What do women really want?

[beachside]

Interesting read....

Base an animalistic apparently.

www.salon.com/2013/06/02/the_truth_about_female_desire_its_base_animalistic_and_ravenous/

I want mince pies to be on sale all year round.

A good cuppa' and nice sit down by the telly

beachside I'm sorry! I didn't mean for my troll comment to sound so snide. I know there are other time zones (I'm in America!), so I saw this when you first posted. But b/c it was sort of a provocative topic and you didn't say a lot in the OP and it was a late hour, I honestly thought "Oh, interesting! Oh, no, probably just trying to start a fight. Disappointing." I apologize

I genuinely think that the idea that women's sexuality was never before seen as wild and base is a bit ridiculous there's so much historical fear of female sexuality, and that fear has been used to justify controlling women in various ways over quite a while so I got a bit stuck on that.

The bit about rape fantasies is interesting; I've read before that those are very common (for women) and I don't think people are terribly comfortable with that. But again not a new idea. So I feel like I'm missing something here. I was irritated by the article's tone, which feels like "oh this is shocking!" but then what's in it doesn't seem surprising to me at all. But maybe I'm too jaded!

I want to ditch my desk job and set up an oyster farm in the far reaches of Scotland

I'd like to stop throwing up now, thank you.

I eschew any study that says "Women are really like this...but they deny it!"

I.e. They don't know their own minds, the fickle airheads.

How about a study that says we are all individuals, and stop trying to put people into boxes?

I'd want a wife really. The old fashioned kind, who cooks and cleans and looks after the kids, and also steps it up and works outside the home if I fancy changing my career and taking a year out studying.

I AM that wife though (lucky DH). So now what?

I want a WIIIIIIIIIFE

I'm interested in the source of the article, Salon mag. I have an American friend who sometimes sends me links to it (the last one had a gushing pro-porn piece based on cutting edge research... wait for it... based on self-selecting responses to the Anne Summers facebook page. Yes, I did point this out to her, and yes, she did curl up with embarrassment at that point). Just did a quick wikipedia search and there's quite a revealing quote from their former editor in chief: "Is Salon more tabloid-like? Yeah, we've made no secret of that. I've said all along that our formula here is that we're a smart tabloid. If by tabloid what you mean is you're trying to reach a popular audience, trying to write topics that are viscerally important to a readership, whether it's the story about the mother in Houston who drowned her five children or the story on the missing intern in Washington, Chandra Levy." So basically, what you're looking at is a Daily-Mail-lite, "friendly face of misogyny" publication peddling the old "Eve's dirty sexual urges were responsible for the fall" myth dressed up in new evo-psych clothing.

I want a First. And the figure I had when I was 20.

the will power to shut this lap top and get on with some work?

and something shiney.

and Pharrell (just stretch him a bit, he's tiiiiiiiiny)

Women are sexual animals, who knew.

Sorry OP what am I missing. Men would love women to be free spirits sexually but for centuries our society has decreed that to raise another man's offspring is to be abhorred and avoided? Nothing earth-shattering there.

I don't know what the author's credentials are or what qualifies him to tell us what we want. Perhaps it's a titillating way of knocking monogamy and scorning the notion of non-sexual intimacy. This publication came out last summer, wasn't he also a fan of a female Viagra? Flagging libido, take a pill.

Surely it can't be that he's revealing that biologically we are as 'up for it' as men, ergo perish the thought we are ever just too tired or bored with our partners - if we put out more we're all winners yaay!

Either way, the article seems to say, that physiologically, we are like the beasts, yet due to cultural and societal norms, we supress this and conform to male strictures.

But that's the whole story of human society, isn't it? People are animals who got smart and live in communities with sophisticated rules that are intended to make it all work. It's not just about women and/or sex, it's pretty much everything in the civilised world. It's why we don't snatch things out of shops and run away, or poke people on the nose when they upset us; or, if we do, why we get in trouble. If we give in to our base animalistic instincts there may be consequences which we all need to weigh before acting.

This study is really saying nothing new at all and I'm only surprised that anyone is surprised.

Oh, and as for the question in the thread title: I'll have a nice cup of tea, thanks.

Salon used to be a far better publication. Iirc. its mission and management have changed quite a bit since its beginnings. They had a talk forum that was full of smart, well-written, well-considered discussions -- only forum I've seen comparable to MN. That's gone now and the articles are pretty poor.

"If we give in to our base animalistic instincts there may be consequences which we all need to weigh before acting."

Yes, this is why I usually visit the barbeque table last for food, otherwise it will only be the potato salad that's left for everyone else; consequences of which could see me banned from all future food gatherings.

FFS, In future I won't bother pointing out anything newly published and will restrain myself to merely infrequently commenting upon the day to day, 'He won't obey me, should I LTB?'' threads.

Lurcio - source, danielbergner.com/ don't worry, I Googled that for you, he's the author of the book, which also featured on the cover of The New York Times Book Review section, so if Salon is too down market for you to recognise, you could try reading about it on there. :)

Anyfucker - I'd LOVE mince pies all year round too.

It's a damn travesty I tell ya

Okay, apologies for having a knee jerk reaction to Salon (it's a bit like seeing a Daily Mail linky as far as I'm concerned, which as you rightly point out is my prejudice rather than the author of the actual books).

The Guardian website has an extract here. I notice he has references to Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's work (which I remember reading 20 odd years ago - she's very good, by the way), so as many people have pointed out upthread this is neither new, nor suprising.

beachside there's no need to throw your toys out of the pram just because people don't share your point of view (what was it, by the way? I just remember you damning us all for not responding to your middle-of-the-night post immediately).

You are posting on a discussion forum after all.

I want to wake up tomorrow morning and be 13 stones lighter. All food calorie/ fat/sugar free.

Hello

Thanks for the reports about this one; the OP was a previously-banned poster so we're sorry to say he won't be able to participate any further, but we think the responses here are worth preserving so we'll leave this thread for now.

oh dear, bye bye beachy

you had one redeeming feature : you liked mince pies < wipes tear from eye >

Buttery minced pies?