It has been found that pregnancy-related complications cause up to half of all deaths in women of reproductive age in  developing countries . [ 6 ]  In some areas, for every one woman who dies a  maternal death , there are 10-15 who suffer severe damage to health by labor, which often causes substantial mental health risks and distress. [ 6 ]  These figures, however, are estimations since official data is not recorded in registration systems. [ 6 ]  In the context of pregnancy, maternal complications, and maternal death, it has been studied that age itself may cause fewer health risks for the mother or the offspring due to the prevalence of first-births among the younger ages. [ 6 ]  First births are higher among teenagers and are usually more complicated than higher-order births. [ 6 ]  Included in these observations are other complications related to delivery such as cephalopelvic disproportion, which is a condition in which the mother's pelvis is too small relative to the child's head to allow the child to pass. Cephalopelvis disproportion is most common in younger women. [ 6 ]  Many of these risks are higher among younger females, and a more mature physique is considered to be ideal for a successful pregnancy and  childbearing . [ 6 ]  A mother older than 35 years old, however, may at a higher risk of facing various other labor complications. [ 8 ]


In a study of over 22,000 births in  Zaria, Nigeria , it was found that maternal mortality was 2-3 times higher for women 15 years old and under than for women from 16–29 years old. [ 6 ]  It was also found that in  Africa , those under the age of 15 are 5-7 times more likely to have maternal deaths than women just 5–9 years older. [ 6 ]


While rates of these sexually transmitted infections increased for 15-24 year-old individuals in the  United States  for both males and females in 2016–2017, the rates of  chlamydia  are found to be consistently highest among 15-24 year-old young women. [ 7 ]  Reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis have consistently been higher among adolescent men and women compared to adult men and women. [ 7 ]  In the United States in 2017, there were 1,069,111 reported cases of chlamydia among persons aged 15–25, which represented the majority, almost 63%, of all chlamydia cases in the United States. [ 7 ]  These figures increased by 7.5% from 2016 in the 15-25 age group. [ 7 ]  In the 20-24 age group, the rate was increased by 5.0% during the same time frame. [ 7 ]  Among men in the 15-24 age group, there was an increase of 8.9% in 2017 since 2016 and an increase of 29.1% since 2013. [ 7 ]


Gonorrhea  infection cases were also reported to have increased for the 15-19 year age group in 2017 since 2016. [ 7 ]  In the case of women aged 15–24, there was an increase of 14.3% in 2017 since 2016, and a 24.1% increase since 2013. [ 7 ]  Among men, the rate of reported gonorrhea infections rose 913.4% in 2017 since 2016 and 951.6% since 2013. [ 7 ]  20-24-year-old women had the highest increase in reported cases of gonorrhea among women, and the 15-19 year old age group had the second highest rate of increase. [ 7 ]


While cases of primary and secondary  syphilis  is much rarer than gonorrhea, chlamydia, and  herpes , the reported cases had increased for both males and females. [ 7 ]  In 15-24-year-old women, the cases of syphilis had increased 107.8% in 2017 since 2016 and increased 583.3% since 2013. [ 7 ]  In the case of 15-24-year-old men, the rate increased 8.3% to 26.1 cases per 100,000 males in 2017 since 2016 and 50.9% since 2013. [ 7 ]  Primary and secondary syphilis reports increased 9.8% for the 15-19 year age group and 7.8% for the 20-24 year age group from 2016 to 2017. [ 7 ]


In the United States,  Human papillomavirus  is the most common STI. [ 9 ]  Routine use of HPV vaccines have greatly reduced the prevalence of HPV in specimens of females aged 14–19 and 20–24, the age group most at risk of contracting HPV, in 2011-2014 since 2003–2006. [ 7 ]


Emotional and mental disruptions are also observed to be an effect of the promiscuity in adolescence. [ 10 ]  Studies have shown a correlation and direct relationship between adolescent sexual risk taking and mental health risks. [ 10 ]  Sexual risks include multiple sexual partners, lack of protection use, and sexual intercourse at a young age. [ 10 ]  The mental risks that are associated with these include cognitive disorders such as  anxiety ,  depression , and a  substance use disorder . [ 10 ]  It is also found that sexual promiscuity in teens can be a result of substance misuse and pre-existing mental health conditions such as  clinical depression . [ 11 ]


In relation to the contraction of sexually transmitted infections, there is shown to be a correlation to decreased mental health. [ 12 ]   The  neurosyphilis disease  is known to cause extreme depression, mania, psychosis, and even hallucinations in late stages of the diseases. [ 13 ]  The  chlamydia infection  is known to increase rates of depression even in asymptomatic individuals. [ 14 ]


STIs can put women at a high risk for infertility, which generally leads to feelings of depression. [ 15 ] [ 16 ]   This holds true for women who are still able to conceive because there is a high risk of transferring the disease to their child through pregnancy or child birth. [ 16 ]


Women are of higher susceptibility to psychosocial mental health effects of STIs.  They report to having feelings immense of shame, guilt, and self blame after diagnosis. [ 15 ]   This can lead to avoidant behaviors and fear of disclosure to not only sexual partners but family and friends. [ 15 ]   All of these behaviors are associated with a decline to mental health, whether it is depression, anxiety, or any other disorder. [ 15 ]


Other factors contribute to how STIs effect mental health and these include history of trauma and stigma from the disease. [ 12 ] [ 17 ]


Sexual risk-taking and promiscuous activities, in regards to the youth, can also lead to many social and economic risks. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, research has found that teenage pregnancy poses significant social and economic risks, as it forces young women, particularly those from extremely low-income families, to leave school to pursue childbearing. [ 6 ]  These disruptions in basic education pose life-long and generational risks to those involved. Social condemnation also prevents these young mothers from seeking help, and as a result are at a higher risk for developing other physical and mental risks, which can later result in physical health risks and substance use. [ 6 ]


Sexual promiscuity in adults, as with adolescents, presents substantial risks to physical, mental, and socioeconomic health. Having multiple sexual partners is linked with risks such as maternal deaths and complications, cancers, sexually transmitted infections, alcohol, and substance use, and social condemnation in some societies. [ 18 ]  A higher number of sexual partners poses a greater risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, mental health issues, and alcohol/substance use. [ 18 ]  Adults, however, are generally found to be less at risk of certain pregnancy and labor complications, such as  cephalopelvis disproportion , than adolescents, while being at higher risk for other labor complications. [ 6 ] [ 8 ]


Promiscuity in adults has detrimental effects on physical health. As the number of sexual partners a person has in his or her lifetime increases, the higher the risk he or she contracts sexually transmitted infections. [ 18 ]  The length of a sexual relationship with a partner, the number of past and present partners, and pre-existing conditions are all variables that affect the development of risks in a person's life. [ 19 ]  Promiscuous individuals may also be at a higher risk of developing  prostate cancer ,  cervical cancer , and  oral cancer  as a result of having multiple sexual partners, and combined with other risky acts such as smoking, and substance use, promiscuity can also lead to heart disease. [ 18 ]


Despite the frequency of HIV/AIDS cases decreasing as medical treatment and education on the matter improve, HIV/AIDS has still been responsible for over 20 million lives in 20 years, greatly affecting the livelihoods of whole communities in developing nations. [ 20 ]  According to the  World Health Organization , over 40 million people are currently infected with HIV/AIDS, and 95% of these cases are in the developing world. [ 20 ]


Over 340 million treatable sexually transmitted infections affect people around the world each year, which presents a great risk to individuals as they become more susceptible to HIV and more likely to spread the virus. [ 20 ]


Studies have also shown that individuals who engage in long-term relationships, as opposed to hypersexual and promiscuous behavior are less likely to fall victim to  domestic violence . [ 18 ]


According to research conducted by Sandhya Ramrakha of the  Dunedin School of Medicine , the probability of developing a substance use disorder increased linearly with an increase in the number of sexual partners. [ 21 ]  This was particularly greater for women, however, there was no correlation with other mental health risks. [ 21 ]  This contrasts other studies that find there indeed is a correlation between mental health risk and multiple sexual partners. [ 22 ]


Having multiple sexual partners frequently adversely affects educational opportunities for young women, which can affect their careers and opportunities as adults; the frequency of multiple sexual partners have negative long-term economic effects for women as a result of a loss of schooling. [ 23 ]  There is little evidence, however, that the number of sexual partners adversely affects the educational and economic opportunities for males. [ 23 ]


Human sexual promiscuity presents substantial physical, mental, and socio-economic risks to adolescents as well as adults in all parts of the world. [ 18 ]  Researchers and organizations have identified ways of reducing these risks over time. These include the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and other effects of human sexual promiscuity. [ 20 ]


According to the  World Health Organization , the reduction in the harmful risks of human sexual promiscuity can be achieved first by  prevention . [ 20 ]  These are sustained through HIV and  STI  prevention programs, defined in the Declaration of Commitment during the  United Nations General Assembly  on HIV/AIDS in June 2001.  Safe sex ,  condom  and  contraceptive  usage and effectual STI management are essential in preventing the spread of these sexually transmitted infections, and it can also improve the social and economic status of entire communities as young women can pursue education instead of childbearing. [ 20 ] [ 6 ]  At a large enough scale with a target on STI concentrated locations with high rates of STIs, these programs can greatly reduce the effects of promiscuity. [ 20 ]


Many of these lower-income areas lack proper equipment or facilities to treat these risks. [ 6 ]  Expansion of  antiretroviral  treatment and the enabling of broader access to all medical services and support can be paramount in the treatment of sexually transmitted infections once they occur. [ 20 ]  For the mental health risks that human sexual promiscuity presents, effective counseling services, and facilities must be offered, enabling the reduction of these risks over time. [ 20 ]


Societal effects of promiscuity may include crimes of passion as jealous partners may seek to drive-off competition.
Also, child support may be reduced as males
may be loth to contribute to support of children who may not be their own.
 https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/crime-passion-and-changing-cultural-construction-jealousy
 https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support/paternity/mistaken-paternity#:~:text=If%20the%20genetic%20testing%20results,child%20relationship%20and%20support%20obligation .


