Do females have a drive for sex the same as men?

[cameron marical]

Hey, first post in quite a while. Well, I was wondering, do girls, or females of any species, share the same drive for sex as males? I've seen quite a bit of talk about it, but is there any legit scientific studys on this?

Thanks guys. Just out of curiosity.

[Genecks]

I've had talks with behavioral scientists. Some would say that human society has evolved and lost these aspects of biology, and there is a new level of sociobiology. In other words, people really aren't controlled by the seasons. Cultural ideas, such as love and money, have taken place of biological reasons to mate. So, perhaps, getting a girl madly in love with you will increase her arousal and willingness to mate. Something like that.

 

I have read some studies, however, that will state that there may indeed be cycles in the year to sexual activity. Nonetheless, I think cultural values and reasons to have sex have taken over.

 

I will say, however, that I believe females are more interested in sex as they continue to age and lose reproductive ability. Because of cultural values, however, they may become picky and decide to choose some males over others. In other words, they want a male with resources who can provide. I think that's a typical value in the animal kingdom.

 

As such, it does make sense for a woman to be more willing to mate with a person who has resources rather than a deadbeat who can't hold a job and is in debt.

 

Personally, I think there is still some strength to reasoning that humans are willing to mate in summer or fall. It's reasonable to assume not many people want to mate in the winter. You can still look at months when the most humans are born. There could be cultural reasons behind it. But assume that a woman gets pregnant in the latter part of the Winter. She avoids having to maintain a child through the coldest of months and can give birth to the child in a month with decent weather. I think there is something innate.

 

Depending on the climate, in a place such as California, seasonal reproductive clocks may be different. Colder climates may have different cycles, too.

 

I've seen some studies that state women are more willing to have sexual interactions in the spring and summer. I think the study involved determining what months women more often had sex with a man after meeting him at a party or dance. They found that it was more around Spring that a higher amount of women had sex with men after meeting them at parties/clubs. I can't remember the specifics, but that was the general idea. And, of course, the other interpretive study would be determining when the most children in certain regions are born; inferring what kind of sociobiological interactions might be at play in order for the birth rate to be so high during certain times of the year.

Edited June 15, 2010 by Genecks

[ewmon]

These statistics show a slight variation throughout the year (±5%), with highs in July through September.

[iNow]

From a high level, the drive is the same. However, since the consequences for them for acting on that drive are so much different than the outcome for men for acting on that drive, they tend to express it in a more reserved way.

[pioneer]

The male and female sexual drives can reach the same peak levels. However, males naturally reach the peak level more often. Males are less likely to fake it and are also less likely to say "not now". The higher time average sex drive of males makes them more willing to pay in some way. Males don't need all the extra foreplay, talk and cuddling. This is all needed to induce females to similar levels.

 

The higher time average sex drive of males may also be why males are more promiscuous. Theoretically, many women allows the time average sex drive of all these females to average the same as the male. With one woman, the lower time average sex drive versus the higher time average allows the female to have a bartering tool. The oldest profession reflects the differences in the sex drive, with some entrepreneurial females filling in the deficit of the local males using the free market.

 

An interesting consideration is gay. Relative to sex drive, the gay drive is closer to male then female, which is why this phenomena may not be biological. If a gay was a women in a male body, she should have a lower time average drive closer to female.

[iNow]

^Total rubbish and complete nonsense. I can't believe you're still allowed to post here.

[Rip:20]

The male and female sexual drives can reach the same peak levels. However, males naturally reach the peak level more often. Males are less likely to fake it and are also less likely to say "not now". The higher time average sex drive of males makes them more willing to pay in some way. Males don't need all the extra foreplay, talk and cuddling. This is all needed to induce females to similar levels.

 

The higher time average sex drive of males may also be why males are more promiscuous. Theoretically, many women allows the time average sex drive of all these females to average the same as the male. With one woman, the lower time average sex drive versus the higher time average allows the female to have a bartering tool. The oldest profession reflects the differences in the sex drive, with some entrepreneurial females filling in the deficit of the local males using the free market.

 

An interesting consideration is gay. Relative to sex drive, the gay drive is closer to male then female, which is why this phenomena may not be biological. If a gay was a women in a male body, she should have a lower time average drive closer to female.

 

Nice story you just made up. Thanks for providing zero science to the science forum.

[Ontogeny]

I would say that on avarage males display a higher sex drive to females, as the biological fitness of males is closely linked to the number of offspring that he may produce, while females can only benefit by being 'choosy' and not mating with just anyone! The possible cost of sex for women is so much higher than for males!

