Would You Have Sex for Housework?

I admit I love the total honesty of a passionate embrace.

So does it seem a little odd that 84 percent of women have sex to “guarantee a quiet life or to persuade their men to do some housework.”

What do you reckon? Sex for housework? A statistical aberration or do you agree?

Is this selling yourself for cut lawn? Or is there a deeper psychological meaning behind what women want?

Well, according to the book Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between) by psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss women have sex to alleviate boredom, to thank a guy for spending lots of money on her, or to get a better complexion.

“Why Women Have Sex” takes uses evolutionary psychology to ask what motivates women in the bedroom.

The authors conducted a study from June 2006 to April 2009 that asked 1006 women from 46 states, eight Canadian provinces, three European countries and Australia, New Zealand, Israel and China whether they had ever had sex for one of 237 reasons which previous research had discovered.

About 80 percent of the women said they were in a relationship at the time, and 93 percent were heterosexual.

Before we take the study too seriously, it’s worth noting that Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright founder of Sexuality Source Inc criticizes the study for “muddling matters in terms of how to interpret results is the issue of women having sex versus wanting sex. These are two different factors in one’s sexual activity that aren’t being dealt with independently.” She also alleges that the study sample is skewed.

Well, I’d like to know what you think? According to the book women’s complex reasons for sex include love, pure pleasure, a sense of duty to curiosity, curing a headache, to please their partners and for the ego boost – and yes, sex for housework.

But hey, why not? Research indicates sex helps you relax, sleep, ease menstrual cramps and headaches.

According to the study:

Physiological arousal and feelings do not equate for women feelings

31 percent women vs. 17 percent men have tried to evoke jealousy in a partner.

84 percent wives vs. 64 percent husbands usually or always comply when a spouse wants sex when they don’t.

63 percent prefer to have casual sex with a friend vs. 37 percent who prefer sex with a stranger.

38 percent of women say they’ve “poached” someone for a short fling.

I wonder how guys will respond to this news, since some psychologists feel that men equate sex with their partner as a sign of acceptance.

Younger woman almost seem to want to disprove the stereo type of women being more chaste than men. Perhaps the case of 22 year old Natalie Dylan auctioning her virginity for 3.8 million is an extreme case. Ms Dylan admits its prostitution, but she says she’s not hurting anyone and it’s legal in Nevada.

According to Meston some women simply wanted to try it out, the adventure, they or to try out men of different ethnicities, get notches in their belt or get rid of their virginity.

Professor Buss expressed surprise how the success or failure of sexuality influenced women’s long term self-esteem.

“Some sexual experiences that women in our study reported just had devastating effects and long-lasting negative effects on their feelings of self-worth,” he said. “But then for others, their sexual experiences provided the soaring height of euphoria and made them feel alive and vibrant.”

Whether a study can do justice to the full range of female  experience from world culture is unlikely. I wonder if in challenging stereotypes, this type of questioning may give people the impression that Western women are man crazy girls from Charlie’s Angels.

According to the study personality, sense of humor, self-confidence, status influence a woman’s sex drive more than they do men.

Buss suggests this is explained by evolution. Women prefer symmetrical bodies, men being tall with a deep voice,  and they consistently judged the attractiveness symmetrical men on the basis of body odor.

“Women are evaluating men on multiple attributes,” Buss said. Which explains why the asymmetrical singer Lyle Lovett can compensate with talent.

“The adaptive problem that women have had to solve is not simply picking a man who is fertile but a man who perhaps will invest in her, a man who won’t inflict costs on her, a man who might have good genes that could be conveyed to her children,” he said.

The risk of pregnancy forces women to be more selective.

If there is any romance left in this report is in the power of the kiss. While 53 percent of men would have sex without kissing, the book calls kissing “an emotional litmus test” and only 15 percent of women agree to sex without kissing first.

Interestingly romance, passion and physical attractiveness ranked low on females’ reasons for having sex. Girls just want to have fun it seems 60 percent admitting to regularly sleeping another male friend.

Other reasons suggested include:

Alleviating boredom

Trying to put an end to an argument

She wants a better complexion.

Thanking her date for a nice dinner, or spending a lot of money on her..

Seeking a spiritual experience (Checkout some other intriguing research on this).

Practicing to improve her sexual prowess.

She feels sorry for the guy.

She likes that he has an extravagant lifestyle –and she is good at ensuring the guy gives it too her.

But then women have more than hinted that a hubby doing housework is a great turn on – and there is a study from the University of Kentuckythat agrees.

So why not?