigned sex and current gender/sex or restrictive norms. Little research has analyzed positive emotions or pleasure related to gender/sex, and even less research has investigated pleasure through a diversityfocused lens-attention to majority and minority axes of power within analysis-as experienced by cisgender heterosexual individuals who exist in normative locations. The current article aimed to understand how and if gender/sex/ual majority groups (i.e., binary, cisgender, and heterosexual people) experience pleasure because of and/or related to their gender/sex identity and expression. To test this, we asked participants (N = 59) to share positive experiences related to their gender/sex via qualitative questions in virtual focus groups. We identified four themes from analyses: (a) gender pleasure derives from within one's self; (b) gender pleasure derives from interpersonal interactions; (c) gender pleasure derives from comparison to "the other" binary gender/sex; (d) additional social locations can impact gender pleasure. Each of these themes consisted of behaviors that could be seen as either normative or counter-normative within a Western perspective (i.e., whether or not they are stereotypical of their gender/sex). These findings situate gender/sex/ual majority groups as majorities rather than "the norm," and thus can inform understandings of gender/sex majority peoples' experiences of gender pleasure, as well as gender/sex norms and experiences of pleasure more generally. This article is one of a two-part report, and the first part explores gender pleasure among gender/sex/ual minority groups. Public Significance Statement This research demonstrates that gender/sex/ual majority people diverse by race/ethnicity can experience pleasure from their gender/sexes in various ways, including from within themselves and their social lives. This suggests that positive experiences are crucial to understanding how gender/sex functions in society, including how gender/sex norms can be perpetuated and/or challenged.