I always intended this to be part of my blog, but I've failed miserably. Today I make up for my inattention with a counterintuitive note that will leave males scratching their head and females shaken to the core. Are you ready?
In a recent study on sexual arousal they found that females were sexually aroused by every kind of porn imaginable (heterosexual, men w/ men, women w/ women, and even bonobo monkeys). And I thought women didn't like porn. But wait. The sexual arousal was tested in two ways--physiologically by way of the classic bonermeter and the "vaginal photoplethysmograph probe" (ouch!) AND psychologically by just asking. Interestingly, overall males' physiological and psychological responses agreed with one another, whereas females' did not. Damn, females still don't really like porn. For example, most heterosexual females report that same sex and bonobo action did not turn them on, but the probe said otherwise.
One theory to explain the counterintuitive response of women: women's bodies have adaptated to unwanted penetration (read rape) because sexual arousal lubricates and lessens the damage. That's sobbering. Of course the other not-so-counterituitive idea here is that males indeed think with their penis: what they said turned them on was indeed manifested in their shorts.
Of coure the myriad details of sexual research will matter little to men unless the science leads to some form of female viagra. What more can you expect from a penis?
8 comments:
Women are lying to the testers. It is part of the Women Manifesto: First of all, always lie to they who put probes in your vagina. And never admit that bonobo sex is hot even though we all know it is. Very.
That was a cool article. One difference between men and women is that men usually have a lot of practice controlling their arousal. Wether is was calming that boner you go by looking at the hot girl in History class in 6th grade by thinking about something else, or controlling climax (for your partner). Could the men be better at subduing the physiologic response? I don't know. Probably not. It does not surprise me that women are turned on by everything I guess. Those hornballers...
Fascinating article.
No wonder women are so blasted confusing. They don't even understand themselves!!!
Nik wrote:
"the Women Manifesto: First of all, always lie to they who put probes in your vagina."
LOL!
Will: Excellent point--so that means all that focused attention in our youth on controlling our groin counted for something. Thank god it wasn't just wasted energy.
I was thinking about this person's research a bit more. Before I would say that women are turned on by everything, I'd want to show the women more things, porn and porn-like things, to map out a bit better what arouses women and what does not. Perhaps the particular variety of movies they showed didn't quite display the variety of responses women can have. Scientific methods are good at finding differences, but it is much harder to say that things are the same (i.e. that women are turned on the same by everything).
It's true: we are turned on by everything and we lie about it. Though, I do think I admitted that I wanted to see "Milk" because I wanted to see Penn and Franco kiss. And no one (no one) can tell me that Heath and Jake weren't hot. I have never seen bonobo porn, so I can't speak to that, but as to Will's point, I don't think women (or most women? many women?) would be turned on by graphic violence towards women. Or animals. Gross.
And, speaking for myself, I don't find delivery men and women with fake boobs arousing. Or at least I don't think I do....
you should now all go to read the letters this week in the NYTimes Mag, responding to this article. Very interesting, highly critical, telling. Do it!
Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/magazine/08Letters-t-WHATDOWOMENW_LETTERS.html?pagewanted=1&ref=magazine
Several excellent rebuttals. The one I find particularly compelling: all the materials used to measure sexual arousal were visual. That's a male paradigm, the male gaze. Made me wonder what other ways they could have tried to create arousal??? A poem? music? certainly non-explicit materials though they'd still be visul. Hmmm.
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