Understanding the Sex Drive of Men and Women

Youn, Gahyun

Abstract

Human behaviors are related to either life or death instincts. A sexual instinct or sex drive is an indispensable element to both procreation and recreation. Instead of enjoying sexual expression to the full, people control or suppress the sexual expression only inside their conjugal relations as they were educated or cultivated. However, the suppression of sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratification. In other words, people want more sexual expression as a reaction against suppression. Due to suppression, the strength of the sexual instinct probably varies in each individual. In the traditional society, the sexual instinct is very powerful in men and comparatively weak in women. Both social constructionism and essentialism are rival approaches to the gender differences, but Baumeister introduced four theories about cultural suppression of female sexuality. According to him, most research findings fit the female conspiracy theory a little better than the other theories. While Baumeister pointed out that a woman's sex drive naturally fluctuates over the years, he proposed that the female drive is more malleable than the male drive in response to socio-cultural and situational factors.