Women are more open to sexual experimentation and are more likely to have experience in fantasy-sharing and explicit conversation during sex, according to new survey conducted by Good in Bed with K-Y.
The online survey, which polled 1,418 men and 1,923 women who were in a relationship, also found that women reported being significantly more bored in their relationships than men, and the most common source of boredom was frequency of sex with partner (43.7 percent). The majority of respondents (57.9 percent) were up for trying something new sexually, saying they’d hope that spicing up their love life would reinvigorate their relationship.
The findings seem to suggest that women are more interested in sex and feel more empowered to ask for what they want than ever. But earlier this month, a study of women in Africa suggested that dominant and assertive women had approximately 100 times less sex than their peers who had less control over household decisions.
Barbara and Shannon Kelley, writing on HuffPost Women, said the results of the African study don’t necessarily apply to Western women, and pointed out that the researchers who conducted that study said that in the African countries examined, the less frequent sex among powerful women may not be due to a drop in male desire for them, but that empowered women are better able to protect their sexual rights.
“What grates,” said the Kelleys, “is the way such results are parlayed in our neck of the woods,” that women are less interested in sex than men, when a recent study claims that more gender equality actually increases the amount of sex people have.
The portrayal of woman’s sex drive as lagging is nothing new. An oft-cited study conducted on a college campuses in the 70s and 80s showed women turning down sex more than men when approached by strangers in the street, leading the study directors to concur with the cultural stereotype that “men are eager for sexual intercourse; it is women who set limits on such activity,” even though taking a stranger up on a proposition is arguably dangerous and ill-advised.
Survey Director for Good in Bed Kristen Mark MS, said in a press release that her study’s findings refute that notion: “Women have for so long been constructed in our society as prudes who restrict the sexual expression of their male partners, and I think this survey shows that, in our sample of women, that just isn’t the case.”