The popular belief is that men think about sex once every seven seconds, but when you look at who actually talks publicly about sex, women are overrepresented. Women are the ones who write the sex columns in magazines, the ones who study pornography academically (the leading researchers of which are women), the ones who spearhead discussion on sex in videogames - which brings me to the conference on the subject that is starting tomorrow in San Francisco.
The truth is, women are just as obsessed with sex as men, and may be more willing to admit it!
Perhaps men find it a wee bit embarrassing to spend so much time discussing sex because for them it's so obvious - boom, it's right there, no mystery about it. Or perhaps they feel there shouldn't be a mystery, and when there is, it feels like a lack of manliness. Thus we have tons of articles in popular press about how women can and should reach orgasm, but if you're a dude and can't get it up, you confide in no one but your doctor.
Women also seem more willing to investigate the effect sex has on other aspects of life, and from an early age. Popular reading material for young girls almost always deal with a sexual coming of age; boys seem to be more into books and comics full of superpowerful men who band together to overcome adversity, sometimes gorily. So maybe it's not too surprising that the keynote speakers for the Sex in Videogames conference are women: Sheri Graner Ray and Regina Lynn. Looking over the list of speakers, also, I see that this the most gender balanced videogame conference I've ever attended: a third of the invited speakers and panelists are female (compare that to less than a quarter for the Game Developer's Conference).
In any case, I'll be going to hear Sheri and Regina and Brenda Brathwaite and many others talk on Thursday and Friday, and it should be very interesting.