Sex in the USA - Spotlight Online

UNITED STATES
oody Allen spoke for America when he said,
“Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences
go, it’s pretty damn good.” Allen may not be
much of a sex symbol himself, but his films
— like Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex
(but Were Afraid to Ask) — say a lot about how Americans
see the act. We can be prudish about it: after all, society
says sex is supposed to go hand-in-hand with love and
marriage. Yet America’s strong tradition of sex research
reveals a great interest in understanding sex better, despite
any cultural inhibitions.
Sex research really took off in the U.S. with the work of
Alfred Kinsey, whose famous books on the subject came
out in the years after World War II. In the 1960s, William
Masters and Virginia Johnson told us that orgasms were
good for our health, and Alex Comfort provided illustrations on how to have them in his 1972 book The Joy of
Sex. Shere Hite’s special focus in the 1970s was the female
orgasm, with researchers like Beverly Whipple establishing
the existence of the G-spot and, in the 1980s and 90s, the
idea that some women can even think themselves to orgasm.
After all that information, what’s left to study in the 21st
century? Plenty, scientists say. Read on to learn what American scientists have found out about the things that attract
us to each other, the power a kiss can have, and the way to
stay in love for a lifetime.
W
Die einst unergründlichen Wege der menschlichen Sexualität lassen Forscher nicht mehr
im Dunkeln tappen. Neue amerikanische Untersuchungen werfen Licht auf die unbekannten
Tiefen des Gefühlsraums. CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF berichtet.
medium
US
plus
Sex
in the USA
in the USA
Gonna make you sweat
Some women love a man doused in cologne. But the idea
that all women want Tom Selleck circa 1982 — shirt open
to the navel and wearing perfume you can smell from 20
meters away — is misleading, researchers say.
A team of psychologists in Texas found out earlier this
year that women might like a man better if they could smell
the real thing. It’s not as bad as it sounds, says Dr. Denise
absorbent [Pb÷zÊ*rbPnt]
aphrodisiac [=æfrP÷dâziæk]
armpit [÷G*rmpât]
conclude [kPn÷klu*d]
convey sth. [kPn÷veâ]
doused in: be ~ sth. [÷daŸst ân]
findings [÷faândâÑz]
fMRI [=ef em G*r ÷aâ]
inhibition [=ânhâ÷bâÜPn]
22 Spotlight
iStockphoto
map sth. [mæp]
misleading: be ~ [mâs÷li*dâÑ]
navel [÷neâvPl]
occur [P÷kQ*]
pheromone [÷ferPmoŸn]
pretty [÷prâti] ifml.
prudish [÷pru*dâÜ]
reveal sth. [ri÷vi*Pl]
sample [÷sæmpPl]
Shere [ÜâPr]
sniff sth. [snâf]
subconsciously [sJb÷kG*nÜPsli]
take off [=teâk ÷Ê*f]
the act [öi ÷ækt]
turn sb. on [=tQ*n ÷G*n]
6/09
saugfähig
Aphrodisiakum
Achselhöhle
folgern
etw. vermitteln
mit einer Sache
übergossen sein
Ergebnisse
funktionelle
Magnetresonanz-Tomographie
Hemmungen,
Einschränkungen
etw. aufzeichnen
irreführend sein
Bauchnabel
auftreten
Sexuallockstoff
ziemlich; hier: wirklich
prüde
etw. zeigen
Probe
an etw. riechen/schnuppern
unbewusst
in Schwung kommen
Geschlechtsakt
jmdn. sexuell erregen
Chen of Rice University in Houston, because women gather
information from men’s sweat subconsciously. To test her
theory, she recruited 20 heterosexual men, each of whom
was to watch an erotic film while wearing absorbent pads
in his armpits. Researchers took the sweat from the three
men who reported being most turned on by the film, and
the experiment moved into its next phase.
Heterosexual women were then asked to smell a pad
from one of these men and, for comparison, three others: a
pad with the regular sweat of the same man, a pad with a
known sex pheromone, and a pad with water. As each of
the women sniffed, her brain activity was mapped using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
None of the women could say which pad had come from
a sexually excited man. But the fMRI showed that their
brains could tell the difference — and how. Responding
strongly — far more strongly, in fact, than to the other
samples — were those parts of the brain involved in
decision-making and in body and face recognition. Using
this information, Chen conA C L O S E R L O O K
cluded that the brain can read
Functional magnetic resothe emotional content of
nance imaging is a type of
sweat. What does that mean
brain scan used primarily in
for men? No more cologne?
scientific research and exper“Our findings do not convey
iments to measure the blood
the suggestion that human
flow to different parts of the
sweat is an aphrodisiac,”
brain. fMRI helps scientists
Chen told The New York
learn about which areas are
Times. They do convey that
active when specific thoughts
sweat is a mode of sexual
and experiences occur or decommunication — but one
cisions are made.
most people are not aware of.
The naked
truth: women
can read
sexual
information
from men’s
sweat
iStockphoto
SCIENCE