Gender differences in erotic plasticity: The female sex drive as socially flexible and responsive

Responding to controversies about the balance between nature and culture in determining human sexuality, the author proposes that the female sex drive is more malleable than the male in response to sociocultural and situation al factors. A large assortment of evidence supports 3 predictions based on the hypothesis of female erotic plasticity: (a) Individual women will exhib it more variation across time than men in sexual behavior, (b) female sexua lity will exhibit larger effects than male in response to most specific soc iocultural variables, and (c) sexual attitude-behavior consistency will be lower for women than men. Several possible explanations for female erotic p lasticity are reviewed, including adaptation to superior male political and physical power, the centrality of female change (from no to yes) as a prer equisite for intercourse, and the idea that women have a milder sex drive t han men.