Blog Archives

The Allure of Bad Boys

cartoon-bad_boy_navy1-300x289Why do women fall for bad boys?

My students ask that question all the time.

Michael Kimmel, who studies men, asked his women students to choose between the charming rouge, Rhett Butler and dependable Ashley Wilkes.

Do I have to choose?

They groaned.

Are those my only choices?

They pled.

Because the women liked — and disliked — characteristics of both.

Forced to choose Read the rest of this entry

Should You Have Sex If You’re Not That Into It?

7962Saying “yes” to sex when you’re not that into it can be a real problem. Yet unexpected benefits may arise. It depends.

Women should never agree when it repels them or goes against their values and self-respect.

Yet University of Texas, Austin researchers who wrote Why Women Have Sex found there are times when sex can be rewarding, even when initial interest isn’t too strong.

Read the rest of this entry

Saying Yes When You Want To Say No

Saying-Yes-To-Saying-No-194x300Many women agree to sex that they aren’t too interested in. University of Texas, Austin researchers say the reasons vary. Some want to nurture relationship. Some are doing what they think is expected. Others feel pressured. A few want to avoid a fight. It can be a problem. Or, unexpected benefits may arise. Today, let’s look at the downside.

Some women are pleasers and feel uncomfortable saying no. Ironically, one woman’s religion got her saying yes to premarital sex because her church had kept her naïve and encouraged passivity,

Persistence from a partner, emotional games, alcohol, passivity, and difficulty saying no were all important factors. I felt nervous, unsure and confused. I didn’t want to make the other person angry with me. When things didn’t go the way I trusted them to I didn’t know what to do. These experiences all occurred before age 19, after which I got stronger and wiser.

Some fear rejection. As another woman explained,  Read the rest of this entry

Reclaim the Sacred Feminine Via Venus

venus-on-half-shellBy Yo Mama

For too long feminine energy has been ignored, sidelined, or maligned: we have forgotten that this energy, like male energy, is sacred. It is not to be bought or sold, disrespected, abused, or tied up with a pretty bow and left on a shelf to slowly dissolve, like cotton candy or false dreams. It is not to be dressed up or dressed down for the purpose of enhancing male power. It is time for us—men as well as women—to reconnect to this energy, and heal.

While there are many manifestations of the sacred feminine, the one we need so that women may fully own their sexual power is Venus. That’s right, the goddess of beauty and love.  Read the rest of this entry

Women Slut-Shame More Than Men?

19TIER_SPAN-articleLargeStereotypes and evolutionary psych say men slut-shame because they want to know that their partner’s babies are not some other guy’s.

But women are actually more likely to promote the double-standard. Here’s one study of shaming in action:

McMaster University psychologists told college women that they were studying female friendships. They actually wanted to see how women respond to sexy vs non-sexy women, as pictured above. Read the rest of this entry

How Sex Gets Better With Age

oldcouplelargeSex often improves with age, say a number of recent studies. But why?


Maturing sex-lovers were typically raised in a pretty sex-negative world — especially if they’re female. But most spent years doing the marital sex thing. And since everyone thinks that’s okay, negative messages fade.

But an increasingly sex-positive society must help. Many chalked up their newfound pleasure to sexual liberation and The Pill.

And while you might think women would grow bored with the same guy all the time, women in long-term relationships are the most sexually satisfied of all. Why?  Read the rest of this entry

Hostility, Objectification Go Hand-In-Hand

Dolce-Gabbana-Ad-Sexist[1]Funny how objectifying women and hostility toward them so often go hand-in-hand. Well, not funny –ha ha.

Phil is a strip club patron who says that f-ing is all men really want from women, and whose philosophy of life includes “The Four Fs”: Find ‘em. Feel ‘em. F-k ‘em. Forget ‘em.

And then there are men who hate pretty women. These guys constantly lust after the ladies – or at least their body parts. But they hate women, too.  As one guy described  it:  Read the rest of this entry

Sex Gets Better With Age?

Couple in bedNovelty is the strongest aphrodisiac for both men and women, but much more for women. If a woman has the desire and knows how to use her femininity and sexuality, she can keep her man sexually engaged indefinitely. Men have a much bigger hurdle to jump because there is really nothing we can do to keep a women in that super horny “porn star” state that they are in at the beginning of a relationship.

That’s from a male commenter who told me that all his friends say the same thing: Women lose interest in sex over time. I don’t doubt that he and his fiends have experienced this. Other men have also asked me why women lose interest in sex after marriage. Sex researchers have also addressed the phenomenon.

Yet a slew of studies also say that sex gets better over time.  Read the rest of this entry

Should Men Play Hard To Get?

kissWho are women most likely to find attractive right at the beginning of a relationship?

  1. men who strongly like them
  2. men who may like them
  3. men who show disinterest in them

On the one hand, plenty of psychological research says we tend to like people about as much as they like us. But what if we don’t know whether someone likes us or not? How does uncertainty affect things?

Read the rest of this entry

Hookup Sex Less Pleasurable

1292393586_95218200Men are more likely to climax in committed relationships. And women are twice as likely to reach orgasm in serious relationships, compared with hookup sex.

Maybe that’s because partners are more likely to know what the other likes, through both communication and practice. They’re also less likely to have performance anxiety. And, they are less likely to be drunk. That always helps. Meanwhile, love can add a rich vein of emotional connectedness.

So it’s not so surprising that 70% of women and 73% of men in college say they want relationships over hookup sex.

The whole phenomenon doubles down when it comes to women, though. An NYU study found only 40% of women climaxing during their last sexual hookup, while 80% of men did.

It may all be due to nurture more than nature. Read the rest of this entry