Ezra Klein: Sexy Feminism

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October 17, 2007

Sexy Feminism

Turns out feminists -- and the men who love them -- report better sex lives and more stable relationships. This is something that's very intuitive to anyone who ever attended UC Santa Cruz, but it's nice to see The Science backing us up.

October 17, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

I think most men who love feminists are feminists. Better sex lives times two! Woo-hoo!

Posted by: Megan | Oct 17, 2007 12:42:00 PM

I'm a man, and I consider myself a feminist, and I'm very happy to have a feminist girlfriend with whom I share a satisfying sex life, but...they investigators seem to believe they've challenge the stereotype that feminists are "sexually unappealing" by asking the groups of women if they find themselves "sexually unattractive." Shouldn't they have posted photos to HotOrNot? Or at least asked their partners? All they've measured is how self-confident the women are.

Posted by: Antid Oto | Oct 17, 2007 12:45:44 PM

What's wrong with sexy?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/quotes

Posted by: Jamey | Oct 17, 2007 12:52:24 PM

Gee were you at college 5 in the 70's as well?

Posted by: Ken | Oct 17, 2007 2:22:20 PM

I would be highly surprised if feminism equated to worse sex lives, but I am also skepitical that it relates to better sex lives either. My quess is that sex lives and stable relationships are much closer tied to other factors and feminism has an extremely minor relationship, if any.

Calling 'a laboratory survey of 242 American undergraduates and an online survey including 289 older adults' science seems to me to be a bit of a stretch. Without a good explanation of the methodology of the sampling on the online survey that somehow controls for bias and self selection we can probably throw that portion away. As for the undergraduates, that doesn't seem to be a representative enough sample to project toward the general population.

Doubtless the authors of this study got the result they expected.

Posted by: Dave Justus | Oct 17, 2007 2:36:13 PM

Yeah, I'm with Dave. You should be more skeptical when a study is telling you what you want to hear, not less.

Posted by: Cain | Oct 17, 2007 2:38:14 PM

"that doesn't seem to be a representative enough sample to project toward the general population."

Do you have proof of that?

Posted by: g-rant | Oct 17, 2007 4:39:16 PM

"that doesn't seem to be a representative enough sample to project toward the general population."

Do you have proof of that?

Well hey, it's truthy, and that's good enough, right?

More seriously, the press release doesn't give exact numbers, but as I vaguely remember my statistics class from college, this relates to margins of error. If there's a massive difference, like 20 percent or something, then it's probably meaningful with a sample of only 100 people, but for a smaller difference, like three percent, a sample of 1,000 might not be meaningful. So if he can find a link to the full study, or an article talking about it in more detail, Dave won't have to rely on what it "seems" like.

Posted by: Cyrus | Oct 17, 2007 5:56:41 PM

I'm fine with my wife being into feminism, so long as my food's on the table.

I hear that Andrea Dworkin writes great cookbooks, BTW.

Posted by: Sock Puppet of the Great Satan | Oct 17, 2007 5:59:14 PM

Well, let's see now, if a woman used birth control, liked to try new things, had more initiative than the average guy, and was filled with a realistically high sense of self-esteem (that empowers her to choose the partner she wants), would she be better in bed than a woman who didn't use BC, disliked trying new things, typically lay around eating potato chips, and felt like her partner was 'about average'?

In my experience, yes.

Posted by: serial catowner | Oct 17, 2007 7:36:31 PM

Feminists are the sexiest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A._Dworkin.jpg

Posted by: Chris40 | Oct 17, 2007 8:23:49 PM

I think Esquire Magazine christened it "do me" feminism. I'm a feminist.I liked that phrase. I thought it was funny. I felt understood. It sounded like something I would never have a way to say, but men would.

Posted by: jules feiffer fan | Oct 17, 2007 9:05:29 PM

"Do me feminism", seriously? Um, no. It's just feminism, not some kind of "Pussycat Doll" version thereof.

Posted by: Jennifer | Oct 17, 2007 9:11:01 PM

Stay classy, Chris40!

As for the study -- I haven't looked at it, and it may well have a lot of problems. But jayzuz, every twobit study that comes down the pike that says women are crap and feminism is the root of all evil gets ridiculously hyped, so why not play up this one as well?

Posted by: Kathy G. | Oct 18, 2007 2:23:09 AM

This is the lamest argument for feminism ever. And this data sucks. It doesn't adjust for income, it doesn't compare this sample to other samples of people who have similar personal philosophies within their relationship. It's a crappy study with extremely faulty methodology. This is like comparing a catholic couple to a couple consisting of a baptist and a a muslim.

Posted by: soullite | Oct 18, 2007 8:35:16 AM

g-rant and cyrus,

I didn't say that the sample size was bad, I said that it didn't seem representative.

I don't have access to the methodology of the study, but saying, for example I conducted a survey on whether or not people believed in God at an atheist convention, and then used that data to claim that most Americans don't believe in God, by study would be flawed because my sample wasn't representative. No matter how many surveys I conducted in this manner, it still wouldn't be representative. Interviewing 100,000 people at an atheist convention would only give me very good data on how people who attend atheist conventions view God.

The study is making a claim about humanity in general (or possibly, just Americans.) In either case, it seems unlikely to me that a sample procured from the set of 'students at a particular university' would be representative of the larger universe that is attempting to be analyzed. One obvious difference, that the linked through press realease obliquely acknowledged, is the age of the particpants.

It is even questionable whether this study is good for the universe of 'college students.' The press release said that it was based upon a laboratory study. If the students self-selected for this study, then selection bias could be a problem.

As I don't have the whole study, I can't say for certain if these issues were addressed in a convincing manner. I am skeptical though that any methodology could overcome these fundamental limitations.

Posted by: Dave Justus | Oct 18, 2007 11:42:08 AM

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