Comments on: Hey ladies: Bummed out? Bend over!

By: arby

arby — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:41:03 +0000

I put nothing past the patriarchy any more. The other message I would ascribe to it would be “aim for the sad chicks in bars, you’re more likely to get lucky”.

Now I’m depressed. I’ll have to stay away from teh mens.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:59:20 +0000

It seems to me like the newspaper is trying to send a much more chilling subtext to the Dude readers.

The article starts with a picture of a young women in silhouette (courtesy of Steve), followed by an elipse-filled pseudo sentence that states, “depressed women have more sex than happy women.” The article also makes it a point to say that depressed women, “had more sexually liberated attitudes, a bigger variety of sexual experiences and, if single, were more likely to partake in casual sex.”

The Patriarchal propaganda message to the Dudes (who I’m guessing won’t read through more than a sentence of text without a picture of young women in patriarchy-approved outfits) seems to be: if you keep women depressed (i.e. treat the women in your life like crap and oppose women’s rights in all its forms) then you’ll get more sex.

Or am I just being paranoid here?

By: Zoray

Zoray — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:56:20 +0000

Oh Jennifer,
Why did you do that!? Blogs like that make me want to gauge out my eyes with a rusty spoon… Yet, like a road accident, I can’t help but to look.
I’m so depressed, I may allow myself to be coerced into sex with an Australian man (figuratively speaking, of course).
Z

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:55:27 +0000

Hey, isn’t this really offensive? —> A blog named: Families against feminism. You can find it here: http://heartsforfamily.blogspot.com/
Is it just me, that find this really awful? That blog makes me really angry! A mother of seven says that feminism is evil and that a woman is supposed to stay home with her children.

By: Aine

Aine — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:33:43 +0000

yeah, that sounded like the obvious conclusion to draw is “Happy people have less sex, therefore, if you’re depressed, stop having sex. ” But what do I know, I’m only a girl…

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:28:59 +0000

“its sample”, not “it’s sample” — I so need coffee.

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:28:03 +0000

The study doesn’t look like it did a decent job choosing it’s sample, so I wouldn’t think it worth taking seriously on that account.

I wouldn’t be surprised, though, in a larger and better study to see the same result of correlation of depression with more sex in women in our culture. It sounds pretty obvious to me.

We already know that one in four women at least have experienced intimate partner violence, and that male-on-female sexual coercion that most wouldn’t choose to identify as “violence”, even though it is, is far more frequent. Sexual coercion causes depression. So if you sample over a large population, of course you’re going to see a correlation between lots of sex and depression in women — on average over a large population, those having more sex are being exposed to more sexual coercion.

It sounds like a big “duh” moment to me. The idiot reporters got their cause and effect mixed up.

By: Kenzie

Kenzie — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:53:48 +0000

Mearl:

“You can easily add jizz to your regular diet, for example, by pouring some on your Muslix in the morning and tossing some fresh berries on top!”

Just… yuck. I think even the slight mental concatenation of the two has now turned me off Muslix for life.

By: atheist woman

atheist woman — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:31:24 +0000

No, chingona that makes amazing sense in my head. For many women sex is viewed as a *passive* activity. I think intergenerational thingamajiggies are getting in the way here too, as not only is sex supposed to be passive for women (back in the day), but those who go after a lot of it or enjoy it are bad/fugly sluts (women now). But the caveat or trap is that on top of it all there is this Sex in the City sheen to it, that sex (as envisioned by teh menz) is well, fun and sexy. So first off women feel badly about themselves, they’re told by pop-culture that sex is fun and healthy, so they go after it, to make themselves feel better. But really underneath all of that, there is the undercurrent of continuing self hate, both for being passive (letting men objectify them, losing control of their bodies) and for being active (wanting sex, going after sex). And all this just for a natural function of the human body. I blame the patriarchy.

By: chingona

chingona — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:54:25 +0000

I’m not really sure what to make of this. My husband suffers from pretty serious depressive episodes, and his desire to have sex pretty much disappears when he’s down. (Back in the day, when the problem was less severe, his meds would reduce his libido, but at some point, the depression got so bad that even the less-than-”normal” desire he has on the meds is more than the nonexistent desire without them.)

Could this go back to the difference between how society views men and women’s sexual roles, that is the difference between being active and being passive. That is, when my husband is depressed, he feels unlovable and undeserving of any good thing. That takes sex off the menu. To some women, that feeling is totally consistent with having a lot of sex.

Or maybe I’m extrapolating way too much from my personal experience.