Sexual arousal. Research on
differences in sexual arousal patterns in men and women.
Interesting facts on sexual arousal.
It seems to be obvious that gay men overwhelmingly become
sexually aroused by images of men and heterosexual men by images
of women. That I to say, men's sexual arousal patterns are
obvious and clear.
However, according to the findings of a new study shows a
surprisingly different patterns in women's sexual arousal.
Unlike men, both heterosexual and lesbian women often become
sexually aroused by both male and female image. That is to say,
they have a bisexual nature.
As J. Michael Bailey, professor and chair of psychology at
Northwestern and senior researcher of the study explained:
"Findings of this research represent an essential difference
between men's and women's sexual arousal patterns and have
important implications for understanding how sexual orientation
development differs between men and women." The research is
discussed in the journal “Psychological Science”.
Main research focus has been put on the genetics and environment
of sexual orientation. Prof. Bailey is one of the principal
investigators of a widely known study, claiming that genes are
responsible for male homosexuality.
Research on women's sexual arousal patterns has lagged far
behind men's, as in many areas of sexuality, but the scant
research on the subject does hint that, women's sexual arousal
patterns may be less tightly connected to their sexual
orientation if compared to men.
The Northwestern researchers measured the psychological and
physiological sexual arousal in homosexual and heterosexual men
and women as they watched erotic films. As with previous
research, the researchers found that men responded consistent
with their sexual orientations. There were 3 types of erotic
films: those featuring only men, those featuring only women and
those featuring male and female couples. In contrast, both
homosexual and heterosexual women showed a bisexual pattern of
psychological as well as genital arousal. That is, even though
they prefer having sex with men rather than women, heterosexual
women were just as sexually aroused by watching female stimuli
as by watching male stimuli.
Meredith Chivers, the study's first author says: "Actually, the
majority of women in contemporary Western societies have sex
exclusively with men. However, this study scientifically
demonstrates that women's sexuality is very different from men's
as I have long suspected."
The study's results mesh with current research showing that
women's sexuality demonstrates increased flexibility relative to
men in other areas besides sexual orientation, according to
Chivers.
She also emphasized that if compiled, these results suggest that
women's sexuality differs from men and point out the need for
researchers to research the female sexuality independently from
male sexuality.
"Since most women seem capable of sexual arousal to both sexes,
why do they choose one or the other?" Bailey asked. "Probably
for reasons other than sexual arousal."
Usually, men experience genital
arousal and psychological sexual arousal when they watch films
depicting their preferred sex, but not when they watch films
depicting the other sex. Men's specific pattern of sexual
arousal is such a reliable fact that genital arousal can be used
to assess men's sexual preferences. Even gay men who deny their
own homosexuality will become more sexually aroused by male
sexual stimuli than by female stimuli.
It has been known since the early 60s that homosexual and
heterosexual men respond in specific but opposite ways to sexual
stimuli depicting men and women. Films provoke the greatest
sexual response, and films of men having sex with men or of
women having sex with women provoke the largest differences
between homosexual and heterosexual men. That is because the
same-sex films offer clear-cut results, whereas watching
heterosexual sex could be exciting to both homosexual and
heterosexual men, but for different reasons.
In contrast, women's sexual arousal patterns are not all
predicted by their sexual orientations. That is because men's
and women's minds and sexuality are completely different and are
to be studied separately.