(Trying for first time here to cite references)


Erotic plasticity  is the degree to which one's  sex drive  can be changed by cultural or social factors. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  Someone has "high erotic plasticity" when their sex drives can be affected by situational, social and cultural influences, whereas someone with "low erotic plasticity" has a sex drive that is relatively rigid and unsusceptible to change. Since social psychologist  Roy Baumeister  coined the term in 2000, only two studies directly assessing erotic plasticity have been completed as of 2010 [update] . [ 3 ] [ 4 ]


The  female erotic plasticity hypothesis  states that women have higher erotic plasticity than men, and therefore their sex drives are more socially flexible and responsive than those of men (factors such as religion, culture and education have a greater effect on women's sexual behaviors). Men, on the other hand, remain relatively rigid after  puberty  but can still be affected by these factors.


As women have been theorised to possess a weaker sex drive than men, [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  they may more readily accept substitutes or alternate forms of satisfaction. Baumeister theorized that weaker motivations tend to lead to greater plasticity. However, a lower sex drive does not necessarily imply that sex is less important for women, or that females have a lower capacity to become aroused. Rather, Baumeister's hypothesis [ 2 ]  supports the notion that women are less willing to engage in sex than their male counterparts. [ 7 ]


According to Baumeister, the culture a woman is raised in affects her sexual attitudes and behaviours more than it would affect a man raised in the same culture. Factors such as politics, cultural and societal views on sexual behaviours would all play a role. A multinational study by Lippa (2009) found that women are more variable in their sex drives, suggesting that their sexuality is more malleable and influenced by society than men's. [ 6 ]  Another study showed that South Korean women had a higher median age of first intercourse, lower rates of premarital sex, and greater disapproval of premarital sex. [ 8 ]  In South Korea, there are strong gender-based sexual  double standards  such that women are expected to be passive and virgins at marriage. Therefore, Baumeister theorized that cultural norms have affected women's attitudes and behaviours more so than men. Another study showed that female, but not male, Hispanic immigrants to the United States were less likely to engage in vaginal, oral, and anal sex than Hispanics who had been born and raised in the United States. [ 9 ]   Condom use  was unaffected by whether or not the person was an immigrant, suggesting that upbringing and acculturation had a significant impact on engaging in sexual activity and not on how they would protect themselves during sex.


Baumeister predicted that  acculturation , the process of adopting the behaviour patterns and attitudes of the surrounding culture, should have a greater effect on the sexual behaviours and attitudes of female immigrants. However, in a study conducted by Benuto and Meana, one of the two studies conducted about erotic plasticity, supporting evidence was not found. [ 4 ]  When examining the acculturation of college students from an American college of non-American background, acculturation had the same effect on sexual behaviours and attitudes of both men and women. Numerous potential methodological flaws of the study are indicated that may have produced this contradictory data, such as women trying to appear socially desirable in their responses (see  social desirability bias ) or that participants were too acculturated.


Catholic nuns are more successful at fulfilling their vows of  celibacy  and more willing to commit to their promises of sexual abstinence than male clergy, suggesting women can more easily adapt to such high non-permissive standards. [ 10 ]  A study on older unmarried adults found that those who were highly religious were less likely to have recently had sex compared to non-religious unmarried adults. [ 11 ]  However, this effect was stronger in women, suggesting a stronger influence on women's sexual behaviour. Church attendance and religiosity is also associated with lower odds of reporting masturbation among females. [ 12 ]  One possible explanation is that higher levels of spirituality and religiosity are associated with higher levels of sex guilt in women. One study even suggests that this differs amongst women of different culture. Religious Euro-Canadian women reported significantly higher levels of sexual desire and less sex guilt than Eastern Asian women. [ 13 ]  This is an example of two societal pressures, religion and culture, interacting to shape sexuality. Finally, Farmer and colleagues (2009) found that unreligious women are more likely to engage in unrestricted premarital intercourse behaviour than religious women. Such a difference was not demonstrated in religious and non-religious men. [ 14 ]


Religiosity can also affect whether adolescents choose to abstain from sexual conduct. Commitment to religion and having friends with similar commitments has a stronger impact on girls than boys. [ 15 ]  Other factors, such as family members' disapproval of adolescent sexual behaviour also play a significant role.


Heritability  is the amount of differences between individuals that is the product of genetics. According to female erotic plasticity theory, sexual behaviours of men should be more heritable because there is a stronger biological component driving these behaviours. A study examining adult twins in Sweden found a lower genetic component for the engagement in same-sex behaviours in women than in men. [ 16 ]  Shared environment also played a larger role in women's same-sex behaviours than in men's, although unique environmental factors were roughly the same. On the other hand, in their study of Australian twins, Bailey, Dunne and Martin found a concordance in sexual behaviour of 20% for male  MZ twins , and of 24% for female MZ twins. [ 17 ]


Another twin study showed male identical twins are more likely than female identical twins to begin having sex at the same age. [ 18 ]  Shared environment plays a greater role than genetics in risky sexual behaviours in adolescent females. [ 19 ]


Baumeister's 3rd prediction states that women should have greater inconsistencies between their attitudes towards sexual behaviours and whether they actually engage in said behaviours. Wives are more likely than husbands to report that they changed a "great deal" in their habits, ideas and expectations of sex over 20 years of marriage. [ 20 ]  Even more husbands reported that their spouses changed than did wives. Another example is condom use, for which women in the past have demonstrated difficulty in expressing their desire to use them during sex. [ 21 ]  However, a 2008 study by Woolf and Maisto found that this trend is declining, suggesting traditional gender roles in culture may be changing. [ 22 ]


Although the female erotic plasticity theory states that the men's and women's sexuality are different, some evidence suggests that men's sexuality too can be affected by sociocultural factors. Although religious commitment and family member's stances on adolescent sexual behaviours have a significant impact on females' choice to abstain, to a lesser extent it affects males' choice as well. [ 15 ]  Also, the fact that some male clergy are successful in maintaining their vows of celibacy suggests some degree of erotic plasticity. College education is associated with an increase in variety of sexual behaviours [ 23 ]  in both men and women. Asian males and females consistently report more conservative sexual attitudes than Hispanic and Euro-Americans. [ 24 ]


According to  Meredith Chivers , straight women are physically aroused by a greater variety of erotic images than men, and this physical arousal does not match subjective arousal. [ 25 ]
Similar results were found in a study that showed both consensual and non-consensual sex scenes to men and women. Neither men nor women reported sexual arousal to the rape scenes, but women's bodies responded in a similar way to both scenarios. [ 26 ]  This may be because women's physical arousal, regardless of psychological arousal, is an evolutionary automatic response to prevent damage during rape. [ 27 ]


A study that measured sexual arousal through pupil dilation found that physical response of lesbian and bisexual women to erotic images was more category-specific than that of straight women, with lesbian women showing more response to women, and bisexual women showing more response to the preferred sex than the other. This may be due to masculinization of the brain via prenatal hormones. The difference between straight and non-straight women was consistent with Chivers' findings, although straight women did show more consistency with their orientation with this measure than with the genital measure. [ 27 ]


Sexual fluidity  is the concept that sexual orientation or sexuality is not rigid, but rather can change over time. According to Lisa Diamond, developer of the concept, women generally tend to be more fluid in their sexuality than men. [ 28 ]  In her study of lesbian, bisexual and unlabeled women, she found that these had a tendency of changing their sexual identities and behaviour over time. [ 29 ]
Other studies have shown as well greater fluidity among lesbians, compared with homosexual men. However, heterosexual men and women were equally stable in their orientation, and bisexual men and women were similarly unstable. [ 30 ]


Often, sexual orientation and  sexual orientation identity  are not distinguished, which can impact accurately assessing sexual identity and whether or not sexual orientation is able to change; sexual orientation identity can change throughout an individual's life, and may or may not align with biological sex, sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation. [ 31 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ]  Sexual orientation is stable and unlikely to change for the vast majority of people, but some research indicates that some people may experience change in their sexual orientation, and this is more likely for women than for men. [ 34 ]  The American Psychological Association distinguishes between sexual orientation (an innate attraction) and sexual orientation identity (which may change at any point in a person's life). [ 35 ]


Women who remained in relationships with  male-to-female   transsexuals  maintained a heterosexual identity, yet reported changes in their sexual lives. (Aramburu Alegría, 2012) [ 36 ]  Some women reported that their relationships no longer included sexual activity, while others reported that things were still changing. According to Lippa (2006), heterosexual women with high sex drives tend to be attracted to both women and men, whereas heterosexual men with high sex drives are only associated with attraction to either women or men, suggesting greater plasticity in women's sexuality. [ 37 ]


Lesbians are more likely than gay men to engage in heterosexual sex, suggesting greater variability in their sexuality. [ 38 ] [ 39 ]  No research has been done on people with gender variation, such as  transgender  people.


Little is known about erotic plasticity in  transsexuals .  Sexual reassignment surgery  and  hormone therapy  (i.e.  testosterone ) in  female-to-male transsexuals  produce an increase in their sexual desire, but it is uncertain how erotic plasticity plays a role. [ 40 ]  Heterosexual female-to-male transsexuals – those who are sexually attracted to women – have more sexual partners than nonheterosexual female-to-male transsexuals, but again, erotic plasticity's role in this - if one actually exists - is uncertain. [ 41 ]


In her Ph.D. dissertation in 2009,  Lorraine Benuto  attempted to create a scale measuring erotic plasticity. [ 3 ]  Her scale, the EPQ ( Erotic Plasticity Questionnaire ), contained the following subscales, each believed to be a component of erotic plasticity:


When administered to a test population, women scored higher on fluidity, attitude-behaviour inconsistency, and overall erotic plasticity. There were no significant gender differences in changes in attitudes, perception of choice and sociocultural influences. The test also did not demonstrate any relationship between erotic plasticity and locus of control, sexual liberality and openness. Benuto also did not find a negative correlation between sex drive and EPQ score, which is unexpected. This is either because of a methodological problem in the scale or a problem in Baumeister's hypothesis that plasticity is related to sex drive. Furthermore, the subscales of the EPQ did not correlate well with each other, leading Benuto to hypothesize that perhaps there is not just one type of plasticity, but plasticities, and erotic plasticity is a much more complicated construct than initially imagined.


