I see that "the person demanded that I have sex" is on the list, but it's cited more by men than by women and is not the same as "I was forced." Did the study explicity rule out rape because it involved intention, or is "I was forced" really #238?

In any case, the fact that men say more often than women that they had sex because "the person demanded it" is interesting in itself.

You know, it's just good manners not to link to PDFs without clearly labeling the link as such.

One must take these so-called scientific studies with a grain of sand as they asked College students; whom for the most part don't even know they're living!

Come to think of it most people are sleepwalking through life and they have no clue what they're true motivations are. So how can anyone really take stock in this type of tripe?

I certainly don't claim to know my motivations and if you gave me a list sure I pick what thought sounded right.

But College Students? Give me a break...

To compile 237 different reasons for sex or for anything else.

To save the 13 bucks it costs to order porn on pay per view.

Case in point: apparently having sex because you want to have a baby was pretty low on the list. Understandable for college students, but you could probably expect that to be higher among almost any other group of fertile adults. OTOH, the diversity of partners and the amount of sex during college probably make college students a pretty good group to start your list with. You're not going to get nearly as many entertaining reasons from married 30-somethings.

Seemingly this section of the site is about women and female related items... however those are defined. Does no one notice that every third item is a sex-related post? Impossible to define women sans sexual behavior as a fixation. I think some of the presumed feminist-minded here out to go back and read their primers, as the forum here seems to defy presumed intentions and lean more towards the Glamour mag salacious.

Seriously....

BTW, orgasm is a well-known migraine cure, though apparently it works better for men than for women (and intercourse is not required, of course). So respondents might not be 'too lazy to reach for the Advil'; maybe it's just not the kind of headache that responds to that kind of treatment. And if your partner wants to get rid of a headache and you are willing, why not help out? I don't see a problem with that, and I don't think it's a stupid reason for sex. Unlike, say, "I was slumming."

Here are three:

• 1. The sample pool was 500 men and 1000 women from an undergrad Intro Psych Class. This is often the case with many studies and does not necessarily yield a representative sample for a study.
• 2. In designing the survey questions, the researches compiled the “reasons for sex” from reasons given by a broader socio-economic and age range of… psych students.
• 3. The phrasing of the question was “Please indicate how frequently each of the following reasons led you to have sex in the past.” You then rank on a one-to-five scale indicating this reason led to none, some, a few, many or all of your sexual experiences. Does this mean the reason had to be the only or primary reason you had sex or could it just have been a minor factor?

So really, we’ve only just compiled some of the reasons for sex, and it’s unwise to extrapolate any data from it. And if you do, you’ve only learned more about why psych students do it or why psych students think other people do it.

I didn't read the New York Times article; I went straight for the Arch Sex Behav, published article. I rather like the first part of the study: 445 participants from 17 to 54, asked to list all of the reasons (you can think of) for when you've had sex. That's where we get the 237 reasons on the list.

Then they did something strange. To get the frequency of each reason, they asked undergraduate and graduate students. I'm sorry, but some of the reasons on the list have VERY different connotations depending on whether you have been in a committed relationship for a long time.

e.g. Because of a bet. My husband and I make bets about sex all the time (money lacks luster when you share a bank account).

I felt insecure. Well, that's a great way for your partner to cheer you up (and I think rather romantic too).

conversely It was a favor to someone if it's your partner who feels insecure. You know, he's feeling down, you aren't really in the mood, but he could use someone making him feel attractive right now.

I wanted him/her to stop bugging me about sex. This one is a big problem. You simply can't equate a couple of 18 year olds - who've maybe not passed the heavy petting stage - to me and my husband (8 years committed). You know, she's busy reading Salon, he's been watching the Sopranos. I don't much like the loaded word "bugging," but there's nothing wrong with him letting her know that he really means it this time. It's not like she won't enjoy it, he just has to convince her to switch gears (so to speak).

Finally, I KNOW my husband has used the wanted to change the topic of conversation at least once when I was harping about an article on Broadsheet. I don't mind; it's a good "topic" to bring up. And he's learned he'll have to devote at least an hour if he brings up the Bush administration, so a quickie makes everyone happy. Yeah. Not romantic at all, but marriage isn't all about romance. Some of my husband's "romantic" overtures have nothing to do with sex (Me grabbing the creamer from the fridge early July 21st to find the Harry Potter book and a bottle of champagne instead). We've only been together 8 years. I wouldn't presume to speak for a committed couple of 20 years until I get there. How could college students even understand the nuances of some of these reasons?