What Do Women Really Want?

What do women really want?

An enterprising PR firm has teamed up with Hearst Magazines and has gone around the world asking women what they really want.

Surely, the methodology is sound.

If Freud had tried it he would have been far less puzzled about what women want. But, that would have required him to take women at their word… something that he was not wont to do.

Now, that we have the results, the most newsworthy part seems to be that sex is not very high on the list.

In some sense that should be the least surprising result.

When asked to choose between a good night’s sleep and sex, most women in most parts of the world would opt for the former. Only in Brazil did most women prefer sex to sleep.

This does not tell us how much women like sex. There is more to sexual enjoyment than frequency. It does tell us that Brazilians pride themselves on their mastery of decadence.

If you ask which is more important to the well-being of any human organism: a good night’s sleep or sexual congress… the answer is obviously the former.

The Daily Mail reports:

More than 4,300 women were questioned from the UK, Brazil, China and the US on a range of issues including sex, sleep, money, technology and family concerns. 

In the survey, 68 per cent of British women revealed they would prefer a good night's sleep to sex, compared to 60 per cent in the US and 70 per cent in China. 

Brazilian women were the least worried about a good night's kip, with only 38 per cent preferring sleep to making love. 

When it came to technology, most women around the world would prefer giving up sex for three months to giving up their techno gadgets for the same time period.

I assume that this means iPhones and various types of computers. This tells us that women value their social contacts, their ability to organize their lives and their everyday communication more than they do getting laid.

Is this really all that surprising?

When asked to choose between money, sex and power, a large majority of women around the world opted for money…not because they are craving great wealth but because they want to have enough money to guarantee family security.

In truth, none of this seems to be very shocking. It feels perfectly normal. Given a choice between financial security and sex, who would choose the latter?

Have we just discovered that women are social beings who believe that their responsibilities as adults trump their personal gratification?

Again, why is this surprising?

In fairness, most people would assume, and not without reason that achieving financial security would lead to more sex. It would produce less depression and anxiety, both of which are notorious libido killers.

Of course, one is curious to know how men would answer the same questions.  For a man, having power in the world would seem to lead to more sex.

Why did the study target women? Perhaps because women are the most important shoppers.

Women buy the food and the clothing for their families. They have a great deal of influence on the purchase of furniture and household appliances. Selling retail is selling to women. Obviously, the marketers need to know what women really, really want.

They have less interest in knowing what men really, really want.

But, then again, are there very men who would prefer insomnia to sex?