Contrary to the numerous studies Baumeister cites as evidence of sociocultural influences on women, Benuto did not find a gender difference on the sociocultural influence subscale. However, Baumeister's cited studies were not  self-report studies , whereas Benuto's scale was, which may have contributed to the discrepancy.


Baumeister provided three applications of the theory of erotic plasticity in  sex therapy . [ 2 ]  Sex differences in erotic plasticity can change how therapists will approach providing sex therapy to men and women. Baumeister found that  cognitive therapy  would be a better approach for female patients because sexual responses and behaviours are influenced by what things mean, therefore working with women's interpretations and understanding of these responses and behaviours would be of greatest benefit. Physiological therapy, such as  hormone therapy , would therefore be best for male patients, since the focus would be more on the body than on the man's cognitions. Also, someone with high erotic plasticity will have less sexual self-knowledge and self-understanding than someone with low erotic plasticity since their behaviours and tastes are susceptible to change; this knowledge could be useful in helping someone perhaps confused about his or her sexual identity. Finally, prospects for successful sex therapy may be better for women than men, because if men develop a problem, their low plasticity will make it difficult to allow significant change after puberty.


Other useful applications of erotic plasticity in sex therapy include having women place much consideration in family and peer relationships, and any internal and external pressures that may be affecting their sexual identity, such as religious influences, cultural norms and politics. [ 42 ]


Baumeister's theory of female erotic plasticity has been met with some criticism. Some argue Baumeister makes causal inferences from correlational research when discussing how education affects men and women differently. [ 23 ]  He was also criticized for his use of extreme groups to support his predictions, such as people of the least and most education. [ 23 ]  Below are two posited alternate explanations of erotic plasticity:


In a 2000 paper,  Janet Shibley Hyde  and Amanda M. Durik argued that a more sociocultural explanation could be used to explain erotic plasticity. [ 43 ]  Firstly, education does not affect men's and women's sexual behaviour differently. Instead, it increases women's power, therefore women with the greatest amount of education are nearly equal in power with men. On the other hand, women who are the least educated have the least power relative to men. When comparing sexual behaviours of most educated and least educated men and women, they found that education actually increased the prevalence of many sexual activities in both sexes, including oral sex, anal sex, and having a same sex partner. The differences between men and women were much smaller in the most educated group than in the least educated group. Shibley Hyde and Durik speculate that more educated women are better at communicating their desires and have enough self-confidence to do so. They also may perform a greater variety of sexual activities because of their greater exposure to ideas and their commitment to learning.


Shibley Hyde and Durik also asserted that religion has a greater effect on women's sexual behaviours because a group with less power – in this case, women – will shape their behaviour to be more like the group with power, in this case, men. Therefore, women pay more attention to and conform more to religious teachings since it is the culture to which they must adapt. They back up this claim by presenting evidence that non-religious women and men are similar in the prevalence of all sexual activities, minus masturbation. On the contrary, Conservative Protestant men and women differed significantly in all sexual behaviours.


They also argued for a modern sexual double standard that is more restrictive of female sexuality than male sexuality. They claimed that now, extramarital sex is more tolerated in women than in the past, but it is still less acceptable in women than in men. Therefore, these different gender roles will exert powerful influences on both men's and women's behaviour and sexuality. Finally, they claim that the greater evidence for attitude-behaviour inconsistency in women is not the result of high erotic plasticity, but because of men's greater interpersonal power. Although women may, for example, have the intention of using condoms or have negative attitudes towards anal sex, men may use their greater power to do what it is they desire if it differs from what their partner wants.


Benuto (2009) argues that heightened fluidity and sociocultural influences, two components of erotic plasticity, actually stand in opposition to each other. Although scientific evidence exists that women's sexual behaviours are indeed more fluid than men's, Benuto argues there is nothing in society that would encourage women to engage in same-sex behaviour. She hypothesizes that, based on the properties of her EPQ scale (Benuto, 2009), [ 3 ]  erotic plasticity may not be a unitary construct like Baumeister initially proposed, and that there perhaps may be multiple "plasticities", each composed of different constructs. Such constructs include sociocultural influences,  locus of control  and changes of sexual attitudes over time. Finally, it is possible that the heightened attitude-behaviour inconsistency in women could either be due to the powerlessness of women, or women wanting to maintain harmony and nurturance in their relationship.


Eroticism  (from  Ancient Greek     ἔρως  ( érōs )  'love, desire' and    -ism ) is a quality that causes  sexual  feelings, [ 1 ]  as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the  aesthetics  of  sexual desire , sensuality, and  romantic love . That quality may be found in any form of  artwork , including  painting ,  sculpture ,  photography ,  drama ,  film ,  music , or  literature . It may also be found in  advertising . The term may also refer to a state of  sexual arousal [ 1 ]  or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual  impulse ,  desire , or pattern of thoughts.


As French novelist  Honoré de Balzac  stated, eroticism is dependent not just upon an individual's  sexual morality , but also the culture and time in which an individual resides. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]


Because the nature of what is erotic is fluid, [ 5 ]  early definitions of the term attempted to conceive eroticism as some form of sensual or romantic love or as the human sex drive ( libido ); for example, the  Encyclopédie  of 1755 states that the erotic "is an epithet which is applied to everything with a connection to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize...a dissoluteness, an excess". [ 6 ]  Libertine literature such as those by  John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester  evoked eroticism to the readers. [ how? ] [ 7 ]


Because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer's culture and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic, [ 8 ] [ 9 ]  critics have often [ how often? ]  confused eroticism with  pornography , with  anti-pornography  activist  Andrea Dworkin  saying, "Erotica is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer." [ 10 ]  This confusion, as  Lynn Hunt  writes, "demonstrate[s] the difficulty of drawing... a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the pornographic": "the history of the separation of pornography from eroticism... remains to be written". [ 11 ]


Audre Lorde  recognises eroticism and pornography as “two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual”, defining the erotic as “a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.” [ 12 ]  In her 1978 essay,  Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power , Lorde identifies the erotic as a source of creative power that is deeply rooted in a spiritual plane of unrecognised or unexpressed feeling and sensation.


Influenced by  Sigmund Freud , [ 13 ]   psychotherapists  have turned to Greek philosophy for an understanding of eros' heightened  aesthetic . [ 14 ]  For  Plato ,  Eros  takes an almost  transcendent  manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the object/other: "the true order of going...to the things of love, is to use the beauties of earth as steps...to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair actions, and from fair actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty". [ 15 ]


Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to the  Age of Enlightenment , [ 16 ]  when "in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined the erotic as that which concerned love...eroticism was the intrusion into the public sphere of something that was at base private". [ 17 ]  This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher  Georges Bataille , who argued that eroticism performs a function of dissolving boundaries between human subjectivity and humanity, a transgression that dissolves the rational world but is always temporary, [ 18 ]  as well as that, "Desire in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the taboo. It presupposes man in conflict with himself". [ 19 ]  For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, "Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest...eroticism is assenting to life even in death". [ 20 ]


Queer theory  and  LGBTQ studies  consider the concept from a  non-heterosexual  perspective, viewing psychoanalytical and modernist views of eroticism as both archaic [ 21 ]  and  heterosexist , [ 22 ]  written primarily by and for a "handful of elite, heterosexual, bourgeois men" [ 23 ]  who "mistook their own repressed sexual proclivities" [ 24 ]  as the norm. [ 25 ]


Theorists like  Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , [ 26 ]   Gayle S. Rubin [ 27 ]  and  Marilyn Frye [ 28 ]  all write extensively about eroticism from a heterosexual,  lesbian  and  separatist  point of view, respectively, seeing eroticism as both a political force [ 29 ]  and cultural critique [ 30 ]  for marginalized groups, or as  Mario Vargas Llosa  summarized: "Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty". [ 31 ]


Audre Lorde , a lesbian Caribbean-American writer and outspoken  feminist , called  the erotic  a source of power specifically identified with the female, often corrupted or distorted by oppression, since it poses the challenge of change. "For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives". [ 32 ]  In "The Uses of the Erotic" within  Sister Outsider , she discusses how the erotic comes from the sharing of joy, "whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual" and provides the basis on which understanding provides a foundation for acknowledging difference. [ 12 ]  Lorde suggests that if we suppress the erotic rather than recognize its presence, it takes on a different form. Rather than enjoying and sharing with one another, it becomes objectifying, which she says translates into abuse as we attempt to hide and suppress our experiences. [ 33 ]


Eroto-comatose lucidity  is a technique of  sex magic  known best by its formulation by English author and  occultist   Aleister Crowley  in 1912, but which has several variations and is used in a number of ways by different spiritual communities. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  A common form of the ritual uses repeated  sexual stimulation  (but not to physical orgasm) to place the individual in a state between full sleep and full wakefulness as well as exhaustion, allowing the practitioner to commune with their god. [ 1 ]


Aleister Crowley documented the ritual. [ 1 ]  However, Crowley may not have been the originator of the rite, and may have learned about it from a female student first. [ 1 ]


Crowley wrote in his work  De Arte Magica  that eroto-comatose lucidity is also called the "sleep of Siloam" [ 3 ]  and Newcomb notes that this rite preceded Crowley. [ 3 ]  He points out that  Paschal Beverly Randolph  ("arguably the single most important figure in the rise of modern sexual magic") [ 4 ]  called this ritualistic state the "sleep of Sialam." [ 3 ]  Randolph first discussed the "sleep of Sialam" in his 1873 work  Ravalette,  but described it at the time as a once-in-a-century prophetic trance. [ 5 ]  In later writings, Randolph used the term as a more general form of clairvoyant sleep used to understand spiritual things. [ 5 ]


Helena Blavatsky  may also have taught the technique, calling it the "Sleep of Siloam." [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  In her 1877 work  Isis Unveiled , Blavatsky wrote that the trance must be induced through drugs rather than sexual exhaustion. [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  Later, Blavatsky altered her understanding of the rite to mean that drug-induced trance-like state in which a new initiate first comprehends spiritual things. [ 5 ]  This was described in Blavatsky's 1888 work  Secret Doctrine, [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  and she taught that the ritualistic state allowed the individual to either commune with the gods, descend into hell, or perform spiritual acts. [ 3 ]  Blavatsky taught this was a deep sleep, but Newcomb notes that modern ritualists do not enter sleep but rather a state between sleep and wakefulness. [ 3 ]


