I’ve noticed, through the years of reading Twisty Faster’s hilarious blog, that we are periodically inflicted with scientific studies about sex that are hopelessly biased and constructed around misogynistic premisses, like “Why are women so dumb?” or “Why won’t teh women fucks us a lot likes we wants to feck them, huh? Huh?”
Lately I’ve been perusing the Science Daily site, so I decided to look at some of the recent sex studies. They were all quite stupid, as usual, and I finally noticed why, because seeing a bunch of them together revealed a universal weakness that struck me instantly. Most of them were studies of arousal based on responses to porn.
I’m a man, so it’s not at all difficult for me to imagine the high level of sniggering and wisecracking that passes for science when these pornsick pervs are postulating their theories. “God, bisexual bitches are so hot! Let’s study them.” says lead scientist Misogynist Mike. “But are there enough sufficiently hot bi-sexual bitches out there for us to study?” asks his colleague, Pornsick Pat. “There seems to be a mysterious paucity of pornified bimbos out there willing to perform hot three-ways with their girlfriends, if my own experience is any indication.”
“I’ve got it,” says supergenius Misogynist Mike, chest swelling with virility and male pride, “Let’s do a study where we show hot lesbo porn and hot straight porn to a bunch of girls and see how many of them show arousal at both!” And a study was born, of the desires and porn-centric worldview of a few academic creeps.
What about some studies that show that all our ideas about arousal come from porn? We are taught, from birth, that arousal is created by superficial and artificial emphasis on graphic representations of women who never existed becoming aroused and doing things that indicate an almost insane need for them to debase themselves in order to achieve sexual satisfaction that could come from far simpler sources. Why not some studies that examine why sex with dignity and love is actually not arousing, while sex that is degrading is? And how did we learn to be aroused at what arouses us?
I used to argue that arousal causes male behavior, but feminist theory has opened my eyes to the far more fundamental question: What teaches us to be aroused by what?
I have to also add that sexual arousal seems to be like a Pandora’s Box, where, once you have learned something arouses you, you can’t really ever completely deny this arousal ever again.
Male sexuality, according to studies, is less bisexual than female. The explanation that comes to my mind is simple and probably difficult to disprove: Women are exposed to tons of lesbian pornography if they are straight, whereas men rarely even see gay porn. Where are the studies that show us how men who repeatedly view gay porn think of sex?
A world where our girlfriends constantly badger us into looking at gay and straight porn mixed together doesn’t exist for men. If it did, I think some studies could clear up this particular difference between the sexes quickly.
Shiny | 09-Apr-08 at 8:34 pm | Permalink
“Why not some studies that examine why sex with dignity and love is actually not arousing, while sex that is degrading is? And how did we learn to be aroused at what arouses us?”
Arousal is BIG business (seriously, you can’t get away from it — read, watch, listen to any media and there will be something deliberately placed in there to get you excited), and making people dissatisfied with their lives is so much easier when they are concerned primarily with the physical and superficial.
“Male sexuality, according to studies, is less bisexual than female.”
Women are physiologically aroused by a great many things, but arousal has a much lower correlation to sexual desire for women than it does for men. Our highly sexualized society has made it so that every contact with another person is cast in this context. It’s like we only relate to each other on a sexual level. Women cannot hug and kiss their friends nor can a man and woman casually converse without calling it flirting. I really cannot understand our culture’s preoccupation with sex except as a conditioned response; the world is too rich and complex to find so much excitement in one subject.
Lars L. | 21-Apr-08 at 4:29 am | Permalink
I believe that your onto something in that the “lesbian” culture and “bi sexual” culture has been promoted very much by male sexuality, with this sort of sexual “culture” I offcourse mean the male version of it wich never are quite fullfilled unless someone enters with a phallic object that can make women swoon with desire etc.
Secondly I believe that there is a stigma following any true bisexual or gay as our present culture is shaped, hollywood, or the porn industry, does’nt want for reality, they want for the dreams that shape our culture, they cater to the dominant aspect of culture to sell itself, wich in turn re-inforces the dominant sexual view.
Anything other, is shunned, and in case of homosexual men, directly harrashed, typically by using phrases that for men would be an insult, namedly to call them “weak, girly etc.”
Funny, that many of these insults are supposed to be compliments when handed to women then, eh?
Or sad.
Anyway, I do believe that we could use some true research into this field, not to study porn, but to study what makes people tick as in a way to research the general trends in society and how its undermined or supported by the mass media.
Take for example the commercials for the energy drink “Cult”
http://www.massekommunikation.dk/cases/cult/shakerdame.jpg
http://www.massekommunikation.dk/cases/cult/shakermand.jpg
These pictures have been shown a lot on danish bustop posters, is there any wonder that there where complaints on those? I think not, the sad thing is how many disregarded the critism as “just some feminist rubbish”
To put this into context, the above link to the picture of the girl where heavedly protested against for being sexistic and where eventually pulled down, however, the picture of the man where even more protested, by both genders, that it garnered so much more protest shows quite a bit on our view of sexuality, and what type of sexuality is “allowed”.
…not that the commercials have been improved since the above pictures where banned, now they have another skimpy clad bleached female with her breasts baredly covered by hair, and the text “i’ll do anything” instead.
I find that even worse to be completly honest, but hey, our culture are appearently one where sex sex sex and more sex is the main focus, and everything else, like a good discussion with a female friend is outlawed it its not sexually loaded.
…Thankfully there still exists intelligent women, and men, who can talk withouth it needing to be about sex.