Life

Women Prefer TV Over Sex? We Call BS.

by Alanna Greco

What activity would you choose over sex? Is there something that you’d rather be doing? A new survey done in the UK found that 39 percent of its 2,000 participants prefer watching TV to getting it on.

It gets worse. The DailyMail reports

it isn't just television that women chose over sex, but reading a book, watching a film, rustling up an indulgent dinner, pampering themselves with a beauty treatment, or even catching up on paperwork — all of which ranked higher on the list of preferred activities than making love to their other half.

Paperwork? Good God, who are these women, and why haven’t they found new partners yet? But seriously, are we talking about choosing the series finale of Breaking Bad over sex or a rerun of Sixteen and Pregnant?

This is just the latest in a wave of studies aiming to prove how little women enjoy sex. Women prefer sleep, women prefer pets, women prefer "me time"….anything to avoid the dreaded orgasm, am I right? I’m no expert, but I’m calling BS. This British survey was released by entertainment provider NOW TV, the sleep study was reported by the Better Sleep Council, the pet survey was conducted by the Brooke animal charity, and the "me time" study was sponsored by Celestial Seasonings; meaning that it is very possible that these surveys were biased.

I conducted my own informal and totally biased study amongst my female friends, and found that, like most horny millennials, they preferred sex over any other activity, though one suggested that foreplay could be just as fun. (I also got the zinger “guess British men only have the accent going for them.”)

What is worrisome about these dubious surveys is that by questioning if women like sex, they end up proving that women still aren’t accepted as sexual beings. This is harmful because when women aren’t viewed as humans with a sex drive, sexual enjoyment and a high sex drive can become associated with shame, and normal expression of sexuality can be seen as slutty or ‘asking for it’. So corporations, please stop using women’s sexuality as tool to sell your products. You aren’t doing women any favors and it won’t help you sell more tea/pets/television shows because newsflash: women like sex.

Image: Fernando Marfa/Flickr