Genius run amok

Our Lord knew that women had tremendous unique gifts, which John Paul II dubbed "the feminine genius." Every virtue has an opposite vice, and every gift can be manipulated and abused, as these French statistics clearly show:

Women now have more than twice as many partners as they did in the 1970s, according to the study by the French Aids research agency, which is backed by the government.

"Are women just like men?" asked Le Nouvel Observateur yesterday, which released extracts of the Study on Sexuality in France, a 600-page tome that brings together 12,000 in-depth interviews with people of all ages conducted during 2005-06.

One of the biggest changes in recent years, according to the report, was that male and female sexual behaviour had become increasingly similar.

The proportion of French women who claim to have had only one partner has dropped from 68 per cent in 1970, to 43 per cent in 1992 and 34 per cent in 2006. A woman's average number of partners has risen from under two in 1970 to over five today, while a man's has remained the same for four decades, almost 13.

Anyone who misses the connexion between this behaviour and the ready availablity of birth control devices and abortion is being willfully obtuse. The only discussion left is whether this shift has been a net good, or damaging. Consider the example set by France's new first lady:

Female sexual emancipation has been a hot topic in France ever since President Nicolas Sarkozy met Carla Bruni, the Italian model and singer. The couple married last month. Ms Bruni recently declared monogamy "terribly boring" and spoke in relaxed fashion about her numerous past conquests, including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.

"I am a tamer [of men], a cat, an Italian", she told Le Figaro last year.

It's a far cry from Nancy Reagan's focus on children having grandparents or LadyBird Johnson's desire to plant wildflowers throughout the nation in order to dress up the highways. But is it for the good?

There are certain hard-wires in the male-female relationship that feminists don't get. As folks predicted, as soon as girls would be allowed to serve at the altar, boys' desire to do so would diminish. Women have barged into so many male domains, that men have backed off and reached for the tv remote. When women shout, "I can!" men respond, "Well, go ahead. I'll go fishing." Same in the bedroom:

One of the more surprising findings was that one-in-five French men aged between 18 and 24 "manifests no interest in sexuality", while abstinence rates for men under 35 was twice as high as for women.

The two sociologists who compiled the research said that the French had fewer sexual taboos and inhibitions than before, but were more anxious about lovemaking. Never have sex councillors been so busy in France: according to one estimate, they treat half a million patients per year.

Our grandmothers knew that you cannot chase too boldly, because it was a turn-off. As much as some boys seemed to relish being called by girls, wooed by girls, or courted by girls, when push came to shove, they didn't respect those girls or give their hearts -- which is what most girls really want. When this aggression follows the boys into manhood, it would seem as though the thrill of the chase evaporates completely. It's a surprise to me how surprised the French are by the findings; it doesn't take a genius to figure this stuff out.

UPDATE: Japanese men agree; "Sex is just way too much trouble," a 35-year-old Japanese man told Shukan Asahi this week. "I don't need women... Self-pleasure is a hell of a lot less demanding than trying to please somebody else." [warning, explicit comments]