Sexual practices used for spiritual purposes are not new.  Eastern traditions within  Taoism  and  tantrism  also incorporated sexual rituals. [ 6 ]


Crowley first described the rite in a tract titled  Eroto-Comatose Lucidity. [ 7 ]  The ritual as described by Crowley involves one "ritualist-seer" and several aides. [ 1 ] [ 8 ]   Donald Michael Kraig  advises that the more sexually experienced the aides are, the better the ritual works, [ 1 ]  and that the aides be members of the opposite sex. [ 1 ]  Religious scholar  Hugh Urban , however, concludes that, for Crowley, aides of the same gender as the ritualist (e.g., homosexual activity) was the highest stage of practice of this ritual. [ 8 ]


In the first part of the ritual, the aides seek repeatedly both to arouse the ritualist sexually and to exhaust her or him. [ 1 ] [ 8 ]  The ritualist is generally passive in this regard. [ 9 ]  There is disagreement over whether sexual arousal is enough, or sexual orgasm must be eventually accomplished. Crowley and others argue that orgasm must be avoided. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 10 ]  Although later practitioners conclude that orgasm does not need to be avoided, that was how Crowley originally formulated the ritual. [ 2 ]  Most practitioners agree with Crowley that every means of arousal may be used, such as physical stimulation, genital stimulation, psychological stimulation, devices (such as  sex toys ), or drugs (an  entheogen  like  hashish ,  marijuana , or other  aphrodisiacs ). [ 1 ] [ 8 ]  There should be enough aides so that if one aide tires another may take his or her place. [ 1 ]  Eventually, the ritualist will tend to sink into sleep due to exhaustion. [ 1 ]


In the second part of the ritual, the aides seek to come close to awakening the ritualist through sexual stimulation alone. [ 1 ] [ 10 ]  The goal is not to fully awaken her or him, but rather to bring them to the brink of wakefulness. [ 1 ]  Not all authors agree that the ritualist seer will be in a state between sleep and wakefulness, instead asserting that exhaustion will lead to a trance, or "sleep of lucidity". [ 11 ]  The ritualist should be neither too tired or too uncomfortable to aid in the trance-like state. [ 10 ]


Once the ritualist reaches a near-waking state, sexual stimulation must stop. [ 1 ]  The ritualist-seer is then permitted to sink back toward (but not into) sleep. [ 1 ]   This step is repeated indefinitely until the ritualist reaches a state between sleep and wakefulness in which communing with a higher power may occur. [ 1 ] [ 10 ] [ 12 ]  Some say a goal during this time is to not become "lost" in the trance-like state, but to remain open without directing an outcome. [ 2 ]  The ritualist may also conduct spiritual work while in this state, or witness mystical events. [ 3 ]  Exhaustion may not be necessary for the ritualist who is "bodily pure," Crowley writes. [ 3 ]


The rite may end in one of two ways. The ritualist may simply sink into total sleep, [ 1 ]  or they may achieve  orgasm  and then sink into a deep and "undisturbable" sleep. [ 1 ] [ 8 ]   Jason Newcomb , however, concludes that sexual exhaustion achieved through repeated orgasm may also lead to the ritualistic state and does not necessarily end the rite. [ 3 ]  Frater U. D., however, has argued that the orgasmic moment should not be lost and that the individual should strive to use the moment for spiritual or magical purposes. [ 2 ]


Upon awakening, the ritualist seer could, for example, write down everything they had experienced, witnessed, or been told. [ 1 ]  At least one author concludes that what is desired should be focused on throughout the rite, and that the individual should not be distracted from it or free of desire. [ 10 ]


Crowley also intended that when men do the ritual, any  semen  (or "elixir") produced by orgasm must be consumed by the ritualist, possibly in a Crowley inspired " Cake of Light ". [ 2 ]


A similar rite of sexual exhaustion described by Crowley leads not to spiritual communing but a sort of  vampirism . [ 13 ]  In this rite, the aides use only the mouth to sexually exhaust the ritualist, and the intent of the aides must not be to assist the ritualist but rather to transfer the ritualist's own magical strength to themselves. [ 13 ]  Crowley claimed that when the ritualist is pushed to the point of death from sexual exhaustion in this way, the ritualist's spirit is enslaved by the aides and his or her power transferred to the aides. [ 13 ]


Michael W. Ford  has argued for alternative rites as well. His concept of  Luciferianism  incorporates Crowley's ideas about sexual exhaustion, but concludes that the ritualist's will is what sends the spirit forth to bond with higher power. [ 14 ]  Ford argues for two methods of attaining sexual exhaustion and ascension: "Via Lilith" and "Via Cain."  In the Lilith ritual, the room should be draped in crimson and black; music which inspires dark emotions, contains chanting, or contains horrific sounds should be played; and images of  Lilith ,  Lilitu , and  succubi  should hang in the room. [ 14 ]  In the Cain ritual, both the room and ritualist should be adorned with  fetishes  of the  Horned God  and symbols of  Cain , and  Middle Eastern music  should be played. [ 14 ]


The rite and other sex magic practices have had a limited, marginal influence. Crowley's concepts have been seized on by the bands  Killing Joke  and  Psychic TV . [ 15 ]


Erotophilia  is a personality trait which assesses an individual's disposition to respond to sexual cues in either a positive or negative manner; it is measured on a continuous scale, ranging from  erotophobia  to  erotophilia . [ 1 ]


Erotophilic individuals tend to  masturbate  and fantasize more frequently, think about sex more often, have sexual intercourse for the first time at an earlier age, have more past sexual experiences and have a greater number of intercourse partners than erotophobic individuals. Female erotophiles are also more likely to engage in  breast self-examinations , schedule regular  gynecological  visits, and engage in preventive behaviors regarding  sexually transmitted infections  (e.g., more frequent  condom  use). [ 1 ]


Erotophobic  people tend to score higher on  authoritarianism  and the need for achievement, have more traditional sex roles, experience more sex  guilt  and have more negative reactions to masturbation and  homosexuality  than erotophiles. [ 1 ]


This dimension of personality is used to assess openness to sex and sexuality. It is an important dimension to measure because of the health and safety risks associated with poor sexual education. Research on this personality dimension has shown a correlation between erotophilia and a more consistent use of contraception, as well as a greater knowledge about human sexuality. The word erotophilia is derived from the name of  Eros , the  Greek god  of romantic  love , and  philia  ( φιλία ), an  ancient Greek word for love . Researchers occasionally use the term "sex-positive" interchangeably with erotophilia and "sex-negative" interchangeably with  erotophobia .


Extended female sexuality  is where the female of a species  mates  despite being infertile. [ 1 ]  In most species, the female only engages in  copulation  when she is  fertile . However, extended sexuality has been documented in  Old World primates ,  pair bonded birds  and some  insects [ 2 ]  (such as  carrion beetles [ 3 ] [ 4 ] ). Extended sexuality is most prominent in human females who exhibit no change in copulation rate across the  ovarian cycle . [ 5 ]


Although this behaviour incurs costs to females, such as energy and time, [ 2 ]  many researchers have proposed reasons for its existence. These hypotheses include the male assistance hypothesis, which proposes that females gain non-genetic benefits (such as food and shelter) in exchange for sexual access. [ 1 ]  A sub-hypothesis of this is  Hrdy 's, proposing extended female sexuality as an  adaptive  process aiming to creating  paternity  confusion in males. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]  Alternative hypotheses, classified as 'male-driven', claim that extended female sexuality occurs due to male adaptations, resulting from an inability to detect fertility status in females or to dampen immune responses against sperm. [ 1 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]  Finally, Spuhler's hypothesis suggests that the behaviour may have arisen as an incidental effect of larger adrenal glands in humans. [ 1 ]


Although not found in all organisms, researchers have identified sexual intercourse patterns in certain animals that reflect extended female sexuality, such as in some old world primates, birds and insects. [ 2 ]  Extensive research has focused on analysing the  musk shrew 's rate of sexual behaviour. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  The only period that is associated with a drop in female  receptivity  to copulation is during mid to late  pregnancy ; yet, even at this time, occasional mating is reported. Therefore, researchers have concluded that this animal has similar sexual receptivity across infertile and fertile phases. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]  Within primates, research has consistently found evidence of extended female sexuality in the  rhesus monkey  and  chimpanzees . Both of these primates mate at all stages of the ovarian cycle, with only slight increases in sexual receptivity during  fertile stages , and decreases during  menstruation . [ 15 ]


Human females are considered to exhibit the greatest degree of extended female sexuality, with receptivity to sexual intercourse remaining constant across fertile and infertile phases of the reproductive cycle, including during  pregnancy ,  lactation , and in adolescence. In a study of 20,000 women from 13 countries, frequency of copulation was reportedly the same across all stages of the ovarian cycle. The only notable drop in sexual behaviour occurred during  menstruation . Therefore, women largely showed the same level of sexual behaviour in the non-fertile phases of their ovarian cycles as in the fertile phases. [ 5 ] [ 16 ]


Researchers have investigated the effect of  hormonal contraceptive  use in women on the frequency of sexual intercourse. [ 17 ]  Many of these contraceptives mimic a pregnancy state in females by altering hormone levels. Therefore, women who use these contraceptives do not experience the fertile phases of their cycles. In a systematic review, it appeared that the frequency of sexual intercourse was unaffected by contraceptive use in the majority of women. Although artificially created, this adds to the literature documenting the existence of copulation in humans during non-fertile periods. [ 18 ]


In order to encourage  mating  in non-conceptive periods and to encourage males to maintain their proximity, males must possess imperfect knowledge of the female's  fertility  status. This is achieved through  concealed ovulation  in most animals that exhibit extended female sexuality. [ 19 ]  A review of studies revealed that, in humans, females only exhibit subtle changes during  estrus , making it difficult for males to assess fertility with precision. [ 20 ]  In the  !Kung tribe , for instance, females lack any overt signals of fertility and are continuously  receptive  to sexual intercourse, encouraging males to remain and provide resources. [ 21 ]


