The hypothesis that rape is a hardwired human behavior is not a new one, and it remains controversial. One new take on the situation, though, is the hypothesis that women have evolved to protect themselves from rapists. At first glance, this is an interesting idea–but sadly, it relies on fragmentary evidence and misogynistic premises. First, the author’s narrow definition of rape as “the use of force, or threat of force, to achieve penile-vaginal penetration of a woman without her consent” ignores the spectrum of sexual assault that does not involve intercourse, and which is no less damaging to a woman (whether we’re talking emotionally, psychologically, or in terms of her reproductive worth or ability to select a mate, as this author seems most interested in the Darwinian effects of rape). The author, to his credit, acknowledges that studying the history of rape in human evolution is not the same as condoning the behavior… Continue Reading →
science!
Recent posts
Interpreting Studies On The “Slut Gene”
The media has dubbed a certain gene, DRD4, the “slut gene,” interpreting limited scientific evidence to claim that this single gene is responsible for certain people’s inclinations to have lots of sex (especially if it’s adulterous sex). One neuroscientist questions these claims, explaining why trying to trace complex human behavior to a single gene is difficult and far-fetched at best. Continue Reading →
Sixth Sense For Couples?
Just when I thought I was done talking about how your partner can’t read your mind, science had to go and say that in some ways they can. It isn’t exactly mind reading or telepathy though. They have found that in many cases, people who are very close with each other start exhibiting the same brain activity. This synchronicity of their nervous systems helps them understand each other better. I wouldn’t give up on talking just yet though. Continue Reading →
Porn, Addiction, And The Brain: Neuroscientists Weigh In
When Dan Savage and our own Debby Herbenick discussed porn addiction, among other fascinating sex topics, they agreed that porn addiction is not, in fact, an actual addiction (meaning there is no physical component making one become addicted to porn, though it can become a compulsion). An essay by a neuroscientist evaluating scholarship on the topic backs up their claim, stating that there is no peer-reviewed scientific work proving that porn addiction occurs at the chemical level in the brain. The differences between an addiction and a compulsion may be slight, but hopefully more research is forthcoming. Continue Reading →
Linking Fellatio and Cancer Risk: Sex Science Or Satire?
This “study” claims to have found that heterosexual men fellated by gay men had a lower risk of prostate and testicular cancer… or did they? Follow the link for an entertaining, but untrue, account of this research. Some people, when coming across the study, spread it across the internet as it if were true. Some clues to the study’s phoniness include the head researcher’s claim to be a test subject himself, the made-up term “innate body resonance,” and the study’s tangled sense of causality–not to mention how difficult it would be to get a university board to approve and then fund the study! (Or how difficult or unethical it would be to recruit a bunch of men to receive oral sex from other men who may be strangers to them.) These are just a few things to keep in mind if you want to critically read and evaluate the claims of sex research for yourself. Continue Reading →
Learning New Things Almost As Good As Sex?
A study that doled out water – and also information about the water – to monkeys and studied their responses found that learning can release dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter. The act of seeking out new knowledge thus appears to be programmed into primate brains, stimulating the same pleasure-centers as sex can. If experiences of learning and sex might be cognitively linked, one can only wonder what special joys learning about sex yields! This research complements work by Dr. Arthur Aron and his team that has found that couples who spend time doing new/exciting things together, rather than the same-old stuff, on date night, tend to be more in love and more satisfied with their relationships. Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Sperm Killing Laptops
A new study recently published in the journal Fertility and Sterility studied lap top usage in men and scrotal temperature. It found that even using a laptop for 10-15 minutes raised the temperature of men’s scrotums to an unsafe range for sperm production. Laptop pads placed between the man’s goods and the computer didn’t seem to have much of an effect either. Continue Reading →
Birth Control Gel
Hormonal birth control comes in many forms: pills, rings, patches, and shots. And now scientists are researching a possible gel containing hormones that would be absorbed when a woman rubbed it on her skin. So far, the sample size has been small with just 18 women, but the results have been good. However, I’m already feeling a bit skeptical as all the articles I’ve read have pretty much touted this form of birth control to be a wonder drug. There have been no allergic reactions to the gel, none of the women in the study have become pregnant, and there seem to be none of the common side effects associated with other hormonal birth control methods such as weight gain, lower sex drive, and acne. Continue Reading →
Why Calling Someone Out On Sexist Language Might Actually Work
Okay, by “someone” I meant “men,” but they were the subjects of a recent scientific study in which college-aged males were confronted on their use of sexist language. After being accused of using sexist language by a female conversation partner, many men went on to display compensatory social behaviors that indicated increasingly cordial feelings with their female conversation partners. These results are admittedly preliminary, but encouraging given the high incidence of sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as the prevalence of unintended, unconscious sexism in language and attitudes (among both men and women, to be fair). Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Chromosomes And Other Aspects Of Reproductive Sex
Scientists at UC Berkeley are studying how sex chromosomes in animals can yield information about the reproductive history of a species. From fruit flies (one of the most popular case studies) to emus, each species differentiates chromosomes and assigns genetic information to those chromosomes in a particular way. For instance, the XY pair of sex chromosomes we’re used to discussing in humans is not present in the sexual differentiation of every species. Ideally, comparing animal sex chromosomes across a wide variety of species will help us learn more about the purpose of biological sex. Continue Reading →