Growing up, I was taught that I had to dress modestly because men will “lust” if they see me in short shorts or a mini-skirt. I was taught that I could cause men to stumble, and women are in part to blame for this problem. We would frequently scoff at other girls on the streets. “Don’t they know they are a stumbling block to men?”

I was also taught that I could not identify with the desires that men go through, and could not possibly understand their temptations and lusts. This confused me as a young adult who had sexual desires and visual attractions. If this is something apart of me, then it must be 10 times greater for men, I thought.

That’s why I enjoyed Sharon’s recent comment on my blog. Sharon brings in the research to show that maybe, just maybe, I’m not crazy.

Actually, there have been studies- and the studies show it’s extremely possible women may be more prone to lust than men. At the very least, the idea that men are more sight-oriented has been disproved. Here’s a link to that particular study: http://www.livescience.com/799-women-brains-react-surprisingly-fast-erotic-images.html.

The reason I say women may be more horny than men? Well, just look at this study, for example. When hooked to a polygraph, women admit much different things about their sex lives than otherwise. In fact, women actually admitted to having more sexual partners than their male counterparts. http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/sexsurv.htm. This also explains why some research claims men are hornier, as a lot of that research relies on self-reporting.
Furthermore, historically, women were seen as being the lustier of the two sexes. The idea that men are hornier is an extremely modern concept which started in the western world. Back in ancient Greece, it was assumed that women were too sex-crazed to control themselves. The onus was placed on the male to hold back for the sake of propriety. The reason the play Lysistrata was seen as a comedy was because the situation was believed to be impossible in real life.

If you want another historic example, there are plenty. According to Islamic belief, God gave nine parts of sexual desire to the woman and one part to the male. Even nowadays, the Arabic world still tends to believe women have more of a sex drive than males. Given this knowledge, I become particularly frustrated when people try to claim males have lusts females can’t understand. After all, it’s more likely females have more lust to deal with than males.

I encourage you to check out this study and this study that Sharon references. The first study talks about how women react to erotic images just as quickly as men. The second focuses on the sexual expectations that women go through, and how many tend to cover up their sex desires to fit societies mold.

Finally, I will leave you with my “favorite” quote from a stoic philosopher. He obviously did not think women had lower sex drives.

Do not admire your wife’s beauty…from the time women are fourteen years old they think of nothing and aim at nothing except going to bed with men. – Epictetus

We are more of a bi-product of our society than we care to think.

What do you all think?

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