Mating outside the fertile window of their  ovarian cycle  may incur considerable costs for females, such as in time and energy usage. To counteract these costs, the male assistance hypothesis argues that females exhibit extended sexuality to obtain resources from males. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]  These resources vary between species, but can include food, social alliance, and protection of the female and her offspring. [ 2 ]  For example, in the  Trobriand  tribe, men give women gifts in exchange for sexual access. [ 24 ]  From this hypothesis,  three predictions  can be made. [ 1 ]


Firstly, in species that demonstrate extended female sexuality, there should be evidence that the males provide non- genetic resources  to females. This prediction is supported in a variety of animals, [ 25 ]  with reviews revealing that male assistance (such as food or protection), is provided to certain  mammals  and communally breeding birds in exchange for mating outside the conceptive period. [ 26 ]  For example, female  blackbirds  that solicit mating outside the fertile period have increased  mate guarding  from their pair-bonded partner. This increases protection against other  sexually coercive  males and ensures the provision of other material benefits. [ 19 ] [ 27 ]  In a review investigating primates that exhibit extended female sexuality, it was noted that females engaging in extended sexuality benefited from increased offspring protection and paternal care from males. [ 28 ] [ 29 ]


Secondly, in order to outweigh the aforementioned costs,  mating  during infertile phases should increase females'  reproductive success  by increasing the number of offspring produced. Current research has only investigated this factor indirectly, and it has predominantly been investigated in insects. For example, when male insects deliver material benefits in exchange for sexual access, the reproductive success of the females increases with the number of matings. [ 1 ] [ 30 ]  It is important to note that the  mating  behaviour assessed was not limited to extended female sexuality. Hence, it only provides indirect support for the second prediction.


The final prediction of the male-assistance hypothesis has been extensively investigated. It predicts that females will exhibit differing  mate preferences  during fertile and non-fertile periods. Specifically, when fertile, the females will be sensitive to indicators of high genetic quality to increase the genetic quality of her  offspring . [ 5 ]  Conversely, outside of the fertile period, females will show a preference for males who can provide resources for her and her offspring. In most species, males of higher genetic quality offer fewer non-genetic resources (such as shelter and food) than those of lower quality, so females are likely to choose different males at each stage. [ 1 ]


Evidence for this prediction has been found in many different species. In  hens , those near peak fertility show a preference for socially dominant roosters with large  combs . Larger combs have been reliably associated with health and  offspring  survival so reliably indicate the genetic quality of the  rooster . [ 31 ]  In the non-fertile phases, hens mate more indiscriminately with less regard for the larger comb size. A similar pattern emerges in humans. A review of relevant studies on female preferences across the  ovarian cycle  reveals that women show a greater preference for  masculine  traits in fertile phases, especially for  short term mating  intention. This finding occurs across a variety of traits, such as masculine  voices , body and facial features,  scent , and  behavioural displays . [ 5 ]  The level of masculinity acts as an indicator of genetic quality through its association with high  testosterone . [ 32 ]  Similarly, women show a preference for higher levels of  symmetry , which is thought to indicate underlying developmental stability. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]  However, during infertile phases, women prefer males with lower masculinity and symmetry, as they tend to be more willing to offer material benefits. [ 2 ]


In addition to impacting  mating preferences , females have been found to exhibit differing mating behaviour at different cycle stages. An analysis of 121 studies with female birds showed that most mate outside their  pair bond  at a higher rate when fertile, especially when the primary partner possesses indicators of low quality  genes . During infertile phases, birds showed reductions in this behaviour, suggesting that the function of extended female sexuality is not to increase the genetic quality of offspring. [ 35 ]  In humans, females show increased motivation for mating with other males at  mid-cycle  without an accompanying increase in  copulation  with their long-term partner, especially if the partner was less physically attractive. [ 5 ]


Hrdy's hypothesis is an extension of the male assistance hypothesis, in that both hypotheses argue that women have evolved this adaptation to gain some tangible benefit from males. According to Hrdy's hypothesis, [ 6 ] [ 7 ]  extended female sexuality is an  adaptive  process with an aim of creating paternity confusion in their male counterparts. [ 1 ]  Paternity confusion refers to the male being unsure as to whether  offspring  are genetically his own. If the female mates with different males (at all points of her  ovarian cycle ) whilst concealing  fertility , then the males will inevitably have paternity confusion.


Paternity confusion is proposed to be an adaptive function for preventing  infanticide . [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 38 ]  Thus, if the female can successfully create paternity confusion, males will be less likely to kill her offspring, as the lack of paternity certainty means that they run the risk of killing their own genetic  offspring . Additionally, the males, in turn, are likely to protect the same female's offspring from infanticide that may be committed by other adults within the species. Once again, this is because they are uncertain about paternity, and aim to protect infants that are genetically their own.


Researchers have analysed the behaviour of  chimpanzees , with particular reference to  copulation calling . [ 39 ]  Copulation calling is a type of vocalisation used to attract mates. The calls are vocalised either before, during, or after sexual intercourse. Copulation calling, in line with Hrdy's hypothesis, may then be one way to ensure that the female can mate with as many different males as possible, causing paternity confusion. Indeed, the authors found that the probability of copulatory calling in female chimpanzees was not modulated by the ovarian phase of the female caller, thereby aiding paternity confusion. This paternity confusion ultimately ensures that the woman has access to the resources of a number of different males. These resources can be utilised by her, as well as by her offspring.


Criticism of Hrdy's hypothesis emerges from evidence which suggests that male primates can discriminate between their own offspring and the offspring of others. [ 40 ] [ 41 ]  In one study, researchers analysed the  DNA  of 75 juvenile  baboons  to conclude who fathered them. They found that males selectively cared for their own offspring, particularly when their offspring became involved in aggressive confrontations which posed the possibility of injuries or a threat to their  social standing . Evidently, if males can discriminate between their own offspring and the offspring of others, then there is no purpose in the female attempting to create paternity confusion during the pregnancy stage. This would be counter-intuitive, as, once the offspring is born, the males will know whether the offspring is, or is not, their own. Future research will need to be conducted in this vein to investigate whether males in other species show the ability to discriminate between their own offspring and the offspring of others before coming to any decisive conclusions.


Research is fairly consistent in the finding that species with concealed estrus mate at all stages of their ovarian cycle. For instance, mating activity in  assamese macaques  ( Macaca assamensis ) has been investigated. [ 42 ]  The researchers analysed the levels of  progesterone  in the monkeys, in order to establish the ovarian stage of the female, as progesterone peaks following the fertile window. They found that the females concealed estrus and were  sexually receptive  during the entire mating season. Concealed estrus and sexual receptivity (at all times of the ovarian cycle) aids paternity confusion. This is because the males are unsure of who mated with the female during her fertile period, and so do not know the identity of the father.


Hrdy's hypothesis has been criticised, however, on the basis that some female  primates  show both extended female sexuality and  sexual swellings . [ 1 ]  In terms of Hrdy's hypothesis, these two concepts are incompatible. Sexual swellings appear only during the most fertile phase of the female's ovarian cycle, with the purpose of advertising fertility. In sharp contrast, according to Hrdy, extended sexuality is adapted to  conceal fertility  and ensure mating across all stages of the ovarian cycle, to aid paternity confusion.


One of the alternative explanations is that extended female sexuality is 'male-driven'. This hypothesis is theoretically based on male uncertainty regarding the fertility status of females. [ 1 ]  Although some  physiological changes  occur during the fertile period that may act as reliable indicators (e.g. the concentration of  oestrogen  can change female  scent ), most species have not evolved signals advertising fertility (e.g.  sexual swellings ). [ 43 ]   Therefore, males will be unable to detect fertility with any precision. As a result, extended female sexuality is proposed as a male  sexually selected  trait. Males will pursue sexual access throughout the entirety of the ovarian cycle to increase their chances of  impregnating  the female. According to this hypothesis, females lack any benefit from this activity due to their inability to conceive, yet will be  coerced  by males to engage in sexual intercourse. [ 44 ]


Another hypothesis claiming that extended female sexuality has evolved to benefit males' interests is the 'training hypothesis'. It has been shown that women's  immune systems  attack foreign  antigens  found in  sperm . [ 1 ]  This may reduce the likelihood of conception and so reduce the  reproductive success  for the males. However, prior exposure to sperm antigens can dampen the immune response to increase the chances of successful conception and  implantation . [ 45 ]  Therefore, males may have evolved to train and 'condition' women's immune systems [ 46 ]  by copulating with females during infertile periods, in order to reduce the likelihood of her immune system reacting against the sperm's antigens from lack of exposure. Indeed, research has identified findings consistent with this hypothesis. [ 45 ]  Couples who had used condoms before trying to conceive were more likely to suffer complications, such as  pre-eclampsia , during pregnancy as a result of the woman's immune system having no prior exposure to the antigens in the sperm. In non-humans, an increased frequency of copulation in crickets has been shown to reduce the female's immune response to sperm. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]


This hypothesis has received much criticism  [ citation needed ] . For example, as all mammals experience the same immune system responses to sperm antigens, this hypothesis predicts that all mammals should exhibit extended female sexuality. However, only few species of mammals exhibit sexual behaviour outside the conceptive period. [ 47 ]  On the other hand, eclampsia is virtually unique to humans and thus the Training Hypothesis may only be relevant to extended female sexuality in humans. [ 48 ]


Spuhler's hypothesis is a stand-alone hypothesis of extended female sexuality. Spuhler suggests that extended female sexuality has evolved as a by-product of an adaptation in females that increases the levels of  adrenal   hormones. [ 1 ]  He proposed that secretion of higher levels of adrenal hormones were initially selected in women in order to increase endurance for walking or running. This hypothesis suggests that the larger  adrenal glands  may have contributed to the development of extended female sexuality as they are also the main source of ' libido  hormones', which increase the female's sexual drive. [ 49 ]  Thus, extended sexuality is little to do with sexual behavior, or evolutionary advantage, but rather it is just a by-product of hormones. [ 49 ] [ 50 ]  However, this hypothesis cannot account for extended female sexuality in invertebrates, which lack adrenal systems. [ 1 ]  Additionally Spuhler highlighted the existence of larger  thyroid  and  adrenal glands  in humans compared to other primates. However, no empirical evidence has established the link between hormones and endurance walking as an adaptation and extended female sexuality as a natural incidental effect. As there are costs to extended sexuality, it can be argued that selection would serve the dissociation of extended sexuality from the mechanism that affects endurance walking. [ 1 ]


Female hysteria  was once a common  medical diagnosis  for women. It was described as exhibiting a wide array of  symptoms , including  anxiety ,  shortness of breath ,  fainting , nervousness, exaggerated and impulsive  sexual desire ,  insomnia ,  fluid retention , heaviness in the abdomen,  irritability ,  loss of appetite  for food  or sex ,  sexually impulsive behavior , and a "tendency to cause trouble for others". [ 1 ]  It is no longer recognized by medical authorities as a  medical disorder . Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years in  Western Europe . [ 1 ]


In extreme cases, the woman may have been forced to enter an  insane asylum  or to undergo surgical  hysterectomy . [ 2 ]


In Western medicine, hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. Though it was categorized as a disease at the time, modern day analyses suggest that hysteria's symptoms can be explained by the normal fluctuations of women's sexuality. [ 1 ] [ 3 ]


The history of  hysteria  diagnoses can be traced to ancient times. Dating back to 1900 BC in  ancient Egypt , the first descriptions of hysteria within the female body were found recorded on the  Kahun Papyri . [ 4 ]  In this culture, the womb was thought capable of affecting much of the rest of the body, but "there is no warrant for the fanciful view that the ancient Egyptians believed that a variety of bodily complaints were due to an animate, wandering womb". [ 5 ]  In this time, the medical issue of  uterine prolapse  was also known. [ 5 ]


In  ancient Greece ,  wandering womb  was described in the gynecological treatise of the  Hippocratic Corpus , "Diseases of Women", [ 6 ]  which dates back to the 5th and 4th centuries BC.  Plato 's dialogue  Timaeus  compares a woman's  uterus  to a living creature that wanders throughout a woman's body, "blocking passages, obstructing breathing, and causing disease". [ 7 ]   Aretaeus of Cappadocia  described the uterus as "an animal within an animal" (less emotively, "a living thing inside a living thing"), which causes symptoms by wandering around a woman's body putting pressure on other organs. [ 6 ]


The standard cure for this "hysterical suffocation" was scent therapy, in which good smells were placed under a woman's genitals and bad odors at the nose. It was thought that fumigating the body with special fragrances would draw the uterus back to its natural spot in the female body. Foul smells applied to the nose would drive it down, and pleasant scents at the vulva would attract it. [ 7 ]   Sneezing could be also induced to drive the uterus back to its correct place. [ 6 ]


The concept of a pathological "wandering womb" was later viewed as the source of the term  hysteria , [ 7 ]  which stems from the  Greek  cognate of uterus, ὑστέρα ( hystera ), although the word  hysteria  does not feature in ancient Greek medicine: 'the noun is not used in this period'. [ 7 ]


Timaeus also argued that the uterus is "sad and unfortunate" when it does not join with a male or bear a child; thus, participating in sexual intercourse was an accepted treatment. [ 4 ]


While in the Hippocratic texts a wide range of women were susceptible – including in particular the childless –  Galen  in the 2nd century omitted the childless and saw the most vulnerable group as "widows, and particularly those who previously menstruated regularly, had been pregnant and were eager to have intercourse, but were now deprived of all this" ( On the Affected Parts , 6.5). [ 6 ]  He also denied that the womb could "move from one place to another like a wandering animal". [ 6 ]  His treatments included scent therapy and sexual intercourse, but also rubbing ointments into the external genitalia; this was to be performed by midwives, not physicians. [ 6 ]


While most Hippocratic writers saw the retention of menstrual blood in the womb as a key problem, for Galen, even more serious was the retention of "female seed". [ 8 ]  This was believed to be thinner than male seed and could be retained in the womb. [ 7 ]  Hysteria was referred to as "the widow's disease", because the female semen was believed to turn venomous if not released through regular climax or intercourse. [ 9 ]  If the patient was married, this could be completed by intercourse with their spouse.


Through the Middle Ages, another cause of dramatic symptoms could be found: demonic possession. [ 10 ]  It was thought that demoniacal forces were attracted to those who were prone to  melancholy , particularly single women and the elderly. Undiagnosable or incurable patients who were subsequently thought to have been possessed by the devil often exhibited symptoms that would indicate mental illness in modern day. [ 4 ]  After the 17th century, the correlation of demonic possession and hysteria were gradually discarded and instead was described as behavioral deviance, a medical issue. [ 11 ]


In the 16th and 17th centuries, hysteria was still believed to be due to the retention of humour or fluids in the uterus, sexual deprivation, or by the tendency of the uterus to wander around the female body causing irritability and suffocation. Marriage, and regular sexual encounters with her husband, were still the most highly recommended long-term course of treatment for a woman with hysteria to purge the uterus of any built-up fluid. [ 4 ] [ 12 ]  Self treatment such as  masturbation , was not recommended and was also considered taboo. Semen was also thought to have healing properties, and physicians regarded all contraceptive practices as injurious to women. Giovanni Matteo Ferrari da Gradi cited marriage and childbearing as a cure for the disease. If pleasure was obtained from them, then hysteria could be cured. [ 12 ]  If a woman was unmarried, or widowed, manual stimulation by a midwife involving certain oils and scents was recommended to purge the uterus of any fluid retention. Lack of marriage was also thought to be the cause of most melancholy in single women, such as nuns or widows. Studies of the causes and effects of hysteria were continued in the 16th and 17th century by medical professionals such as  Ambroise Pare ,  Thomas Sydenham , and  Abraham Zacuto , who published their findings furthering medical knowledge of the disease, and informing treatment. [ 12 ] [ 4 ]  Physician Abraham Zacuto writes in his  Praxis Medica Admiranda  from 1637:


Because of retention of the sexual fluid, the heart and surrounding areas are enveloped in a morbid and moist exudation: this is especially true of the more lascivious females, inclined to venery, passionate women who are most eager to experience physical pleasure; if she is of this type she cannot ever be relieved by any aid except that of her parents who are advised to find her a husband. Having done so the man's strong and vigorous intercourse alleviated the frenzy.


There was continued debate about whether it was morally acceptable for a physician to remove excess female seed through genital manipulation of the female patient; Pieter van Foreest (Forestus) and Giovanni Matteo da Grado (Gradus) insisted on using midwives as intermediaries, and regarded the treatment as the last resort. [ 13 ]


In the 18th century, hysteria slowly became associated with mechanisms in the brain rather than the uterus. This is also when it was noted both men and women could contract hysteria. [ 14 ]  French physician  Philippe Pinel  freed hysteria patients detained in Paris' Salpêtrière  sanatorium  on the basis that kindness and sensitivity were needed to formulate good care.


Another French physician, Francois de Sauvages de La Croix believed some common signs of female hysteria were "tears and laughter, oscitation [yawning], pandiculation (stretching and yawning), suffocating angina (chest pain) or dyspnea (shortness of breath), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), delirium, a close and driving pulse, a swollen abdomen, cold extremities, and abundant and clear urine." [ 14 ]


Anton Mesmer , a German physician, came up with the theory of “ animal magnetism ”, later referred to as  mesmerism . Mesmer saw “animal magnetism” as energy that flowed through the nervous system. He would try to manipulate that “energy” to relieve his patients of hysteria. One of the methods he used was having his patients hold onto metal rods that were electrically charged. Mesmer's findings on "animal magnetism" were later discredited. [ 15 ]


Jean-Martin Charcot  argued that hysteria derived from a neurological disorder and asserted that it was more common in men than women. [ 4 ]  Charcot's theories of hysteria being a physical condition of the mind and not of the body led to a more scientific and analytical approach to hysteria in the 19th century. He dispelled the beliefs that hysteria had anything to do with the supernatural and attempted to define it medically. [ 16 ]  Charcot's use of photography, [ 17 ]  and the resulting concretization of women's expressions of health and distress, continued to influence women's experiences of seeking healthcare. [ 18 ]  Though older ideas persisted during this era, over time female hysteria began to be thought of less as a physical ailment and more of a psychological one. [ 19 ]


George Beard, a physician who cataloged an incomplete list including 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria, [ 20 ]  claimed that almost any ailment could fit the diagnosis. Physicians thought that the stress associated with the typical female life at the time caused civilized women to be both more susceptible to nervous disorders and to develop faulty reproductive tracts. [ 21 ]  One American physician expressed pleasure in the fact that the country was "catching up" to Europe in the prevalence of hysteria. [ 20 ]


In 1875,  Edward Hammond Clarke  wrote “Sex in Education”, a book discussing his views on men and women's education. Clarke believed that if women were educated, the energy in their bodies would go to the brain instead of the  reproductive organs , hindering childbirth. He cited clothing, food, exercise, and education as causes of “ Leucorrhoea ,  amenorrhea ,  dysmenorrhea , chronic and acute  ovaritis ,  prolapsis utari , hysteria,  neuralgia ”. Clarke believed that men came into the world fully developed, while women did not, and that imposing men's education on women would worsen their problem. His views were condemned by many women's organizations. [ 22 ]


According to Pierre Roussel and  Jean-Jacques Rousseau , femininity was a natural and essential desire for women: "Femininity is for both authors an essential nature, with defined functions, and the disease is explained by the non-fulfillment of natural desire." [ 4 ]  It was during the Industrial Revolution and the major development of cities and modern lifestyles that disruption of this natural appetite was thought to cause lethargy or melancholy, leading to hysteria. [ 4 ]  At the time female patients sought medical practitioners for the treatment of hysteria with massage. The rate of hysteria was so great in the industrial period that women were prone to carry smelling salts about their person in case they swooned, reminiscent of  Hippocrates ' theory of using odors to coerce the uterus back into place. For physicians, manual massage treatment was becoming laborious and time-consuming, and they were seeking a way to increase productivity. [ 12 ]


Rachel Maines  hypothesized that physicians from the  classical era  until the early 20th century commonly treated hysteria by  manually stimulating the genitals  of female patients to the point of  orgasm , which was denominated "hysterical paroxysm", and that the inconvenience of this may have motivated the original development of and market for the  vibrator . [ 1 ]  Other hysteria treatments included pregnancy, marriage, heterosexual sex, and the application of smelling oils on female genitals. [ 23 ]  Maines's theory that hysteria was treated by manually stimulating female patients' genitalia to orgasm is widely repeated in the literature on female anatomy and sexuality. [ 24 ]  However, some historians dispute Maines's claims regarding the prevalence of this treatment for hysteria and its relevance to the invention of the vibrator, describing them as a distortion or overgeneralization of the evidence. [ 25 ] [ 26 ] [ 27 ]  In 2018,  Hallie Lieberman  and Eric Schatzberg of  Georgia Institute of Technology  challenged Maines's claims for the use of electromechanical vibrators to treat hysteria in the 19th century. [ 28 ]  Maines stated that her theory of the prevalence of masturbation for hysteria and its relevance to the invention of the vibrator is a  hypothesis  and not proven fact. [ 24 ]


Frederick Hollick  was a firm believer that a main cause of hysteria was  licentiousness  present in women. [ 29 ]


In the 1910s, psychiatrist L. E. Emerson was heavily involved in treating patients of hysteria at the  Boston Psychopathic Hospital . Emerson published  case studies  on his patients, who were often "young, single, native-born, and white" and either had been raped or had a lack of healthy sexual relationships. [ 3 ]  One of his more famous works was a case study of a woman called "Miss A". In the study, Emerson summarized the patient's experience with sexual violence, which he said that most women with hysteria had encountered. [ 30 ]  Miss A practiced self harm, which Emerson deduced to be a release for the sexual assault she had previously experienced and a substitute for masturbation. Another case study was of Sally Hollis, a woman who often viewed her experience with sexual assault in terms of her own failures and female aggression. Believing the roots of hysteria lay in sexual conflict, Emerson noted the theme of lack of sexual knowledge amongst these women, viewing them as repressed. [ 3 ]  Their sexual ignorance ranged from lack of knowledge about menstruation to conception to the process of giving birth.


Some women purposefully sought out the "hysteric" diagnosis because they believed it could provide an answer to what they were experiencing. Most of the patients that Emerson saw were single because they were either young or had purposefully avoided men. Author Elizabeth Lunbeck wrote that these women typically fell into three categories. They either withdrew from the heterosexual sphere entirely despite wanting to participate; they experienced something that was sexually unwanted but would experience guilt over what happened like Sally Hollis; or they were haunted by their sexual traumas in the past. [ 3 ]  As hysteria was becoming a more prominent diagnosis amongst women, police began treating any report for sexual assault or rape with skepticism, with the common belief at the time being that "sexual assault is physically impossible without consent". [ 3 ]


During the early 20th century, the number of women diagnosed with female hysteria sharply declined. Some medical authors claim that the decline was due to gaining a greater understanding of the psychology behind  conversion disorders  such as hysteria. [ 31 ]  The understanding of the field of psychiatry was becoming more nuanced at the time, with  Sigmund Freud 's introduction of the theory of  psychoanalysis  and his other ideas surrounding women and their sexuality.


With so many possible symptoms, historically hysteria was considered a  catch-all diagnosis  that any unidentifiable ailment could be assigned. [ 4 ]  As diagnostic techniques improved, the number of ambiguous cases that might have been attributed to hysteria declined. For instance, before the introduction of  electroencephalography ,  epilepsy  was frequently confused with hysteria. [ 32 ]


Sigmund Freud  claimed that hysteria was not physical at all but rather an internal emotional condition brought on by trauma that could affect both men and women and prevented them from enjoying sex in the normal way. [ 12 ] [ 16 ]  This would later lead to Freud's development of the  Oedipus complex , which connotes femininity as a failure, or lack of masculinity. [ 16 ]  Although some earlier studies had posited that men were also prone to hysteria, over time, the condition was related mainly to issues of femininity as the continued study of hysteria took place only in women. [ 33 ]


Many cases that had previously been labeled hysteria were reclassified by Freud as  anxiety   neuroses . [ 32 ]  It was Freud's theory that hysteria may have been related to the unconscious mind and separate from the conscious mind or the ego. [ 34 ]  He was convinced that deep conflicts in the mind, some concerning instinctual drives for sex and aggression, were driving the behavior of those with hysteria. The illness of hysteria is an "expression of the impossibility of the fulfillment of the sexual drive because of reminiscence of the Oedipal conflict". [ 35 ]  This hypothesis is a driving force behind the psychological theory of  psychoanalysis , as a way to help patients that had been diagnosed with hysteria reduce internal conflicts causing physical and emotional suffering.


New theories relating to hysteria came from speculation; doctors and physicians could not connect symptoms to the disorder, causing it to decline rapidly as a diagnosis. [ 31 ]  Hysteria was officially removed from the  DSM  in 1980.


Today, female hysteria is no longer a recognized illness, but different manifestations of hysteria are recognized in other conditions such as  schizophrenia ,  borderline personality disorder ,  conversion disorder , and  anxiety attacks . [ 36 ]


In the 1980s, feminists began to reclaim the term "hysteria," using it as a symbol of the systematic oppression of women and reclaiming the term for themselves. [ 6 ]  The idea of hysteria became an embodiment of the oppressions against women, especially among  sex-positive feminists , who believed sexual repression being considered hysteria was a form of oppression. [ 6 ]  The idea stemmed from the belief that hysteria was a kind of pre-feminist rebellion against the oppressive defined social roles placed upon women. Feminist writers such as  Catherine Clément  and  Hélène Cixous  wrote in  The Newly Born Woman  from a place of opposition to the theories proposed in psychoanalytical works. Clément, Cixous and other feminist writers pushed back against the notion that socially constructed femininities and hysteria are natural to being female. [ 6 ] [ 16 ]  Feminist social historians of both sexes argue that hysteria is caused by women's oppressed social roles, rather than by their bodies or psyches. [ 37 ]


" The Yellow Wallpaper " is a short story by  Charlotte Perkins Gilman  that demonstrates the mistreatment of hysteria and illuminates the deep-rooted misogynistic systems that existed at the time. Published in 1892, this piece is an early example of media in which medical care is interrogated through a feminist lens. In the story, the female protagonist is confined to an upstairs room at the instruction of her husband, who is a physician, which paradoxically worsens her condition. Over the course of her lengthy confinement, the protagonist becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper and believes she can see a woman inside it as her mental state deteriorates.


The 1995 film  Safe  explores the harmful effects of sexism in healthcare on the psychological and physical health of women and girls. It explores the connections between mental illness, the misdiagnosis of mental illness when physical conditions proved difficult to diagnose, feminism, and healthcare disparities that result from deep-rooted sexism in the medical industry. [ 38 ]


Promiscuity  tends to be frowned upon by many societies that expect most members to have  committed, long-term relationships .
Among women, as well as men, inclination for sex outside committed relationships is correlated with a high  libido ; [ 1 ]  however, evolutionary biology, as well as social and cultural factors, have also been observed to influence sexual behavior and opinion. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]


Studies have related  sociosexual orientation  to  sex drive , especially in women, where the higher the sex drive the less restricted the sociosexual orientation, or interest in sex outside  committed relationships . [ 1 ]  Nevertheless, pertaining to the  nature and nurture  debate, there is some data emphasizing cultural factors, more so for women than for men. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]  One review assessed that sociosexuality was affected almost equally by  heredity  and environment unshared with siblings; shared environment had relatively little effect. [ 4 ]


Men tend to have higher sociosexuality scores and be more unrestricted than women across a variety of cultures. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  However, there is more variability in scores within each gender than between men and women, indicating that although the average man is less restricted than the average woman, individuals may vary in sociosexual orientation regardless of gender. [ 7 ]


Body esteem  in women showed a significant positive correlation with sociosexual unrestrictedness. [ 8 ]  So did  hip-to-waist ratio  and two measures of  virilization . [ 8 ]  Finally, still in the same study,  alcohol  consumption correlated, too, but it is unclear whether the latter promoted the former or vice versa, or if a third variable was at play. [ 8 ]


Bisexual  women tend to be less restricted in their sociosexual attitudes than both homo- and heterosexual women. In sociosexual behavior also, bisexual women reported being more unrestricted, followed by homo- and then heterosexual women. [ 6 ]


Social power  has been popularly associated with sexual  infidelity  among men; experimental psychologists have linked power with sexual infidelity among women also. A Dutch study involving a large survey of 1,561 professionals, concluded that "The relationship between power and infidelity was the same for women as for men, and for the same reason. These findings suggest that the common assumption (and often-found effect) that women are less likely than men to engage in infidelity is, at least partially, a reflection of traditional gender-based differences in power that exist in society." [ 9 ]


Church -attending women score lower on promiscuity than other women, while men appear to lack this correlation. [ 10 ]


Men and women leading  polyandrous  lifestyles have higher levels of  testosterone . However, it is unclear whether higher levels of testosterone cause increased sex drive and in turn multiple partners or whether sexual activity with multiple partners causes the increase in testosterone. [ 11 ]  Sociosexuality in women is positively correlated with two measures of  prenatal  exposure to  androgens —right  digit ratio , and scores on the  Vandenberg Mental Rotation test —providing some limited support to the  virilization  hypothesis of female promiscuity [ 8 ]  (see also  Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation ). The aforementioned hypothesis is not at all mutually exclusive with other hypotheses.


Libido is correlated with the  menstrual cycle  so that many women experience an increase in sexual desire several days immediately before  ovulation . [ 12 ]  Testosterone levels rise gradually from about the 24th day of a woman's menstrual cycle until ovulation on about the 14th day of the next cycle. [ 13 ]


It is common for sex drive to diminish dramatically after  menopause . [ 14 ]  A number of studies, including  Alfred Kinsey 's, have concluded that the average age group in which women are the most active sexually is their mid-thirties, one study liberally estimating 27–45 as the limits of the age group (the average man peaks later). [ 15 ]  Women in this age group typically report having sexual fantasies greater in number and intensity, engaging in sexual activity more frequently, and being more interested in casual sex. [ 16 ]


One study in  sexual antagonism  suggested a possible genetic link between female  androphilic  promiscuity and  male androphilia :  Samoan  tribal women exhibited a correlation between reproductive output and the likeliness of having androphilic grandsons, though not nephews (see also  Fa'afafine ). [ 17 ]


Rate of  molecular evolution  of the seminal protein gene  SEMG2  correlates with levels of female promiscuity. [ 18 ]


Pathological overactivity of the  dopaminergic   mesolimbic pathway  in the brain—forming either psychiatrically, during  mania , [ 19 ]  or pharmacologically, as a side effect of  dopamine agonists , specifically  D 3 -preferring agonists [ 20 ] [ 21 ] —is associated with various  addictions [ 22 ] [ 23 ]  and has been shown to result among some subjects of either sex in overindulgent, sometimes  hypersexual , behavior. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ]


Bateman's principle  implies that females are choosy because there is little evolutionary advantage for them to mate with multiple males. However, observation of many species, from  rabbits  to  fruit flies , has shown that females have more offspring if they mate with a larger number of males.  [ 24 ]
Exceptions to Bateman's principle abound, as do hypotheses explaining the evolution of female promiscuity. Females in fact have a lot to gain, depending on the species.


Many species once thought monogamous, including such birds as  swans , are now known to engage in  extra-pair copulation .


Thierry Lodé  found possible evolutionary explanations for  polyandry  relating to  sexual conflict , including mate competition and  inbreeding avoidance . [ 25 ]  The following list is incomplete.


Evolutionary psychologists  have theorized that taboos against female promiscuity evolved on the basis of  paternity anxiety . [ 30 ]   DNA tests  being yet to be invented, it was impossible to accurately determine paternity, unlike maternity. A male risked spending  paternal investment  on offspring who carried genetic material of another male rather than of his own. Evolutionarily, this translated into  sexual jealousy  and complex preventive customs (e.g.,  female genital mutilation , [ 31 ]   menstrual taboos [ 32 ] ).


Female promiscuity is a recurring theme in mythologies and religions. In the Middle East,  sacred prostitution , usually in honor of Goddess  Astarte , had been prevalent before the 4th century when Emperor  Constantine I  attempted to replace pagan traditions with  Christianity . [ 33 ]  In  Greek mythology ,  nymphs  are portrayed as dangerous nature spirits sexually uninhibited with humans; hence, the  Victorian  medical term  nymphomania .  Imperial Rome  is popularly seen as being sexually profligate, [ 34 ] [ 35 ]  and certain Roman empresses—such as  Theodora I ,  Messalina  and  Julia the Elder —gained in their lifetime a reputation of extreme promiscuity.


On the field of pleasure she [Empress Theodora] was never defeated. Often she would go picnicking with ten young men or more, in the flower of their strength and virility, and dallied with them all, the whole night through. ... and even thus found no allayment of her craving ... And though she flung wide three gates to the ambassadors of  Cupid , she lamented that nature had not similarly unlocked the straits of her bosom, that she might there have contrived a further welcome to his emissaries.


The  Bible  features many female personages identified as being promiscuous, among them the  Whore of Babylon ,  Princess Jezebel ,  Prophetess Jezebel ,  Gomer ,  Rahab ,  Salome , and  Potiphar's unnamed wife .


Yet she [Oholibah] became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. / There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.


Many cultures have historically laid much restriction on sexuality, most emphatically against immoderate expression of sexuality by women [ citation needed ] . In contrast, some recent ethical philosophies—both secular (coming from  individualism  and  sex-positive feminism ) and religious (e.g.,  Wicca ,  Thelema ,  LaVeyan Satanism )—either tolerate it or outright celebrate it.


We believe that it is fundamentally a radical political act to deprivatize sex. So much oppression in our culture is based on shame about sex: the oppression of women, of cultural minorities, oppression in the name of the (presumably asexual) family, oppression of sexual minorities. We are all oppressed. We have all been taught, one way or another, that our desires, our bodies, our sexualities, are shameful. What better way to defeat oppression than to get together in communities and celebrate the wonders of sex?


Public opinion has fluctuated over the centuries, with such downturns as  New England Puritanism  (1630–1660) and the  Victorian era  (1837–1901), when  hypersexuality  was often treated as an exclusively female disorder, diagnosed on the grounds of as little as masturbation alone (see  here ). [ 36 ]  Up until the late 20th century, women could be incarcerated for promiscuous behavior in so-called  Magdalene asylums , the last of which was closed in Ireland in 1996. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] [ 39 ]  From 1897 to 1958,  Ontario  used the  Female Refuges Act  to incarcerate women felt to be "incorrigible".


Following the  Industrial Revolution  (1760~1840), as Western countries underwent  industrialization  and  urbanization , education and employment opportunities were increasing for women. This environment gave rise in the late 19th century to the feminist ideal called "the  New Woman "—a personification of female economic, sexual and other autonomy—which had a profound influence on feminism well into the 20th century. It was not until the  Married Women's Property Act 1882  that female British citizens were no longer legally compelled, upon marriage, to transfer all their property to their husbands. The  women's movement  was closely  allied  with the  free love  movement, whose advocates had a strong belief that a woman ought to be herself  sovereign over her body .


Laws against adultery [were]  based  upon the idea that woman is a chattel, so that to make love to a married woman is to deprive the husband of her services. It is the frankest and most crass statement of a slave-situation. To us, every woman ... has ... an absolute right to travel in her own orbit. There is no reason why she should not be the ideal  hausfrau , if that chance to be her will. But society has no right to insist upon that standard. It was, for practical reasons, almost necessary to set up such taboos in small communities, savage tribes, where the wife was nothing but a general servant, where the safety of the people depended upon a high birth-rate. But to-day woman is economically independent, becomes more so every year. The result is that she instantly asserts her right to have as many or as few men or babies as she wants or can get; and she defies the world to interfere with her. More power to her!


The  Roaring Twenties  have been described as "a time when gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession." [ 40 ]  Popular at that time was a female subculture called " flappers ", who flouted social and sexual norms and were considered a significant challenge to Victorian  gender roles . [ 41 ]  But these sentiments were then overshadowed by the  Great Depression . [ 42 ]
Despite this, the 1925 silent film  The Red Kimono , sympathetic toward its promiscuous protagonist, was subject to severe censorship, [ 43 ]  and led to a landmark legal case,  Melvin v. Reid .


The 1950s in America is stereotyped to have been sexually repressed, though not as severely as the Victorian era. Female promiscuity in particular became substantially more accepted in  Western  culture after the  sexual revolution  of the 1960s, which resonated with the  hippie movement . It also became more prevalent a theme in  mass media , including cinema (e.g.,  Sex and the City ) and music (e.g.,  Erotica  by  Madonna ).


Madonna  has been at the forefront of the  gender neutrality  movement in terms of promiscuity since becoming a globally recognized entertainer in the 1980s. In addition to her sexually explicit song lyrics and occasional nude self exposures during live performances and almost being arrested in  Toronto ,  Ontario , Canada, on 29 May 1990 for simulating masturbation in public, [ 44 ]  her book  Sex  released on 21 October 1992 was a commercially successful nude pictorial of her and various famous celebrities engaging in scenes of purported promiscuity, further enhancing her vision of gender equality in this regard.


There has been an increase in awareness of  discrimination  on grounds of promiscuity—apparent or actual—which at least since year 2010 has been called  slut shaming . [ 45 ] [ 46 ]  On 3 April 2011, [ 47 ]  the  SlutWalk  movement—protesting against explaining or excusing  rape  by referring to any aspect of a woman's  appearance [ 48 ]  and later, by extension, calling for sexual freedom in general—began in  Toronto ,  Ontario , Canada, and went on to spread throughout the world. [ 49 ]


In the Islamic world, the " Ummah ", female promiscuity is a major fear. A woman is obliged, in some countries legally, [ 50 ]  to wear a veil, such as a  burqa  or a  niqab —in its own right, a symbol of "modesty" and " namus ", i.e. female sexual restraint [ 51 ] —so as to  prevent  the woman from having her body visible to any men other than her family or her sole husband. [ 52 ]


When a Muslim woman is found to have engaged in extra-marital relations, she falls under the risk of being executed, either by a governmental institution [ 53 ]  or by natural persons. In the latter case, a common scenario, sometimes even among Muslims residing in Western countries, is family  honor killing : the woman's relatives feel that she brought shame on their family, so they resort to homicide as a form of atonement. [ 54 ]  Otherwise, the woman may be given the penalty of capital punishment by a court, [ 53 ] [ 55 ]  in accordance with the customs of  Sharia  Islamic law, which  is based  on the Islamic scriptures of the  Quran  and on  Sunnah . For "zina", adultery, the Quran prescribes  flogging  100 times in public; [ 56 ]  the Sunnah adds stoning (" Rajm ") to death if it was extra-marital. [ 57 ]


On 20 April 2010,  Iranian  Islamic cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi provoked transnational ridicule by blaming promiscuous women for causing earthquakes. [ 58 ]  Six days later, on 26 April, the American  Boobquake  gathering, organized by the  blogger  Jennifer McCreight and attended by 200,000 participants, [ 59 ] [ 60 ]  was held in response to it.


Japan wasn't as soon to be reached by the  sexual revolution , originating in the American 1960s. The documentary  Japan – Female Sexuality  touched on the subject from a 1990s perspective, and reported the trend to be increasing. [ 61 ]


Although  polygyny  is more common, some tribal societies are traditionally  polyandrous .


The use of  demographical  methods in  sexological  research was pioneered by the American zoologist  Alfred Kinsey , who published two books— Sexual Behavior in the Human Male  (1948) and  Sexual Behavior in the Human Female  (1953)—collectively known as the  Kinsey Reports . The reports defied the expectations of the public and paved the way for the  sexual revolution  of the 1960s.


Accurately assessing people's sexual behavior is difficult, since there are strong social and personal motivations, depending on social  sanctions  and  taboos , for either minimizing or exaggerating reported sexual activity. Women tend to undervalue the number of their sex partners whereas men tend to overestimate the number of theirs. [ citation needed ]