Thought Theater

Battle Of The Sexes: Daddy Knows Best genre: Six Degrees of Speculation & Uncivil Unions

I thought this was an interesting article in light of the new South Dakota law virtually eliminating a woman's right to reproductive decisions along with the growing promotion of "Father-Daughter Purity Balls" whereby young girls pledge to their fathers to remain virgins until marriage. Strangely, boys aren't treated similarly...there are no ceremonies whereby boys pledge purity to their mothers. Digby has details here...(More Purity Ball) and PZ Meyers comments further here.

I've yet to understand these fathers preoccupation with their daughter's sexuality such that the father feels the need to elicit a virginity pledge. The whole thing gives me the creeps. I tend to think fathers ought to teach daughters to be thoughtful, independent, and self-confident...but then it may be possible that these fathers see marriage as a ceremony whereby they hand off ownership of their daughter's sexuality to another man. Sick and twisted!

The study seems to indicate that inequality may be detrimental to relationships. Read the article on the study below:

CHICAGO (AP): Japan can't get no satisfaction. But Austria's mojo is working. Sex is more satisfying in countries where women and men are considered equal, according to an international study of people aged between 40 and 80 by the University of Chicago.

Austria, where 71 per cent of those surveyed reported being satisfied with their sex lives, topped the list of 29 nations studied.

Spain, Canada, Belgium and the US also reported high rates of sexual satisfaction, ahead of Australia, in sixth.

The lowest satisfaction rate, 25.7 per cent, was in Japan.

Sociologist Edward Laumann, who led the study, believes the findings show relationships based on equality lead to more satisfaction for women, which leads to more satisfaction for men.

"Male-centred cultures where sexual behaviour is more oriented toward procreation tend to discount the importance of sexual pleasure for women," he said.

The study, which appears in this month's issue of the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, was funded by Pfizer, which makes the impotence drug Viagra.

Researchers surveyed 27,500 people by phone, in person or by mail, depending on local practices. The different ways of questioning people was one of the study's limitations, the researchers noted.