Interesting commentary published on CNN.com a few days ago. The lead-off to the piece is a picture of Senator Johnny Edwards leaving the North Carolina courthouse where a jury is hearing the sad, sordid tale of a former presidential candidate now on trial for allegedly concealing campaign donations made on his behalf (if not to him directly) that were meant to advance his presidential prospects by concealing his affair with the Huntress (okay, Rielle Hunter). With all due respect to the author of the piece, the first half of the article is comprised of a list of boneheads who risked their personal and political lives for the physical and psychical gratification of a dalliance (or three or five) with a member of the fair sex.
After supplying a list of all those fellas who have been led astray by their appetites (needless to say, an extremely partial list), the author concludes by concluding that their comeuppance is a sign that society is changing, that the process will be slow, and that some men really are just. Plain. Stupid. Her words. I would posit that when it comes to sex most men really are stupid, and it’s just the depth of that stupidity that’s open to question.
But she never answers her own question, and it makes you want to ask, “Was that a rhetorical question?” Because of course men are stupid . . . sometimes. So are women, and surprise, it’s sometimes (but not as often) in the very same way. And contrary to the author’s premise — it’s not the arrogance of powerful men that makes them succumb to temptation. Plenty of not-so-powerful men are just as boneheaded and make the very same mistakes, except their moral failures aren’t routinely the subject of media reporting.
What’s that old saying, admittedly somewhat dated these days? It went something like, “The weakness of stronger sex consists of the weakness of the stronger sex for the weaker sex.” Cross-reference that cliche with a published study from 2001, titled, “Is There a Gender Difference in Strength of Sex Drive? Theoretical Views, Conceptual Distinctions, and a Review of Relevant Evidence.” For those of you who want to run to your local university library to look this study up, it was published in the “Personality and Social Psychology Review.” For those of you who like to skip to the last page, the authors (one man, two women) concluded that “the male sex drive is stronger than the female sex drive.”
So does that mean that the level of temptation experienced by men is, on the whole, greater than that experienced by women? If so,
