Who Knew? Promiscuity Differs By Sexual Taste

That sporty women report more sexual partners – on average of course – than the non-sporty isn’t all that much of a surprise. Sporting women is a euphemism after all. As the researchers note, it might just be getting out of the house and meeting people that does it. No, that’s not an excuse for Taliban-like cloistering of women. That non-surprise explains a possibly apocryphal Irish result from the pub smoking ban – STD rates went up.

The supposition being that before the ban you sat with your mates and had a drink and a smoke and a laugh etc. With the ban it’s necessary to get up every 20 minutes and go outside for a puff or two. This increases the circle of people you have a chat and a laugh with – increasing the size of the sexual network.

This other finding though, this does surprise a little:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] While 21.1 per cent of straight men claimed to have slept with at least 10 partners, among straight women the figure was 6.8 per cent. Meanwhile, 84 per cent of gay men said they had slept with at least 10 partners, as did 33 per cent of bisexual men. And 28.9 per cent of bisexual women, and 14.3 per cent of lesbians said they had slept with at least ten partners, the study, published in BMJ sexual and reproductive health found. [/perfectpullquote]

That gay men are more promiscuous that hetero is no surprise. That – oft and on average, obviously – quoted male sexuality is limited by female agreement to it and not when the object of desire is another man with that same male sexual drive. The surprise comes with the numbers for lesbians, being more promiscuous than hetero women. From a limited reading of the literature that’s not what is normally found at all.