If women had the high sex drive of males, it would be much more likely for them to just mate with any Dick, Tom or Harry instead of selecting the more 'fit' male that will also provide for the child and mother...which begs the question why so many 'ladies' have sex with unemployed, uneducated loosers

[Moontanman]

it might just be anecdotal but so far in my life every female who has shared her sex drive with me seemed to have a sex drive every bit as high as mine....

[Ontogeny]

Haha,

 

yeah I bet...we should not forget that in our modern world us ladies can let loose without the consequences that mother nature would normally throw at us;)

 

But I would still make the point that 'on average' the sex drive of males would be higher than that of females...let's face it men think about sex how many times a day?

[Moontanman]

Haha,

 

yeah I bet...we should not forget that in our modern world us ladies can let loose without the consequences that mother nature would normally throw at us;)

 

Taking responsibility and avoiding consequences does not mean women do not have sex drives similar to men, they do seem to tend to be a bit less flamboyant about their sex drives than men but women like sex, just as much as men, i would be amazed to find that the female sex drive differs in some profound way from men...

 

But I would still make the point that 'on average' the sex drive of males would be higher than that of females...let's face it men think about sex how many times a day?

 

Thinking about it doesn't make your sex drive higher, nor does not doing it make it any lower, I don't see your correlation...

[Ontogeny]

Fair enough, I do see your point, but being a woman, from an observational stand point, I do feel that 'in general' females are not as highly sexed as males!

 

I do not have actual data to back up my point, but taking hormonal changes into account I think it makes sense that on the whole we are not as highly driven, nor would it make evolutionary sense if we were!

 

Anyway, that's just my humble opinion and you are a lucky man if you have experienced proof to the contrary;)

[Moontanman]

 

Anyway, that's just my humble opinion and you are a lucky man if you have experienced proof to the contrary;)

 

 

Anecdotal only, not a statistically significant survey of the general population I am afraid

[Ontogeny]

Haha, but I guess it's first hand research though

 

Speaking from an evolutionary standpoint I still maintain that the sex drive of females would be lower!

Females do not increase their fitness by having many sexual incounters, but only by choosing fit males to father their offspring...obviously humans do not fall as neatly into this statement...maybe this is why you and I are having our little debate!

Edited July 2, 2010 by Ontogeny
missread previous post

[Moontanman]

A great many females of various creatures do indeed have sex with as many males as possible, garter snakes have veritable orgies of sex with several males all twisted up in a pile with one female, fish have spawning orgies of immense size, whales do indeed have recreational sex, if anything they are more sexual than humans, often having sex with many individuals, while the idea of a female saving her favors for a man who is most likely to support her offspring is a common human fantasy the reality is that human sex drive and or reluctance to have sex is a purely cultural thing and there are indeed human cultures where sex is somewhat less than serious as mating for life. In some cultures a young girl is not ready for marriage until she has had at least one child and they start having sex as soon as puberty with many partners. The idea of no sex until marriage and limited sexual partners is often a Judeo/Christian idea that was not shared in the ancient world and is still not as well followed in our time as rumors would have it....

[Ontogeny]

I'm glad you brought culture into the discussion and I definitely agree with your point in regards to the influence of culture on our sexual behaviour.

 

It is well proven that many animals formerly regarded as being monogamous have now been proven to be far from...Black Swans being a prime example;)

[Moontanman]

You might have a point Ontogeny, it would appear that men at least fantasize more often than women and men fantasize about more partners than women but I still wonder how much our culture plays into how likely women are to admit sexual fantasies and report them accurately with the sword of guilt programed by our culture over their heads. While men are not only more likely to admit to sexual fantasies and encounters but also more likely to exaggerate them due to our cultural influences.

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22&sc=WR_20100702

 

And, perhaps not surprisingly, men seem to entertain more visitors in their heads than do women. In a 1990 study published in the Journal of Sex Research , evolutionary psychologists Bruce Ellis and Donald Symons found that 32 percent of men said that they’d had sexual encounters in their imagination with more than 1,000 different people, compared to only 8 percent of women. Men also reported rotating in from their imaginary rosters one imagined partner for another during the course of a single fantasy more often than women did.

[Marat]

I read about an experiment not long ago in which physiological aspects of sexual arousal in response to stimulating sexual imagery were recorded in males and females and then compared with whether the subjects reported being aroused or not. The study found that while males were accurate in reporting awareness of arousal which corresponded to the physiological measures of arousal, women considerably under-reported arousal awareness compared to their biological measures. This suggests that women are culturally trained to become insensitive to their own biological drives, perhaps in order to gain social power by creating an artificial scarcity of female sex partners compared to available male sex partners. This artificial shortage then creates the need for males to court women and regard them as more valuable than women need to prove themselves to be, while men in contrast have to demonstrate courtship bravery, cleverness, reliability, and income potential to 'earn' the value women already have without doing anything just because of the shortage of willing females.

