Gender Differences in Sexual Desire
663740197
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract Sexual desire is one of the most natural and instinctive urges men and female both experience. It is seen to be the main driving force in the human population’s evolution and growth. Males and females are also believed to have different perspectives and driving forces behind their sexual desires. Whereas men are believed to be biologically driven to reproduce, females are believed are believed to desire sex for emotion and pleasure. Males tend to be more motivated by physical pleasure and sexual satisfaction but women are motivated by emotional investment and romantic relationships. Other factors …show more content…
Leiblum (2002) looks into the biological and social factors that fuel sexual desires of men and women. Several different studies in the topic of sexual desire concluded that males had an increase in desire for sexual partners and frequency for sex. In this review by Leiblum (2002), she indicates the significance of menstruation, gestation, pregnancy, lactation, testosterone, and estrogen. Each of these contribute to not just the strength of sexual desire, but more importantly the frequency. Women who are menstruating, lactating, and pregnant often attribute physical changes and discomforts as a way to disconnect from sexual arousal. Because men do not experience these same factors, they experience sexual desire more frequently. From an evolutionary biological perspective, men have an instinctive role to “spread the seed” which is a main sexually driving factor in day to day life. Testosterone is also concluded to have a pivotal role as a hormone in maintaining a high sexual drive for men and …show more content…
The overall sexual desire of men to women, committed relationships with women and sexuality, aggression, and the malleability of sexuality for females over time. Compared with women, men think about sex more often and report more frequent sex fantasies and feelings of sexual desire. Men also rate the strength of their sex drive higher than do their female age-mates. On top of that, men are also more likely to engage in sexual activity or masturbation (Peplau 2003). Women on the other hand, tend to emphasize committed relationships as a context for sexuality more than men do. They were more likely to romanticize the experience of sexual desire with attributing it to being emotionally intimate and expressive of love. Men were more likely to to emphasize physical pleasure and sexual intercourse in terms of their desires. As another factor of the study, aggression was seen as a key trait that was related to men’s sexual desires. According to a study by Andersen, Cyranowski, & Espindle (1999), both males and females characterized their sexuality as being romantic or passionate. Males who identified with being very passionate also characterized themselves as being aggressive, dominant, and powerful. These traits are related to aggression and this type of assertion has a role in men taking lead in sexual behavior. The final factor comes from the idea that women’s sexuality can be more easily