The Checkup: Your Man Thinks About Sex Less Than You’d Think

We know what you're thinking about, sir—or do we? Image from BananaStock

• Ah, yes. The ol’ men-are-crazy-sex-driven-pigs stereotype. The one where you think all a guy does is eat, breathe and think sex. Well, you’re wrong—sort of. New research, which gauged in quantitative numbers just how often men and women think about sex, found that, on average, guys think about getting you between the sheets 18.6 times a day. Women, it turns out, think about sex about half that amount: on average, 9.9 times a day. But here’s something to note: Men also thought about food with about the same frequency, and their sleep-related thoughts clocked double digits, too, with 11 thoughts a day. For women, food thoughts equaled 15 a day, while thoughts about sleep totaled 8.5 (mine would be much, much higher on the latter, me thinks). So, no. Your man isn’t thinking about sex at every waking moment. Stereotypes be damned.

• Speaking of sex, here is something I despise: the word “sexting.” Can I get an amen? But here I go having to use it: University of New Hampshire researchers found that teens engage in explicit sexting (ugh) less frequently than experts previously thought. Of 1,560 kids they talked to, only about 1 percent fessed up to it.

• Other things that drive me bananas: kids having temper tantrums (I’ll chalk this one up to the fact that I don’t have any kids, currently, and hope that someday tantrums drive me less crazy). Anyway! NPR has a piece on a study in which scientists deconstructed temper tantrums and found that they have specific rhythms and patterns. “Once understood,” NPR reports, “researchers say, this pattern can help parents, teachers and even hapless bystanders respond more effectively to temper tantrums—and help clinicians tell the difference between ordinary tantrums and those that may be warning signals of an underlying disorder.” Care to understand a tantrum? Go over here to read more.