IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
So wrote Jane Austen in the opening line of her novel Pride and Prejudice.
Month: March 2011
A few years ago, after the Moonlight Bunny Ranch threw Natalie Dylan into the fray when they announced on the Howard Stern Show that they were auctioning off her virginity, I thought – now that’s a woman I would love to meet. Natalie and I shared some correspondence and few weeks later she kindly agreed to come to the Economics of Sex and Love, via Skype, for a class discussion on the price of virginity. It was a great dialogue not only because Natalie is a sexy, intelligent and educated woman, but the topic of pricing virginity is an interesting one to consider.
A few years ago a friend of mine participated in a program that was designed to use sports to educate children in Africa about the danger of unprotected sex. His plan was to spend several months travelling with a group of students around the Gambia bringing this program to the schools. When he arrived in the capital city Banjul, however, the local authorities made it clear that while they welcomed the project, the only message they would be permitted to leave with the students was they should say no to sex before marriage. No discussion on condom use would be tolerated.
Study says China’s low exchange rate is partly the result of a skewed sex balance that has left millions of men with little prospect for marriage
See full article here.
According to new research released by the Oxford University Internet Institute last month, I really AM the only single woman not looking for love on online. Okay, perhaps that is an exaggeration but results of the international survey find that in 2009 30% of newly cohabitating couples with access to the internet met online. If that number doesn’t surprise you then maybe this will – social networking sites are gaining on online dating sites as the most popular places to find love.
I’ve always been curious why the US and my country, Canada, are so similar in some ways yet so fundamentally different in others. Case in point: 68% of Americans disagree with the statement “homosexuals should be allowed to marry.” In Canada, just 32% of people disagree with that statement, and we have national legislation that permits same sex marriage (SSM).
I recently called a friend of mine a cheap date over his inability to handle a few drinks. Normally using this expression wouldn’t have been a problem since most English speakers have heard it before and understand the humour. English is not my friend’s first language though and I was left in the somewhat awkward position of having to explain to him what it means to be called a “cheap date.” The implication of the expression, of course, is that it wouldn’t cost much to get him into bed. I don’t think he would mind me telling you that it would cost a lot less than a few drinks to get this particular man naked, but the conversation made me think about what the expression really means.
For every 100 men on university campuses in Canada there are 136 women, and across North America women are heading off to college at much higher rates than men. From an economic (and perhaps evolutionary biology) perspective, that makes it a buyer’s market. According to new research recently published in Sociological Quarterly, giving market power to men is leading to an increase in promiscuity on campuses and creating negative attitudes among women toward dating and relationships.*
