Monday, December 03, 2012

The NYTimes speaks the truth

Well finally I've seen it acknowledged in print - women get bored of routine sex with the same partner faster than men do. It's in Sunday's NYTimes:
And studies show that in long-term relationships, women are more likely than men to lose interest in sex, and to lose it sooner. Why? Because women’s idea of passionate sex depends far more centrally on novelty than does men’s.
This runs counter to all the dearly held beliefs of evolutionary psychologists, who insist that because society has always enforced monogamy for women more than men, it means that women are "naturally" more monogamous than men. 

And absurdly, someone in the comments section said this:
Balderdash. This kind of afternoon talk show psychobabble drivel is why evolutionary psychology is getting such a bad name these days.
This person clearly doesn't know what evolutionary psychology actually claims.

Also - "balderdash"? really? Who wrote this, John Hodgman's deranged millionaire character?

It's always been my experience in long-term relationships that I get bored of sex with him long before he gets bored of sex with me. Now it's true that I'm a one-man woman, so when I'm into a guy I'm really into him, and nobody else. But eventually the boredom sets in. That's why so many women are serial monogamists.

Evolutionary psychologists would have me believe I'm some kind of unnatural freak because in their essentialist view of the world, men must have variety to "spread their seed" while women are supposed to be content to be stuck at home with the kids.

Which is clearly the most self-serving myth that men have invented since the Garden of Eden.