Category Archives: sex and sexuality

Objectification: Male & Female Fantasies

Édouard Manet - La Nymphe Surprise

Édouard Manet – La Nymphe Surprise

Some guys complain that they want to be objectified, too!

Judging from research at the University of Montréal, men may want to be objectified more than women do.

The researchers asked men and women to rank 55 fantasies and describe their personal favorite. The average age of respondents was 30, and 85% were straight, 3.6% were gay/lesbian and the rest were none of the above.

Findings? Below are the percentage of women and men who have had each fantasy: Read the rest of this entry

What Does “Sex-Positive” Mean?

sex positive

The sex-positive movement

Some fear that if we create a more sex-positive society — meaning that we stop repressing women’s sexuality — that NO ONE will put on the BRAKES! And society will go mad.

Complete chaos!

So what do I mean by “sex-positive”? Read the rest of this entry

Guys Don’t Expect Women To Be Porn Stars

How to make love like a porn star

How to make love like a porn star

I asked my male students if they thought that guys expected women to act like porn stars.

Most didn’t think so.

Keep in mind that these were all guys who were willing to take a women’s studies class (where I surveyed them). So they may have more gender-equal attitudes than most. But here’s what they thought:

About 50% thought that in real life guys didn’t expect women to act like porn stars.

The other 50% thought that at least some men did. But 20% of them said that they didn’t personally feel that way.

So overall, 70% didn’t expect women to behave like porn stars.

As they described it: Read the rest of this entry

Porn Can Cause E.D.?

Porn can cause E.D.

Porn can cause E.D.

One day I mentioned in class that, strangely, porn can cause E.D.

A male student said he’d thought it was the opposite, that porn cured E.D.

Oddly, both could be true. Read the rest of this entry

Satisfying Long-Term Relationships

Black_and_White_love_romance_kiss1[1]Some couples have strong and satisfying sex lives, over many years.

How does that happen?

A large study on long-term relationships and sexual satisfaction will be published soon in the Journal of Sex Research. Researchers spoke with the Wall Street Journal about the the upcoming article, and here are some highlights. You can go to WSJ.com for a more in-depth discussion.  Read the rest of this entry

Cat-Calling: Guys Performing For Guys

Men catcalling a woman

Men catcalling a woman

Women don’t catcall men. Well, rarely if ever. Now, why is that?

Maybe because no one really catcalls for the reason that would seem most obvious: to express appreciation for beauty or sexiness.

Turns out, guys are often just performing for other guys. Read the rest of this entry

Care-Less Sex  

Couldn't care less sex

Couldn’t care less sex

Hook-up sex should be careless. You’re not supposed to:

  • carefully think about whether to have sex
  • choose your partner carefully
  • care for your partner

Ideally, you could care less in hook-up culture, says sociologist, Lisa Wade, who has studied sex on college campuses.  Read the rest of this entry

Men React to “Nude” Sly Stallone

Sly Stallone on Vanity Fair Cover

Sly Stallone on Vanity Fair Cover

I recently asked my students to write down their thoughts when looking at nude-ish pictures of Cindy Crawford and Sly Stallone.

Had attitudes changed since sociologist, Beth Eck, studied reactions a decade ago?

We’ve spent a lot of time with thoughts on Cindy. Now let’s turn to Sly. Read the rest of this entry

Cindy Crawford Makes Me Feel Inadequate

Cindy CrawfordI recently asked my students to write down their thoughts on a nude-ish picture of Cindy Crawford to see if attitudes had changed since sociologist, Beth Eck, studied reactions more than a decade ago.

Dr. Eck found that these images made women feel bad about their own bodies.

Do they still? Read the rest of this entry