It’s probably not news for women between the ages of 27 & 45, but a new study shows we like sex more often than at other ages. The only sucky bit is that they felt the need to tie it to reproduction, which I think is bullshit (like most evolutionary psychology), and the evidence doesn’t point that way:
Compared to older or younger women, RE women are more willing to engage in sex after knowing a partner for either one month, one week or one evening. Controlling for the number of children the women had, or whether they consciously desired to have a child, did not change the results.
Obviously if it were about “expedited reproduction” – women willing to have sex to get pregnant – then women who’ve already had a child, or children, wouldn’t be part of this group, right? They’ve have scratched the itch these researchers say is engendering the more sexual behavior. I’d suggest, instead, that being on the descending side of the estrogen slide probably has more to do with it; if there’s anything testosterone is sure to do, it’s increase libido. & Maybe, who knows? It just takes women a while to figure out how to have (maybe even multiple) orgasms.
Can I just say that I find it depressing, if not hysterical, when researchers have to find out why women like sex? Do we ever ask that about men? People who like sex like sex because it feels fantastic, relieves stress, helps you feel good about yourself, exorcises demons – any or all of the above. It’s got beans to do with babies.
Of course it has to do with making babies. Seems pretty obvious to me how enjoying sex is a selective trait.
Women like it for the same reasons men do. And we’ve evolved it for the same reasons too.
I don’t share your opinion of evolutionary psychology, since we are nothing if not the products of our long evolutionary history. But I agree that wanting more sex does not have to do with wanting babies. Babies are a byproduct of intercourse. Both men and women evolved to want sex for its own sake — because it feels good, because it creates social bonds, all the things you were saying. The trait was selected because it often results in reproduction and thus the passing on of the gene(s) for liking sex. Liking sex is evolutionary successful behaviour.
BTW, your spam filter is truly annoying! It doesn’t tell you what it objects to, of course, so you’re left to experiment. The difference here between the comment getting posted and not getting posted was that I eliminated a word before “intercourse.” Maybe there’s a maximum number of times you can use the word “sex” or a variant. :\
Leah, evolution is a subtle thing, it doesn’t build attributes purposefully towards a goal, it just slaps together attributes that have the effect of getting the job done, often enough. So a system of sexuality that has the effect of working to produce a sufficient number of babies can have a ton of quirks – evolution doesn’t care, if they aren’t disadvantageous.
And I totally agree it’s nuts to ask “why” about liking sex.it’s harking back to the crazy days pre feminism when women were seen as seducers but non-sexual. (Which makes me wonder how crazily repressed a society has to get to not even _know_ women like it).