The obvious mythology of "sexual peak"

[jake williams]

There's this story that men reach their "sexual peak" when they're around 18 and women reach theirs when they're about 40. It's all bullshit, and pretty obviously so - if a middle-aged male academic came out saying that the best time for men to have sex is when they're, well, his age, and the best time for women to have sex is when they're teenagers, he'd face at best laughs and at worst disgust. It does happen that academic sexuality is mostly peopled by women, though this is true for reasons which can actually be quite ugly and which I don't want to go into.

What I don't want this to turn into is a suggestion that there's some sort of a feminist conspiracy which controls academic discourse; far from it. While there is a complexity to the power dynamic of women-dominated sections of male-dominated institutions, and while we can't ignore the fact that you can tell by the way they say it and not just basic logic that these academics are usually sexually motivated in their supposed statement of science... this gendered difference in "sexual peaks" seems to be something which is accepted and even reinforced in the dominant, ie. patriarchal, society.

Why is this? It's an interesting question. A few interesting thoughts come up. For one, this reinforces the notion of the sexless, innocent, "clean" teenage girl - in some ways an ironically sexualized (and naturally false) idealization of adolescent female sexuality. There is also the partial truth to it, which I think is a consequence of the fact that men are earlier and more extensively allowed to be sexual, and to develop sexuality, and hence are more able to do so earlier than females (of course in general, anything I say about sexuality is going to be in general). But even that I have doubts about.

Thoughts?

[TC]

Eh, it may be a biological myth but it could be a social reality in this sense: teenage girls sexuality is controlled by their parents and social shame, by the time they reach their thirties they're more likely to have achieved the social status necessary to be autonomous. Males however face less constraints so they can follow a more natural trend.

Alternatively, maybe its just a myth based on the patriarchal presumption of 'innocence' and sexual vulnerability of teenage girls and the idea that their sexuality is unnatural then, in contrast to the social acceptability and in fact, encouragement, of female sexuality within the confines of marriage (among an older cohert) when their sexuality belongs to one patriach instead of as a social tool for the (young) woman herself.

Both of these explanations however need not be in conflict, instead they might both serve to reinforce the same myth as he first explanation would apply to professional, managerial and working class women and the latter to domestic servant/housewife class women.

[jake williams]

Eh, it may be a biological myth but it could be a social reality in this sense: teenage girls sexuality is controlled by their parents and social shame, by the time they reach their thirties they're more likely to have achieved the social status necessary to be autonomous. Males however face less constraints so they can follow a more natural trend.

Alternatively, maybe its just a myth based on the patriarchal presumption of 'innocence' and sexual vulnerability of teenage girls and the idea that their sexuality is unnatural then, in contrast to the social acceptability and in fact, encouragement, of female sexuality within the confines of marriage (among an older cohert) when their sexuality belongs to one patriach instead of as a social tool for the (young) woman herself.

Both of these explanations however need not be in conflict, instead they might both serve to reinforce the same myth as he first explanation would apply to professional, managerial and working class women and the latter to domestic servant/housewife class women.
Yeah. That's more or less what I meant.

[Dust Bunnies]

I would think hormones and stuff during Puberty would bring a peak of sexual want.

[Glenn Beck]

The whole reason for this idea is because of the relatively new social phenomenon of middle class professional women who have been superficially liberated into a petit-bourgeois lifestyle but whose lives are still shaped by patriarchal assumptions. Just watch Sex and the City, it's like a sociological case study of this kind of lifestyle. And TC is as usual right about the differences in standards of behavior and social tendencies for privileged and working-class women. Conservative ideologues never shut up about their theories that adolescent sex, promiscuity, and unmarried births create poverty whilst chastity and marriage create middle class bliss. They are obviously putting the cart before the horse when they read the statistical data that shows this correlation.:rolleyes:

As for there being an actual biological difference between the ages during which men and women are most sexually active, sure I guess its plausible, but I don't know or care until I'm an old guy that has to fight off all the ladies with my cane. I'm not holding my breath. But that would be a great plot for a vampire horror-comedy B-movie wouldn't it? Or a niche porno I guess

[ev]

I suspect that these "statistics" are influenced by social culture, it is a myth, social>biology in my opinion.

[stalinspenis]

Men reach their hormonal peak at around 18 and their sexual peak in their mid 20's. Women reach their hormonal peak in their late 20's and sexual peak in their mid 30's. This does not mean however that we men can't get an erection when we're 30 but that we aren't like a bunch of horny adolescent jack rabbits. As for as I'm concerned it is a biological and scientific fact, not a sexist rumor. Just like how women ON AVERAGE live longer and are shorter than men.

[jake williams]

Men reach their hormonal peak at around 18 and their sexual peak in their mid 20's. Women reach their hormonal peak in their late 20's and sexual peak in their mid 30's. This does not mean however that we men can't get an erection when we're 30 but that we aren't like a bunch of horny adolescent jack rabbits. As for as I'm concerned it is a biological and scientific fact, not a sexist rumor. Just like how women ON AVERAGE live longer and are shorter than men.
It's a strange first post, but I think it's also bull.