Posted on 03/30/2006 9:36:04 PM PST by MadIvan
Samantha of Sex and the City, it is fair to say, would not approve. The casual attitude to sexual relations embraced by the most liberated of the characters in the television series turns out not to reflect the views of 21st century women quite as well as widely imagined.
Researchers investigating female attitudes to sex and their sexuality were surprised to find that most women have rather more traditional, conservative views on one-night stands than they expected.
Around nine out of 10 of those questioned felt casual sex was immoral and that those women who engaged in it were not doing so primarily for pleasure.
They said they felt sorry for women who had one-night stands, that they were lacking something in their lives and if they had not simply lost control through drink and drugs they were seeking emotional rather than physical connection.
Dr Sharron Hinchcliffe, a psychologist from the University of Sheffield, presented her findings at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society in Cardiff yesterday.
Dr Hinchcliffe said: "Our results did not fit in with the image we have of today's independent woman who can go out and get sexual fulfilment without the ties of a relationship.
"There was a view that if women had one-night stands they were doing it for reasons other than their own pleasure, more out of a feeling of being desperate, needy or looking for something, or that they had lost control through drink or drugs.
"They said they did it for reasons that were different to those of women in relationships - which they said were for pleasure and to express their love for their partner. They defined it as deviant behaviour.
"They referred to the women as emulating male behaviour. It was certainly the view that it was not the way women should behave.
"Some of the respondents said these things even though they admitted they had had one-night stands themselves. I was surprised at how judgmental they were.
"It makes me question whether women have really gained all the sexual freedom they are supposed to have gained since the Sixties."
Dr Hinchcliffe and colleagues carried out in-depth interviews with 46 women selected from the electoral roll aged 23 to 83, with an average age of 48.
Around 10 per cent of the sample disagreed with the majority view of "no strings" sex as immoral. Dr Hinchcliffe said that if anything the women in their early thirties were more negative about one-night stands than those of women in their fifties.
Some of the participants also expressed concerns about women having casual sex exposing themselves to sexually transmitted disease.
A survey of 1,095 men and women carried out on behalf of Amnesty International UK and published in November found that more than a third of people believed a female rape victim was totally or partially responsible if she had behaved in a flirtatious manner with her attacker.
Dr Tuppy Owens, of the Sexual Freedom Coalition, a group that campaigns for sexual freedom between consenting adults, said: "I don't like the expression 'one-night stand'.
"Two people just banging away at each other can be pretty meaningless and an empty experience, unless there is some passion, care and feeling towards the other person. However, if you go out wondering what might happen, ready to give as well as receive, you might have the most wonderful adventure.
"Perhaps if they had asked the questions in a different way they would have got different answers."
Norman Wells, the director of Family and Youth Concern, said: "It shows that most women are seeking more than the fleeting gratification that temporary sexual relationships can offer.
"Sexual intimacy was never meant to be engaged in outside the context of lifelong union between one man and one woman.
"By divorcing sex from marriage in our thinking and in the sexual education given to children and young people, we are promoting something that runs contrary to our basic longings for stability, permanence and commitment."
Well, maybe "we" should get out of the ivory tower and live in reality. The findings don't surprise me at all.
You're hanging out at the wrong churches. I don't even know any woman like that. Heck, I don't even know anybody who smokes anymore.
EIther of you have some duct tape I can use?
The side of my head just exploded from your comments, and I'd like to tape it back together temporarily until I can seek medical attention.
I'd like you to send your charming comments to all the FReepers here who have adult aged daughters who are single and see what they all have to say. Better yet, why not send those charming comments to the husbands and children of these so-called sluts and unfit mothers and wives. Tell those people what you REALLY think about the American women in their lives! I mean, they have a right to know how rotten most women are and how they're polluting everyone else's life, right? You're actually doing them a favor, really. /s
Shame on you both for your ignorance and your knee-jerk, comments that are without merit. Shut off your tvs and get a life.
Oh, and for good measure:
"American MEN are (in general) chain smoking narcissistic pigs who are completely unsuitable for a role as a husband or a father. There are exceptions, but they are increasingly rare."
You gotta get out of New York more often, I guess.
So they've discovered that most women don't want to be raging sluts, unrepentent whores, or mindless tarts. This kind of knowledge goes under the same file as "water is wet" and "the sun returns, but on the other side of the horizon." When I read an article like this I really believe that my great-great-grandchildren will regard our society as populated by literate yet somehow clueless morons with powerful technology.
I would argue that every person (in both genders) has two sets of competing goals that don't always both lead them to the same partner.
in addition to that, no matter how good one person is to you, they can't offer you variety.
that said, I'd love to have a high level of contentment with one person. constant excitement? maybe too much to ask, but I'm still trying to find it...
"It makes me question whether women have really gained all the sexual freedom they are supposed to have gained since the Sixties."
Yeah they have, the freedom to say NO.
Good! And notice that the women in their 30s were more "judgemental" [sic] than those in their 50s.
Around nine out of 10 of those questioned felt casual sex was immoral
I am supprised but I like the results.
Around nine out of 10 of those questioned felt casual sex was immoral
I am supprised but I like the results.
Ever see how the young women behave on spring break?
Watch some MTV and you'll see.
Would you be proud if your daughter behaved like that?
That seems to be the norm for young women these days.
Ever see how many young unmarried women there are with children? Mostly on welfare. How did that happen? All by rape? I don't think so.
This article is in the UK. Not American women.
And if this statistic applies to American women... how is it that I keep winding up with the 10%?
You think MTV is real life? Please.
Hear hear.
I usually find that those men who have a negative attitude towards women are not actually promising boyfriend or husband material and are looking for a mommy and not a partner.
I have never had any problems with women, but then I find a little politeness and consideration goes a long way.
And before I get a load of male freepers telling me that the feminists don't want us to be polite.
I have never had a women get mad at me for opening the door for her, pulling out her seat for her to sit down, or giving up my seat for her on a train or bus.
I have even made the women on the checkout at the super market smile.
Why would men look at that and think of these young women as moral and chaste?
There are more and more very young women having their breasts enlarged by surgery with Mom's blessing. What kind of madness is that and what message is that sending to young women?
A society is only as moral as its women.
Our young women shack up with men, by the millions, and single women give birth to a shocking percentage of babies in America. There is not even a stigma against living together before marriage.
Our ministers should be condemning this behavior from their pulpits but they dare not. They'd empty half of their pews of those living in such sin.
It is hard to look at all this and NOT conclude our young women are sluts.
The proof is everywhere.
But a "BAD Girl" can be oh so fun....
What complete and utter rubbish, men have a equal responsibility as well.
And your use of the word slut to describe those women you disapprove of, how offensive is that.
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