sock puppet wrote:Hi, just me,
I am finding this line of discussion quite interesting (as I always did your old avatar--I miss it).
Do you mean sparkly Ariel? I lost her when I got a new computer. So sad.
It seems that the same, visual stimuli arouses males both physically and mentally.
It seems that the visual stimuli arouses females physically, but perhaps not mentally.
It might be better to say that it does not arouse them emotionally. Like you pointed out the brain is involved. I am not sure if that helps or not.
When it comes to sexual arousal, I think the dichotomy between mental and physical might be an artificial one. That is, to arouse the body, the porn images enter the brain through the senses of sight and hearing. Via the brain processing that visual and audio stimuli, the physical body arousal was triggered.
So the question boils down a bit as to why did the males report feeling aroused when their bodies were aroused, but the females did not report feeling aroused despite their bodies being aroused?
This is complicated by the overlay of the arousal women report from reading romance novels, but deny from seeing suggestive pictures. Could this be that that females see the women in suggestive pictures as threatening competitors for the male's affections? Even though no males were present during the testing, they reported not being aroused from seeing the porn.
I really wish that study had given the people questionaires before and after the viewing. If they did, I wish they had mentioned it. I would have liked them to ask the people their beliefs and attitudes about sex, how often they engage in sexual activity, masturbation, etc. It would have been helpful, in my opinion.
I am not aware of studies where females rely on verbal over pictorial (to a greater extent than males) in other aspects of life than sex. (As a male, I must ask, are there aspects of life other than sex? At the end of The Science of Lust, Vlad the scientist seemed to suggest there might not be.)
I'm not either. However, what might come in to play more here is the POV from which the depiction is shown. I'm just guessing that lots of porn is more from a male perspective. I think emotional connections can be shown visually. The more I think about it the more I am wondering if you are correct, that the women claimed to be less turned-on due to porn prejudice. Like I said, I really wish they had asked these people about their beliefs and attitudes!
As far as I can tell they showed a hetero couple engaged in "normal" sexual activities.
The thing is, being turned-on by porn isn't the same as being turned-on by a person. Just because a woman in physically aroused doesn't mean she is going to desire partnered sex. So, while this study may help us see that women are aroused by watching sex just like men are I do not see how it helps partners.
I also believe that you can be turned-on and feel yucky or bad about a set of stimuli. If a woman is turned-on by porn but then feels nasty and gross about it I don't see it as beneficial to her. I don't think that can all be accounted for by religious or cultural guilt either.
It very well could be that our sexuality impacts every aspect of our life....and that every aspect of our life impacts our sexuality. I think that what is going on in a woman's life tends to impact her sexual desire in a big way. That is what studies tell us and we see it in our lives.
I think it was interesting how they showed men performed better after having a conversation with a woman. I think that a lot of women can attest that their husband performs better in his life when he is having regular sex. It would have been interesting to see the same test reversed.
I suppose I'm just trying to 'drill down further' on this topic (pun intended). Seriously, I would like to read more of what you have to say about why you think that romance novels have more of an effect on women's arousal than men's. Do you know of any studies of female arousal in more primitive cultures, where verbal communication is less than in 'civilized' parts of the world?
Romance novels are usually from the woman's POV. They create an emotional connection and they tend to play out female fantasies.
Here is a really good article about the differences between the male and female libido:
http://www.webmd.com/sex/features/sex-d ... en-compareSince women's libido is heavily influenced by social and cultural factors I am sure that there is going to be differences when we look at tribal cultures. We should also remember that the expectations are varied as well.