 

The first wave of feminism in the 1960s and early 1970s favored the sexual liberation of women as a device to normalize the relationship between men and women by eliminating this artificial tilting of the supply and demand curve by the female pretense of sexual disinterest, but the following waves of the feminist revolution became simply anti-sex and so this problem remains uncorrected today.

 

As a result, it is difficult to measure 'real' male and female sex drives in the strange sexual 'market' that society has created, in which men are induced to be over-eager because of the shortage of partners and women are socially rewarded by posing as under-eager. In Magaret Mead's studies of polynesian sexuality, where this artificial market did not exist, the typical Western dissonance between male and female sexuality was not found.

[Ontogeny]

Yes, I remember hearing about this, it's certainly very interesting!

Human sexuality is definitely a more complex issue that one would rightly expect, but culture should never be underestimated I guess.

 

We certainly are a complicated bunch!

[Schrodinger's cat]

Some animals' behavior are mostly instinctual, like fish and reptiles. This includes sexual behavior. The human brain evolved to be extremely adaptive and to vary depending on environment. I think this also applies to human sexual behavior. Cultures that repress women s' sexual behavior but not men's probably have women with lower sex drive. If you took a group of very young children and raised them in an isolated environment, you could probably design a culture where the womens' sex drive surpassed the mens'.

 

 

[pioneer]

I still content that females can have the same level of sex drive as males on any given day, but if we average this over time, the male has a higher time average. I think that some males would like to create the illusion, all is the same, since it would make it easier to satisfy the extra male desire. Men lie to women, with empirical a way to back up illusions.

 

For example, as Ontogeny points out, female have a monthly hormonal cycle. Not all of the cycle is conducive to wanting to have peak sex. The male hormonal cycle is not the same. Even if they are equal during prime time, the math will not add up, when we use a time average. Maybe feminine men and masculine women, through learned behavior, can effect the average. But I was focusing on natural limits and not synthetic behavior.

 

There is one aspect of natural behavior where the science is lacking. It has to do with the natural limits of natural behavior. One can repress a natural behavior, where they exhibit the natural behavior but the behavior is under utilized. One can also display a natural behavior, but with obsession, where the limits of natural are exceeded. Both show natural behavior but with unnatural limits.

 

For example, although some animals may gouge foods at times, they still stay fit. Over a time, their eating behavior balances out even if they periodically gorge. Science may focus on the gorge, to show this occurs in nature, and then empirically show this is therefore natural for humans, while never showing the natural balance.

 

Some moral codes repress eating, but some empirical codes do the opposite and create obsession. Both can exceed natural limits.

Edited July 25, 2010 by pioneer

[TimothyT]

Its an interesting subject, I think you are on the spot and on the issue of the woman's choice uneducated losers, I think it has to do with the fact that these men are USUALLY more aggressive, maybe this projects strength? (possibly strong hunter and protector) I also think its most likely upbringing as well, most women who fall for these bad boy types have had an early sexual experiences (not all) but many have (or even abuse).. On the other hand Intelligent & Emotionally strong women seem to go for a man who has a bit of both Brains and Physical strength (possibly preferring one a bit more than the other)

[Ringer]

In Magaret Mead's studies of polynesian sexuality, where this artificial market did not exist, the typical Western dissonance between male and female sexuality was not found.

I'm pretty sure follow up studies showed Mead's finding to be somewhat less that conclusive (to put it nicely). I'm almost certain I read something saying that the difference in sex drive in men and women is largely caused by how much easier it is for males to become aroused in a short period of time than it is for women. If I remember right women had a much more difficult time being relaxed around a person/people they didn't have a lot of earlier contact with and that relaxation playing a major role in arousal/orgasm. I'm tired and don't really feel like looking for the study. maybe later

An interesting consideration is gay. Relative to sex drive, the gay drive is closer to male then female, which is why this phenomena may not be biological. If a gay was a women in a male body, she should have a lower time average drive closer to female.

Xq28 I think is a gene that may be associated with homosexuality. Also, a woman in a mans body is a transgendered and is a lot different than homosexuality.

[Moontanman]

I think it's silly to thank of women as some how less than sexual "less" than males. females like sex just as much as males. if any thing they enjoy it more than males. Females like sex, they are capable of organisms that pale in comparison to males, Women have sex drives equal to males hands down, they always seem it enjoy it as much if not more than me.

Edited July 26, 2010 by Moontanman