What would happen if women were as horny as men?

Great Debates
#1

Inspired by this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=348774

The male sex drive might not really be any more powerful than the female, but it is definitely more urgent. The Sexual Revolution changed a lot of things, but not that. Why this is so is debatable – my money’s on sociobiology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiology) – but it’s definitely true. As a general rule, guys want it, all the time, and we have to do most of the chasing. Males are the principal consumers of pornography, strip club shows, all forms of “adult” entertainment. Even an ugly woman can always find work as a prostitute. Men, not women, are willing to pay good money to have have some kind of sexual contact with a total stranger at the risk of arrest and STDs. There are male prostitutes, too, but, as I understand it, they mostly service gay male clients. Men sometimes commit rape, women almost never do.

What would society be like if women were as horny as men? Would civilization be possible? Would we ever get any work done?

#2

ask my wife, her sex drive eclipses mine on a regular basis and everything seems to be good. =P

#3

But if each of you went to bar with the intention of scoring an opposite-sex partner for the night, which of you would have the better chance of success? Never having seen either of you, and assuming other factors to be equal, I would say her – and that’s because of the guys’ sex drive, not her own.

#4

[QUOTE=BrainGlutton Men sometimes commit rape, women almost never do.[/QUOTE]

You can’t play pool with a rope… Not to mention, on average men are stronger than women. It would be tough for many women to overpower men in order to rape them.

#5

Whaddya think the guy would fool her into thinking they were going somewhere to do homework or lay tile or something? Jesus…

#6

Yes, but women never want to rape anyone. Could be testosterone.

What would the result be? Mere speculation, but I would say a huge overpopulation crisis, with almost eveyr woman being a single mother of 10 ten kids or so.

#7

So they’d all go off the pill?

#8

Hhhmmm I might be too sexually liberated… I can only see good consequences if women were as horny as men… :smiley:

I think the difference in reality is that women get horny due to different stimulus and for differente reasons. A woman in love is VERY HORNY… one can barely ask for mercy from one. Although I have been hornier than most of the girls I’ve been with… my steady girlfriends were usually just as or more horny than I. They just didn’t want it all the time.

Women get horny in context… romantic settings and a good companion. Men need less. Women when they feel safe and secure let go a lot.

#9

I suspect that if woman were as horny as men and they all paired up so everyone was not frustrated that world peace would break out as the golden age was achieved. Just my Irrational Opinion. :wink:

Jim

#10

The idea that women are less horny than men is social, not biological. Physiologically, the structures involved are pretty much the same- one of the major exceptions being that women can experience multiple orgasms and don’t have a refractory period.

There are plenty of cultures where women are considered to have a greater sexual appetite. In a lot of Islamic countries, for example. women are considered this bottomless well of sexuality. The idea behind veiling women isn’t that men will rape them, it’s that they won’t be able to help themselves from seducing every guy they meet. Marriage is considered a civilizing force in that it contains the woman’s nearly uncontrollable sexual desire.

#11

Well unless I think your pair has nice endowements I’d like to try out… then it all starts again… hehe…

I think we should go bonobo style into mass orgies that will bring peace for sure.

#12

I never thought it possible, but my girlfriend is quite often hornier than I. We get along just fine. :smiley:

#13

That’s why, on the rare cases they rape, women either overpower a man with numbers or a weapon. Erections can be stimulated by strangulation, so that’s not a problem for more than one woman.

#14

YES! Women are just as horny as men. In some, maybe most, cultures throughout history it has been easier to suppress womens’ sexuality than that of men. Most men are just physically bigger and stronger than most women, and the Law Of The Jungle, in which “size rules,” alas, persists to this day.

I took some SCUBA lessons in the Caribbean a few years ago, and some of the students (mostly, I must say, women) were concerned about sharks. The instructor, um, instructed that, words to the effect, “Chances are extremely good that you are bigger than anything else in that water. If you are bigger, it will probably leave you alone. If you are smaller, then you ought to watch out.”

And womens’ sexuality is as strong as any, including a man’s.

#15

“What would happen if women were as horny as men?”

Well, what would happen if you went into a store and found that they actually hadn’t paid a dime for their entire inventory, and were eager as hell for you to simply grab it and run out the door?

Chaos, sir, and societal implosion!

#16

Which begs the question of why anyone would want to suppress women’s, or men’s, sexuality.

#17

It’s not so much that women are less horny than men, it’s that for 99% of our evolutionary history the consequences of sexual intercourse were different for women and men.

Male and female have sexual intercourse. Male gets up and wanders off. Nine months later the female gives birth while the male is somewhere 500 miles away. For many if not most mammal species the males perform absolutely no parental care, their investment is only fighting with other males and a few ccs of sperm.

Most species have a mating season where the females readily mate with whatever male happens to be around, but often this male has driven other males away. So, there’s usually no downside for a male to mate with any particular female, and for females there’s usually a pretty clear choice of which male you’re going to mate with. But once mating season is over, it’s over. Most mammal females are only “horny” for a very short time.

However, humans are a bit different, what with concealed ovulation, “continuous sexual receptivity”, no mating season, and significant (meaning, often more than zero) male parental investment. A human female has two goals…getting high quality genes for her offspring, and getting male investment in raising those offspring. Sooooo…she’ll have sex with you to keep you around afterwards to help raise the kids. Of course, she can only have one baby every 1-2 years or so, those times she has sex with you and doesn’t get pregnant are just trickery!

This is why females are less horny than males, on average. What’s in it for them? A male has the potential of siring an offspring for a few minute’s work. It’s all gravy. A female has the potential of getting pregnant, carrying the baby for 9 months, and then raising the child for ten years or more, and may or may not get any help from the father while doing so.

#18

We’d still be living in caves with no intention of inventing the wheel.

#19

Women are just as horny as men. I don’t buy that nonsense that women aren’t as sexual as men are, I have a bigger sex drive than most of the guys I know.

I’m a bit frightened that you think rape is just about a high sex drive.

#20

Hmmm, let’s see; it would be diagnosed as hysteria, insanity, nymphomania, and any number of different mental illnesses. They would be burned at the stake, accused of witchcraft, immorality, prostitution, obcenity, adultery and any number of other crimes, and disallowed from religious leadership or participation for their natural inferiority. They would be beaten, raped, enslaved, tortured, and murdered so they didn’t start getting ideas about equality or the possibility of betterment. They would be kept largely ignorant and uneducated, and taught that servility was their highest goal.

Oh wait! That already happrened, and happens every day.

W e are as horny as men (I am anyway), just not as flamboyant in our expression of it. I also think sexual repression is a factor for many women. Women, far more than men, are prone to social pressures, and the consequences of our sexual behavior are far greater (even most STD’s are more easily transmitted to women). Also, our sexuality is more cyclical and time based in nature - our sexual peak does not last as long as our male counterparts’, which may contribute to why young women seek older men. Arousal may be less instantaneous, but once it happens, BOOM.

To paraphrase Jerry Reed, when we’re hot, we’re hot.