We tend to assume that women don't have as much of a desire for sex as men or that female arousal is some kind of eternal mystery that no scientist — let alone the rest of us mere mortals — could ever really decode. But thankfully, none of that is true.
In the actual research, "we don’t see the kind of gender differences people assume exist," explains Kristen Mark, PhD, at the University of Kentucky. So why do we assume they exist at all? "Women have always been [seen] as not as sexual as men," she adds. "And women's sexual pleasure for the sake of it has been ignored, whereas for men, it's been celebrated. This directly impacts how we see the way in which women experience sexual desire."
Part of the reason sex drive might feel like a mystery is that it truly is a complex response, involving multiple factors. "Sexual desire is a motivational force that brings people toward sexual behaviour," Dr. Mark says. "It's the more psychological piece [of your sex drive], whereas arousal is the physical piece." And your level of sexual desire is determined by physiological things (such as your hormones), psychological things (such as stress), as well as more contextual things (such as the quality of your relationship with your partner).
But it's not always straightforward to study the way our libidos work. Because researchers aren't usually able to follow participants around to track their sex lives, they have to rely on those participants to report their own experiences, Dr. Mark explains. Each individual participant might interpret questionnaires differently, which introduces opportunities for inaccuracy. Another option is to include a physiological measure of arousal (e.g. blood flow) in studies. But that can make it easy to conflate physical arousal with sexual desire. "Although they're very related, they are also different processes," Dr. Mark says. This distinction is especially important in situations of sexual assault, for example; it is possible for a victim to be physically aroused but absolutely not into what's happening.
We don’t see the kind of gender differences people assume exist.
The challenge for researchers, then, is to create questionnaires that accurately and consistently reflect the nuanced experience of sexual desire for as many people as possible, as it changes from day to day. And that's exactly what Dr. Mark has beenworking on: building a way to investigate the question, What do we really want out of our sexual experiences?
Source:myjoyonline.com
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