Women In France,
Switching Sexual Roles
by Barbara Lewis
French men
have long enjoyed a reputation the world over as legendary lovers, while
French women are generally held to be mysterious, alluring and rather
aloof. But all that could well be changing.
Respected French weekly magazine 'Le Nouvel
Observateur' has just published one of the most
comprehensive pieces of research into the nation's
sexual habits. And one of its startling findings is
that French women are catching up with men in terms of
how many sexual partners they have, while young men
seem to be losing interest.
"It's upheaval wherever you look: the practices of
women are more and more like those of men, those of
the young are not so different from those of the old,
sex life is lasting longer and longer," the magazine
wrote in March in its lead article on "the new
sexuality of the French".
It is far from being a victory for women's liberation
and equal rights. Women still found it more difficult
than men to dissociate sex from feelings and believed
men had greater sexual needs than they did, according
to the survey.
"There is a big division in that for women sex is
linked with emotions and for men it is linked with
need," said Nathalie Bajos of France's National
Institute of Health and Medical Research, who was one
the leaders of the study instigated by France's
national AIDS research agency. "Women work more, study
more and have more access to contraception ... and
live a more diverse sexual life. At the same time, the
inequalities in society remain. There are inequalities
of salary, women carry out more domestic tasks...
These social inequalities are replicated in sexual
life," she added.
Anticipating the 40th anniversary of the social unrest
of May 1968 in Paris, widely regarded as the beginning
of a new era of more liberal values, 'Le Nouvel
Observateur' had exclusive access to a 600-page report
based on more than 12,000 interviews.
Previous surveys on a comparable scale in France were
carried out in 1972 to mark the advent of the mass use
of contraception and, in 1992, when concern about AIDS
was at its height. According to the latest research
carried out between September 2005 and March 2006, the
number of sexual partners experienced by women aged
between 30 and 49 years has leapt from an average of
1.9 in 1970 to 4.0 in 1992 to 5.1 in 2006.
For men the figures were virtually stable at 12.8 in
1970, 12.6 in 1992 and 12.9 in 2006. Moreover, men
aged less than 30 were found to be increasingly
cautious. A fifth of those aged between 18 and 24
years showed no interest in sexual relations and
between 18 and 25 years, the proportion abstaining was
twice as high for men as for women.
The overall picture painted by the magazine was one of
confusion. It said sex therapists were in great
demand, with an estimated half-a-million patients
seeking treatment from them per year. It cited the
example of one general practitioner, who decided
instead to specialize in sex therapy because so many
of his patients were requesting help.
Bajos said she had no data to back up the impression
that an increasing number of people, at least in
France, were seeking sexual advice, but she said
relationships were under great strain. "In society,
there is a perception that if you are to succeed in
life, you have to succeed sexually. That puts a lot of
pressure on people," she said.
Arguably, across the Channel, in Britain, the national
mood is less anguished and men and women have no
reputation as great lovers to live up to. Relate, a
British charity that provides relationship counseling, is nevertheless busy, but at a steady
rate. "The numbers of people coming to Relate for sex
therapy or counseling related to their sex lives
remains constant. We helped 150,000 people in total
last year and sex was an issue, or one of the issues
which had become divisive within their relationship,"
said spokeswoman Catherine Allen.
The latest survey carried out by Bajos and her team
pertains only to France. Comparisons across the world
are difficult because cultures are extremely diverse,
although it is possible to find similarities across industrialized countries and in turn across the
non-industrialized world.
Medical journal 'The Lancet' in 2006 carried a survey
entitled 'Sexual Behavior in Context: A Global
Perspective'. It reported a "huge regional variation"
in behavior, which suggested that sexual behavior is
determined mainly by social and economic factors.
Overall, it found the historic norms were still in
place, with most people still monogamous and men for
the most part taking the sexual initiative. A major
divide was between women who still marry at a young
age in the developing world and those in the developed
world, who are marrying later, if at all, and engaging
more and more in premarital sex.
The most obvious gap, however, was between men and
women, with men far more sexually active than women -
a phenomenon explained only in part by the tendency of
men to exaggerate their sexual conquests and women's
more diffident approach. The French could be at the
vanguard of a role reversal.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by
Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
