Sexual Desire
The amount or intensity of interest in sexual objects or activities is known as a person’s sexual desire. Through many empirical experiences society has come to deem men as having more or greater sexual desire than women. Peplau, in her study, has used frequency of masturbation as a way to quantify a person’s sexual desire as it relies almost completely on the person’s self and not on a partner. The statistics of the study showed that male participants not only started masturbation at an earlier age than female participants but also do so more often. Empirically, it was also found that in heterosexual couples, men preferred to have sex more often than their partners. This, understandably, was found to cause some disagreements about sexual frequency. In homosexual couples, sexual desire was found to be of more equality between partners. Studies show that lesbian couples are likely to have less sex than the average heterosexual couple, while gay couples are likely to have more sex.
Sexuality and Relationships
Also a common cliché in society is the concept that women tend to require a committed emotional relationship from which a sexual one should derive. When asked to define sexual desire women are more likely to place emphasis on the emotional attachment in contrast to men who express more the longing for physical rather than emotional pleasure. Additionally, men tend to consider premarital and extramarital sex more acceptable than women. When a group of young men and women were asked to recount sexual dreams, there was a noticeable difference in the main focuses of the dreams. Women’s tended to be more focused a person that they knew and already had an emotional relationship with. Men, on the other hand, involved strangers or multiple sex partners and focus much more on the sexual acts and organs. In homosexual cases, many of the same gender roles are found. Sexual promiscuity is much more likely to be found in gay males than with lesbians. Additionally gay men in homosexual relationships are more likely to cheat on their partner by having sex with a man outside of the relationship.
Sexuality and Aggression
Aggression is much more closely linked to sexuality with men than with women. When asked to characterize dimensions of their own sexuality, both men and women seem to take some aspect of passion into respect, rating themselves either very passionate or not very passionate. One aspect, however, that was unique to the men’s responses related to aggression. Men seem (proud) to take specifically into account their aggressiveness, power and experience where women put no importance of a similar concept. In support of this, studies show that men are much more asserted than women in heterosexual relationships. In the beginning of a relationship, men are more likely to initiate physically intimate behaviour. On average, men initiate sex twice more than females do in a relationship. Although women do have many strategies to get men to have sex with them, they do not often include violence and physical force. Rape is primarily conducted by males. This is seen not only in stranger or acquaintance coercive sex but also in heterosexual relationships. This supports the theory that aggression or violence is connected to sexuality mostly in men than in women.
Sexual Plasticity
A woman’s sexual beliefs and behaviour are more malleable than those of men. A woman’s view on sex can be more easily shaped through cultural, societal and situational factors. This is, however, a likely occurrence since many findings suggest that sex is much more mechanical or physical for men than for women. Emotions vary much more than mechanical or physical needs/desires do. A prime example of this is ones sexual tendencies following a breakup. Where a woman could easily go for months without sexual encounters or masturbation after a breakup, men are more likely to turn to frivolous promiscuity. An additional sign of malleability is suggested in a study which provides evidence which states that 25% of 18- to 25-year-old women who initially identified themselves as lesbian or bisexual changed their sexual preference during the next 5 years. Such results were not as prevalent in studies of gay men.
All in all this research into gender differences in human sexuality help to shed light on the specific patterns of sexual interactions. Peplau’s investigation was of particular interest because of the transcendence of these illuminations to describe not only heterosexual relationships, but to homosexual relationships. In the psychology of sexual studies, it is important to obtain separate analysis of males and females before a proper understanding of sexuality on a whole can be reached.
Useful Links:
· http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/03/older_men_like_sex_more_than_o.html
Works Cited:
Human Sexuality: How Do Men and Women Differ?
Letitia Anne Peplau
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 37-40
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