A Billion Wicked Thoughts

March 28, 2011
Behavioral scientists Ogas and Gaddam used the Internetâsifting through a billion Web searches, analyzing hundreds of thousands of online erotic stories, the 40,000 most trafficked adult Web sites, five million sexual solicitations posted on online classifieds, and a great deal more online sexual expressionsâto determine the secret desires of a billion anonymous men and women. Their less surprising findings are that male desire is instantly activated by visual cues and directed toward orgasm. Women are more aroused by psychological cues, and the vast majority of romance readers like a "strong, confident, swaggering alpha" hero. More unusual findings are that straight men and masculine professions are the dominant motif in gay male porn, and gay men like the same things in their porn as straight guys: youth, graphic details of the body, and anonymous, emotionless, nonmonogamous sex. Viewers of porn sites directed at women prefer foreplay and intercourse, and many men are aroused by the thought of their wives cheating on them. Although striving to titillate and be cute (using Elmer Fudd and Miss Marple as male and female metaphors, for example), this study can be maddeningly vague ("many men," "very popular") as it offers some insights amid mostly familiar observations.

February 15, 2011

An in-depth look at the variety of forms in which human sexual desire manifests, based on an analysis of 500 million people and their anonymous—thus, likely truthful—online revelations.

Every day, millions of people voluntarily reveal intimate details about their sexual preferences online through search queries, adult websites, classified ads, stories and videos. During the course of their research into the nature of human sexual desire, neuroscientists Ogas and Gaddam analyzed half a billion of these and, combined with the latest findings in conceptual neuroscience, discovered that the data yielded some unexpected information about sexual preference. Some quirkier examples include the Japanese fascination with a woman's "absolute territory" (the space of exposed skin between the bottom of a skirt and the top of knee-high stockings); the fact that fantasies of older women are very popular among straight men; and that paranormal erotic literature is increasingly popular among women. Also intriguing is the authors' analysis of the relatively small divergence of sexual preference between straight and gay men (excepting the obvious masculine/feminine aspects) and the surprising discovery about which faction is most curious about transsexuals. More expected results also abound: Men are aroused visually, whereas women prefer to have their imaginations stimulated; men desire sex, and woman desire the feeling of being desired; men have a direct mind-body connection when it comes to arousal, and women experience a more complex series of thoughts and emotions, often displaying an intellectual distaste for stimuli that might simultaneously excite them physically. Perhaps partly as a result of this, there exists no pharmaceutical equivalent of Viagra for women. From cartoon porn to foot fetishes, the authors write with enthusiasm and in engaging detail, often incorporating the neuroscientific basis for results, yet retaining an accessible vernacular throughout that references pop culture as often as the laboratory.

An enjoyable, exhaustive and often insightful look at what turns us on—sure to excite readers.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 15, 2011

Experts in information technology and neuroscience, Ogas and Gaddam present research on Internet porn site usage. Not for prudes or children, the book identifies websites presenting a great variety of sexual practices--tame to violent; hetero-, homo- and bisexual; teen to granny. The approach is based on evolutionary psychology: males want to spread their genes, hence are easily and diversely aroused; females seek partners who will protect them and their offspring over time. The findings show that men prefer pictures, and women generally read stories. More surprising conclusions come from the authors' analysis of sites on cuckolds, gay, interracial, and granny porn (older women/younger men). The authors assume--unjustifiably--that the brain is a computer, the mind is software, and that evolutionary psychology is the key to understanding relationships. VERDICT While the numbers are large, porn site users are an unrepresentative sample, hence generalizations must be qualified. Sex educators and therapists will find much of interest here--as in the early 20th-century pioneering work of Havelock Ellis.--E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC

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