Are male and female sexuality that stereotypically different?

submitted by Mencantbewomen from (self.GenderCritical)

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[–]snub-nosedmonkey 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

This is actually something I was looking into today! Anecdotally, I find that men are distinctly more visual when it comes to sex and sexual arousal. However, the science seems less clear and contradictory. I might come to a clearer conclusion if I read into it more but this is what I found out so far:

Generally, studies support the idea that men respond more to sexual visual stimuli than women [1]. Also, the type of visual stimuli that men and women respond to seems to be different. For example, a 2013 study found that men tended to be more stimulated by “physical type, directly exposing sexual intercourse and genitalia” whereas women were more stimulated by “mood type, erotic video clips with a concrete story”[2].

However, a more recent 2019 review contradicts the first review I referenced and came to the conclusion that “neuronal response to visual sexual stimuli, contrary to the widely accepted view, is independent of biological sex.” [3]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739403/ [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/ijir201247 [3] https://www.pnas.org/content/116/31/15671

As a side-note, I do wonder suspect such brain imaging studies are limited in terms of answering the question of whether men are more visually oriented when it comes to sex.

[–]sisterinsomnia 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

That is very good! I have always been semi-interested in these questions. I once read an article which spoke about the reactions of teenage girls to the arrival of the Beatles in the US in the 1960s and the reactions they had to large posters of the group. Can't remember exactly how it was framed, but the article stated that the most common reaction the girls showed was a sexual one. And then I thought that if this was true, the reaction was to a visual stimulus.

The usual problem applies to studying something like this, which is trying to find out how much of the difference is created by the culture and how much might be there in all circumstances. Most visual cues to sexism even out in placards and so on are aimed at heterosexual men. That makes us equate sexual arousal cues with something that is not meant for us, to begin with.

Porn, for instance, is a bad case study because it is overwhelmingly created for heterosexual men. So it is not just visual, but visual+for-men. Maybe Lesbian porn would be closer to something more neutral in the setup?

[–]MarkTwainiac 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Yes, the reaction of us female Beatles fans back in the day definitely was sexual. I was a prepubescent kid at their famous Shea Stadium concert, and can attest that tens of thousands of teen girls and young women spent the entire time screaming in a collective frenzy that was quite sexual and pretty orgiastic.

But the response to the Beatles wasn't just to their looks, or mainly about their looks because they weren't models or just pretty boys with mop tops - the Beatles were brilliant, ground-breaking musicians, singers and songwriters as well as intelligent men with witty and endearing personalities. The response to the Beatles was a response to them in their totality, and to the revolutionary new sound they introduced, not just to their looks as shown in pics and photos.

[–]ImPiqued1111111 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I was a prepubescent kid at their famous Shea Stadium concert

Off topic, but I am sooooooo jealous! My understanding is that you could hardly hear anything, but still.

[–]MarkTwainiac 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

ImPiqued: The screaming from the audience came through loud and clear, but virtually nothing could be heard from the four young men on the field who were trying to pipe their music through tiny and tinny speakers.

The whole scene was hilarious and absurd. To his dying day, my father often humorously remarked that writing out a check to secure those Shea Stadium Beatles tickets in 1965 might not have been in his best interests because that concert seemed to unleash forces that caused all his daughters and other girls in the nabe and his workplace to become bra burners and ball busters!

[–]ImPiqued1111111 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh yep, that's what I meant, the band couldn't be heard because the screaming drowned them out!

To his dying day, my father often humorously remarked that writing out a check to secure those Shea Stadium Beatles tickets in 1965 might not have been in his best interests because that concert seemed to unleash forces that caused all his daughters and other girls in the nabe and his workplace to become bra burners and ball busters!

LOL!