237 Reasons For Doing The Deed
It’s been sixty years since the Kinsey report revealed what folks do when they’re doing the deed. Now, studies are focusing less on the process and more on the purpose.
A new study by psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin asked people why they have sex. The answers were somewhat surprising. Sure, the number one reason cited: “I was attracted to the person,” but there were plenty of other less-predictable responses, too.
For instance, headaches and “not tonight, honey” may go together in most people’s minds, but respondents of both sexes said they’d had sex “to get rid of a headache.” They didn’t say whether it worked.
In all, Meston and colleague David Buss catalogued 237 reasons, the most popular of which predictably involved lust and pleasure. But others ranged from “I wanted to feel closer to God” to “I wanted the attention” to “I wanted to keep my partner from straying.”
A few respondents even said they wanted to give someone a sexually transmitted disease.
Oddly enough, “because it feels good” isn’t mentioned in the article at all.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Donna B.s last blog...
The headache thing does work to an extent. Sometimes if I have a migraine when we DO IT, my headache goes away after. But I never do it just to get rid of the migraine.
When I have a migraine, anyone touching me is liable to get their head ripped off. Now cramps, that’s another matter….
I guess it depends which article you read.
I just noticed that your link is to the Houston Chronicle. Here in Houston the only we use it for is to fill the recycle bin. (Okay, I read the comics.)
For me, the headache worsens during sex.
Well, it says “lust and pleasure“; seems like “feels good” is covered there, to me.
Definitely just a reporting issue, too, since “I wanted to experience the physical pleasure” was #2 for women and #3 for men, and “It feels good” was #2 for men and #3 for women, both reporting “I was attracted to them” as #1.
I imagine the report just lumped “physical pleasure” and “feels good” together under “pleasure” and then glossed over it because that’s such an obvious motivator it might not seem newsworthy to a reporter.
Oddly enough, I didn’t see “Because I wanted jewelry” in there.
Trish: Same thing happens to me. Orgasm with a headache feels good at the time but the headache comes back with a vengeance.
…
I figure pleasure was downplayed because, really, who could get a grant to prove that people boink because it’s fun and enjoyable for all involved?