Who Wants It More?

Once upon a time, it was a known fact that that women were as eager, if not more eager, to have sex than men. This is not a joke. It’s totally serious, and totally amazing. Here’s the deal, according to Alyssa Goldstein on AlterNet:

The Puritans believed that sexual desire was a normal and natural part of human life for both men and women (as long as it was heterosexual and confined to marriage), but that women wanted and needed sex more than men. A man could choose to give up sex with relatively little trouble, but for a woman to be so deprived would be much more difficult for her.

As wild as this seems, apparently for most of history, this was in fact the way people saw the world until the middle of the nineteenth century. Alyssa Goldstein tells more tales of this trend, including one from Greek mythology:

In one ancient Greek myth, Zeus and Hera argue about whether men or women enjoy sex more. They ask the prophet Tiresias, whom Hera had once transformed into a woman, to settle the debate. He answers, “if sexual pleasure were divided into ten parts, only one part would go to the man, and and nine parts to the woman.

Of course, societal norms changed, eventually. And with it came a whole host of sexism, classism and racism (yikes). We suggest reading Alyssa’s whole deep dive look into the history of women and desire, When Women Wanted Sex Much More Than Men.

Which leads us to ask: do you think one gender really does want sex more than another, or is perhaps, it all relatively equal (we just haven’t looked at it that way in a long time)? Is there a reason men or women wouldn’t want sex as much? Does it simply depend on the person, irrespective of gender? We would love to hear your thoughts!