Two researchers have published a book entitled Why Women Have Sex.  I admit I haven’t read the book, but I found it discussed and excerpted on the ABC website.  The excerpts demonstrate that women have sex for all kinds of sneaky, underhanded reasons:  revenge, pity, to get money or favors, to prove a point, to try sex with someone different, boredom, etc., etc.

Anything new here?  Despite what the researchers say, I don’t think so.  Aren’t these reasons the plot for scores of novels, plays, and films?  I was an English major, but I don’t think you have to have much expertise to come up with a list of at a bazillion familiar works of art that deal with all kinds of reasons that women have sex:  Women in Love, Lolita, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Gone with the Wind, The Thornbirds, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Fear of Flying, The Group–and those just the classics.

Another problem with the excerpts, as some of the commentators point out, is that it promotes the stereotype that women don’t enjoy sex for the sake of sex–only men do that.   Conversely, it suggests that women are the sole gender that has sex for financial gain, increased status, curiosity, or pity.

Qualitative information isn’t always valuable (neither is quantitative data).  How will this information be useful to a woman that is reading the book?  To a partner?  To a clinician?  How surprising or new or groundbreaking is it that a woman wants to have sex with someone of a different race or socioeconomic class?  What is the model for understanding female sexual desire that comes out of this data?

Or is the real message simply, “Sex sells?”

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