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Book Review
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sexuality but is of a rather semantic nature (when it is used, for example, to classify
relationships into seven different love styles, p. 54). In fact, I even found this part a bit
confusing - according to this theory love consists of three different components, namely
intimacy, passion, and commitment, but later in the book Meston & Buss go on to
distinguish between love and emotional connectedness (intimacy) by saying that indeed,
feelings of connectedness trigger a sense of peacefulness and relationship security that is
not unlike the emotional experience of love (p. 65). But that might be considered a play
on words too.
Though being very short and not central to the chapter, another piece from this
section was a bit unconvincing: The claim that men appear to stay in love longer and that
they tend to suffer more from break-ups than women (pp. 59-61). Following the
interpretation of the original study, a socioeconomic approach is discussed quite
lengthily: Men, being in a more powerful economic position and thus being independent
of their partners wealth, could afford the luxury of [...] staying in relationships simply
for the romance (p. 60). There is not even a hint to an alternative account at this point.
Although it is indicated that women are less prone to fall in love at first sight and more
likely to initiate break-ups, there is no mention of the evolutionary psychologists
reasoning - that this might not necessarily be the case because men are more romantic
for they have less to lose in terms of money, but because women have more to lose in
terms of parental investment.
Generally, an interested reader might have profited from being provided more
references to existing work, or in some cases maybe other references than those given. In
Chapter 1, for instance, the reader gets a brief, engaging overview on what might be
considered state-of-the art regarding mate attraction. However, basics are not further
cited or they are illustrated by exemplarily singling out studies, which may be not the
most representative ones (e.g., the only study on the link of MHC complex and odor
preferences named in the book is Santos et al., 2005; straightforward topics like body
height, on the other hand, are backed by a number of citations and references to
summaries). Some of the references in Chapter 1 got mixed up (e.g., pp. 13, 18, 19), and
once in a while references are missing entirely (for example in Chapter 4, where it says
Studies conducted in Germany... (p. 84), but no reference is to be found in the
appendix).
Some aspects of sexual motivation are difficult to disentangle, which caused some
motives to occur under more than one heading and makes the book slightly redundant
sometimes (e.g., there is a section called The Winners High in Chapter 4 that discusses
the feeling of conquest by outcompeting other women or sex as a means to gain status
among peers, both motives also being tackled in Chapter 9). Indeed, as Meston & Buss
note in the conclusion, reasons to have sex are often complex and might be composed of
varying combinations of motivations, some of which might be even in conflict with one
another; throughout the book, women report success, but also failures for having sex for a
specific reason. Although the book is overall captivating, I found some parts to be more
coherent than others. Also, I found the section and evidence on rape fantasies in
themselves, and as defense mechanism against rape (Chapter 10, pp. 233-234) though
interesting for now still too speculative to be presented to a wider audience (the authors
themselves remark similarly).
Why Women Have Sex is an entertaining read, often humorous and drawing
interesting connections to songs, movies or mythology. While compromises concerning
the depth of explanations have to be made in a book that is to reach the wider public, at
Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology ISSN 1933-5377 Volume 5(2). 2011.
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times the book might have benefited from delving deeper and including more references
to existing work. This does not belittle its achievement of merging different theoretical
approaches into a comprehensive view on female sexual motivation. Why Women Have
Sex gives a wittily written peek into (other) womens minds and bedrooms. Not only for
the lay audience, it provides a thorough - and at this time also probably the most
exhaustive - overview of all the aspects that are to female sexual motivation. Thus, even
those that might not learn too much new from an evolutionary psychologists point of
view might want to buy it. Or, as one satisfied customer of an online bookstore put it, it is
a must-read for women asking themselves Am I the only one who feels this way?, and
men who find themselves wondering What the hell is going on with her? (Noble,
2010).
Received January 5, 2011; Revision received April 19, 2011; Accepted April 21, 2011
References
Meston, C.M. & Buss, D.M. (2007). Why humans have sex. Archives of Sexual Behavior,
36(4), 477-507.
Carvalho Santos, P.S., Schinemann, J.A., Gabardo, J., Da Graa Bicalho, M. (2005) New
evidence that the MHC influences odor perception in humans: A study with 58
Southern Brazilian students. Hormones and Behavior, 47(4), 384-388.
Noble, A. (2010). An important question. [Informal review of Why Wome Have Sex:
Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge And Everything in Between]
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Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology ISSN 1933-5377 Volume 5(2). 2011.
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