----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Smith" <mjs at smithbowen.net>
> Don’t the Occam’s Razor’ish explanations suffice for explaining
> [men's] fear of female sexuality: we see time and again that males
> of species attempt to control the reproductive activity and choices
> of females.
It seems to me that this argument, if we accept it, probably has the opposite effect to the one we want. ---------
Not claiming expertise, but in my thirty-year experience with men, I would say that what they want when they want sex is sex. I don't believe a single man I have ever had sex with was thinking about children. Not even my ex with whom I was explicit about not using birth control because I wanted to get pregnant.
I think controlling women's sexuality is primarily a way of controlling other men. Sometimes the strategy is to turn women into a scarce resource /status symbol (polygamy), or, with Puritanism, to repress sensual/sexual feeling altogether to stokes a general hysteria that is then appeased through work or violence.
Anyway. I don't believe that men's sexual behavior is motivated by reproductive agendas.
"Incidentally, this postulated male fear of female sexuality seems a little broad-brush and cartoonish. What's with all those chaps out there who, if net.p0rn is to be believed, enjoy seeing their wives bed down with other guys?"
Well, I don't know about the sex with my wife porn. It could be a lot of things:
--repressed homosexuality --ritual humiliation of wife and self --a way of bonding with other men --a way of refreshing waning lust ????
As for why men fear women? I don't know. I notice it more with Americans than Europeans, so I'm going to guess that it's partly related to the general paranoia that obtains in the states.
It could also be a fear that the woman's desire is greater than what the man can satisfy, though really, that's only because guys forget about fingers and mouth.
It could also be because woman is the giver of life and therefore a reminder of mortality.
Joanna