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Are Women More Sexual Than Men? Hi Dennis, (I'm not sure where this study was done, but I believe it was at Harvard Medical School. I could be wrong, but I know it was at an Ivy League Med school somewhere in the northeast.) Recently, a study was done where they hooked thousands of different types of people up to sensors and studied brain activity. I believe it was a couple thousand woman and a couple thousand men from all different ages, races, religions, nationalities, cultures, income levels, etc. Then the volunteers were showed pornography. Well we all know almost all guys love porn, and girls generally don't like that stuff, right? But the results were astonishing. They found that women's brains responded more positively to porn and that they were more sexually aroused than the men were. It also showed that women were aroused by ALL types of pornography. Straight, girl on girl, guy on guy, sex with animals, transvestites, midgets etc. Yet the guys were only turned on by straight or girl on girl porn. The other types of porn didn't really make a difference. And, even though the men got aroused, the men didn't get as aroused as the women got. WOW!!! So that's totally different than what society thinks...huh? Oh yeah, and they are wondering if that's a reason many gay women tend to be bisexual and gay men tend to be only gay. Hello! I'm rather suspect of the interpretation this sort of "research", but I haven't seen this study yet First of all, measuring the brain to establish sexual response is highly counter-productive. The brain responds to many stimuli in very different ways and even differently in different people. Measuring activity doesn't show "excitement" or "titillation" or anything of the sort. The traditional way to measure sexual response isn't through brain waves at all as they are extremely difficult to decipher - everyone's brain is laid out in different ways! The more direct, specific and more reliable way to measure sexual response is by measuring blood flow to the genitals. It's a very specific indicator of sexual excitement. That tells me that this study wasn't measuring sexual response at all; or if it was, it was highly flawed. Second, what's the point and who is making the determination of the meaning of the results? Let me give you an example: A quite-famous, highly-controlled study was done using the brain to determine what areas were directly involved in speech: particularly, which areas were used for vocalization and which were used for interpretation. The researchers found something rather interesting - that women use about twice the brain area for interpretation that men use. The media quickly jumped on this with headlines such as "Women are twice as good at interpreting speech as men!" Seems fair doesn't it? It sure seems to fit a desired belief - which sells newspapers! The researchers came out after this media storm to say, "Actually, it probably doesn't mean that at all - what it seems to indicate is that men only NEED TO USE 1/2 the area that women need to do the same thing." That's a pretty different result, don't you think? You see, the lay interpretation of the results were motivated by a particular agenda - not science. That's why when I hear about these sorts of studies to include interpretations that I have to suspect the motivation behind them and the methods used to "discover" them. What's the assumption here? That women are more sexual than men? Why is that important? The message itself is totally irrelevant if that's the case! What seems to be going on is that an agenda has been formed (just as was yours in writing this to me) to imply something that is extremely popular today, but frankly, totally without merit: that women are exactly like men; or even more masculine than men, and that our understanding of ourselves is wrong. This is a highly liberal social agenda that has permeated the "woman's world" that is western society today. Here's what I believe about sexuality between men and women: they are equal from the standpoint that they affect us individually, but carry VERY different motivations. Women aren't more "sexual" than men, and men aren't more "emotional" than women. We both have different traits that work for and benefit us to thrive as a species. Instead of trying to show study after study that supposedly "proves" that women are "...just like men..." or "...more sexual than men..." or "...better than men..." (or whatever the agenda) we should not only accept the fact that we're very, very different, but embrace and even exploit those differences to everyone's benefit. Best regards... © 2008, Dr. Dennis W. Neder |
Relationship is a pervading and changing mystery...brutal or lovely, the mystery waits for people wherever they go, whatever extreme they run to. - Euroda Welty
Dr. Dennis W. Neder is
the author of Being
a Man in a Woman's World. Got a
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