Catherine Hakim
London School of Economics, UK
Title: The male sexual deficit: A social fact of the 21st century – and its many consequences
Biography
Biography: Catherine Hakim
Abstract
Nationally representative interview surveys of sexual behavior and attitudes proliferated around the globe from 1990 onwards as a result of the AIDS scare, yet are overlooked by sociologists and economists. We review findings from some 30 national sex surveys around the world showing that large and substantively important differences between men and women in the centrality of sexuality, sexual desire, sexual behavior and sexual attitudes persist in the 21st century, long after the contraceptive and sexual revolutions of the 1960s gave women access to recreational sex on the same level as men have enjoyed historically. Women’s lesser sexual motivation and interest means that many heterosexual men experience a shortfall in desired sexual activity, both within and outside long-term relationships. A reversal of the sex ratio to a male surplus among prime age adults, women’s access to economic independence, and other trends suggest that the sexual deficit among men is increasing long term. The male sexual deficit (or surplus male sexuality) helps to explain sexual harassment, sexual violence, rape, rising demand for commercial sexual services and other behaviors that are almost exclusively male, even in liberal democracies of the Western world.
References:
The New Rules: Economies of Desire, 2nd edition, London: Gibson Square, 2017.
Hakim, C (2015) Supply and Desire: Sexuality and the Sex Industry in the 21st Century, Discussion Paper No. 61, London: Institute of Economic Affairs, August 2015.
Hakim, C. (2012) The New Rules: Internet Dating, Playfairs and Erotic Power, London: Gibson Square.
Hakim, C. (2011) Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom, New York: Basic Books, September 2011.
Kontula, O. (2009) Between Sexual Desire and Reality: The Evolution of Sex in Finlandtrans. M Makinen, Helsinki: Population Research Institute.