JOLLY DAYS

Desire

Leading the way in NYT articles that are getting longer and longer, with less and less grist, Natalie Angier's article on studies about the keys to sexual desire has some interesting factoids mixed with the numbingly obvious:

For example, 93 to 96 percent of the 655 [female] respondents strongly endorsed statements that linked sexual arousal to “feeling connected to” or “loved by” a partner, and to the belief that the partner is “really interested in me as a person”; they also concurred that they have trouble getting excited when they are “feeling unattractive.”

More of interest, Angier cites studies that indicate a reversal of conventional ideas:

A plethora of new findings, however, suggest that the experience of desire may be less a forerunner to sex than an afterthought, the cognitive overlay that the brain gives to the sensation of already having been aroused by some sort of physical or subliminal stimulus — a brush on the back of the neck….

Angier says that studies indicate that…

…with women, there’s a discrepancy between stated preference and physiological arousal, and this discrepancy has been seen consistently across studies.

There are some funny insights as well. Women scope the rags when shown sexually oriented material:

We got spontaneous reports from the women that we never got from the males, comments like “I would have liked the photos better if the people didn’t have those ridiculous ‘70s hairstyles”