Jake Young is a 
"Comparing sexual arousal between men and women, we see that there is no difference in the amount of time it takes healthy young men and women to reach peak arousal," said Dr. Irv Binik, psychology professor and founder and director of the Sex and Couple Therapy Service of Royal Victoria Hospital, which is part of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).Thermal imaging, or thermography, is infrared imaging using thermographic cameras that detect radiation emitted by objects based on their temperature. Because of its usefulness in detecting warm objects in the dark, most people know it as the technology used in night vision goggles for military operations.
Previously, sex researchers have measured arousal with instruments that require genital contact and manipulation. Binik focused thermographic cameras on his subjects' genitals while they watched a montage of material from pornography to horror movies to The Best of Mr. Bean to Canadian tourism travelogues to provide a base of control data. During the arousal experiment, the male and female subjects watched separate sexually explicit films procured from the Kinsey Institute and determined to be sexually arousing to specific genders. They watched the images through special video goggles to minimize distractions.
As the subjects responded, the Binik team monitored body-temperature changes to within a 100th of a degree from a computer in another room. Both the men and the women began showing arousal within 30 seconds. The men reached maximal arousal in 664.6 seconds (roughly ten minutes), the women in 743 seconds - a statistically negligible difference. (Emphasis mine.)
So the next time it ain't happening, I guess that means we are just bad at it. No more using that "Women are tough!" crutch anymore.
Comments
No more using that "Women are tough!" crutch anymore.
Actually, from the brief excerpt, this doesn't follow. Specifically, the videos the different sexes watched were different, as males get aroused by different types of video than females do. Females are more into atmosphere, emotion, etc., whereas guys can get aroused by watching a close-up of no-frills pounding. I've been to a gay club a few times, and apparently gay male porn is the same in this regard (they show it on TV screens out in the open, in Barcelona at least).
Guys still could be doing something wrong, but it would be due to sex differences -- guys might mistakenly think that aforementioned no-frills pounding would appeal to females, and might be surprised when they discover it doesn't do much for them.
As an aside, you know that sex difference denial is getting desperate when the headline reads "Thermal imaging shatters arousal gender gap myth." Yeah, you know -- that myth so omnipresent that it requires shattering, that women take longer to reach peak arousal once they get going. Everyone's heard of that one! Next non-sequitur headline: "Opthamologist shatters dual-eyed gender gap myth."
Posted by: Agnostic | October 2, 2006 12:51 PM
Another application of the basic research: an easy way to tell if that guy/girl is into you or not -- just wear nightvision goggles.
Posted by: Agnostic | October 2, 2006 12:57 PM
Umm, the stereotype of guys being ready to go at the drop of a bra strap while women take their time "getting in the mood" is near-universal, Agnostic. No one is denying that the sexes differ in their porn preferences, or might prefer somewhat different approaches to sexual engagement. But unless your goal is just quick release, understanding your partner's preferences is important. Jake's point seems to be that you no longer can blame innately slow arousal when the scene fails -- the study supports the hypothesis that the stereotypical slow arousal is a myth. That doesn't eliminate other social factors.
Posted by: idlemind | October 3, 2006 3:48 PM
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Posted by: chandra sekhar | April 4, 2007 3:15 AM