Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi?

No, Mike, I'm not talking to you.

People who speak no other French know this useful phrase, which translates as would you like to go to bed with me? It was made famous ... or, perhaps, famouser ... when it appeared in the Lady Marmelade number from the film Moulin Rouge!. Here's a version of it for your morning titillation ...

I got to thinking about this for a couple of reasons. One was Angel's recent posts on the topics of strip poker and the Coolidge Effect, and the other was a link I followed from Miss Cellania's website to a Neatorama article which, in turn, referred me to an article in the Annals of Improbable Research: “Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers.”

According to a study originally published in 1989 in The Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, five women and four men were sent, one at a time, onto a college campus. Each approached strangers of the opposite sex, and said: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be very attractive.” They then invited the strangers to have sex.

This experiment was designed to test the cultural stereotype that men want sex, and women set the limits. It was performed twice, once in 1978, and again in 1982, with the same results: the great majority of men were willing to dance the horizontal tango with the women who approached them; however, not one woman agreed to do so when approached by the men.

So, what does this mean to you and I?

Two things. First, if you're a guy, your odds of scoring aren't very good. Second, if you're a lady, you instinctively understand how to use the handle with which men come equipped.

Good thing I'm too old to worry about all that stuff any more.

Have a good day. Consider taking up chess or bridge ... losing is less embarrassing.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo