Is There a Difference Between Men and Women?

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Ayla: I think every incoming freshman should read your book and David Buss's book about men. Just, you know, this is the reality, right? Yeah. There was that study where a shill for the experimenter walks up to remember the opposite sex and asks if they'd go out with him or her. Not one woman said yes to the third scenario; very few to the second., she says. Ayla: The differences between romance novels written for a female audience and pornography intended for a male audience are very illustrative of other differences between men and female sexuality.

Ditching the stuffy hang-ups and benighted sexual traditionalism of the past is an unambiguously positive thing. The sexual revolution has liberated us to enjoy a heady mixture of erotic freedom and personal autonomy. Right? Wrong, argues Louise Perry in her provocative new book.

Shermer and Perry discuss: What was the sexual revolution? • feminism: first wave, second wave, third wave, and beyond • the evolutionary psychology of sex differences • experiencing self vs. remembered self • individual freedom vs. societal good • monogamy vs. polygamy • marriage vs. domestic partnerships • Why is the government in the marriage business? • BDSM and sexual violence • autogynephilia • trans matters • abortion matters.

Louise Perry is a writer, New Statesman columnist, and campaigner against male sexual violence. Her new book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, has sparked an international conversation about sex in the 21st century.