Category Archives: psychology
Casual Sex Distresses Women?
The double standard
Women who do casual sex are, on average, more distressed than other women.
Men who do casual sex are, on average, more confident than other men.
That’s what sociologists, Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, found as they researched their book, Premarital Sex in America.
That means the double standard is neither good nor bad. It just is. They say. Read the rest of this entry
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Loose Women Don’t Wear Corsets
The corset
Plenty of women’s fashions restrict them — intended or not — whether we’re talking girdles, spiked heels, bound feet, or wearing curlers to bed (who can sleep?!)
And how about that corset?
This ubiquitous pre-20th-century garment was so tightly laced that organs could be pushed around. And they promoted lung disease. Those things were not comfy!
Despite the health risks, some 19th century doctors believed that women’s bodies were too weak to hold themselves up, so they needed the contraption. (Scientists of the time also thought that education shrunk a woman’s womb!) Read the rest of this entry
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Sex-Negative Societies & Non-Orgasmic Women
Sex-positive societies create easily orgasmic, and multiply orgasmic women.
So it’s no surprise that sex-negative societies do the opposite.
In some places women’s pleasure is deliberately cut by damaging or removing the clitoris. In other places something more akin to a psychological clitoridectomy is performed. Let’s take a look at how that can happen. Read the rest of this entry
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Why Do Women Fight Their Interests
Women against feminism?
Growing up Mormon, it seemed like the women around me fought against their own interests all the time.
In the 70’s my Mormon piano teacher spent an hour post-lesson talking to my mom about stopping feminists from setting up battered women’s shelters! Read the rest of this entry
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Ogling: Boys Will Be Boys?
Boys will be boys?
“Boys will be boys,” said one third of the women who answered my survey on ogling.
The survey asked why some men stare at women’s body parts. Most of these women said their partner’s lingering eyes bothered them at least a little. But if men are “just that way,” maybe they’re less annoyed? Read the rest of this entry
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Is Male or Female Sexuality Better?
I heard so many of my friends saying, ‘Why can’t I have sex and feel nothing?’ It was amazing: that this was the new goal.
That’s what 25-year-old Lena Dunham told New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni as they discussed her Sex-and-the-Cityish HBO series, “Girls,” which she writes, directs and stars in.
Dunham points out that numerous cultural cues press women to take on non-emotional, non-connected, “empowered” sexuality. Read the rest of this entry
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Does Provocative Dress Ever Cause Rape?
Some friends were discussing the “Slut Walks” that keep popping up, and someone asked whether provocative clothing ever plays a role in rape. Interesting that “provocative” is used to describe a style of dress, suggesting that clothes actually provoke something. Attention? Desire? Rape? Read the rest of this entry
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Can Men and Women be Friends?
Harry told Sally that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
The question remains.
Short answer: Yes, they can.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be romantic undertones; in fact, there usually are. Typically, “he” starts a relationship hoping for sex, but “she” isn’t interested. Yet he stays friends because he likes her. And he’s often expecting that more will come of it. Read the rest of this entry
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Repression Shutting Down Sexuality
Repressive forces can shut down sexuality.
But how?
I’ll start with my own experience. Read the rest of this entry
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Sexual Orientation and Sexual Abuse
Gays and lesbians are a bit more likely to have been sexually assaulted than others.
Are abusers more likely to target them? Or does something about the attack affect them, or how they see themselves? Read the rest of this entry
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