Is regular, recreational sex normal human behavior?

GreenSatyr · 2020-03-03T13:56:09+00:00

Humans had sex frequently. Breastfeeding is a natural contraceptive, elevating prolactin for 2-3 years after pregnancy, exerting a contraceptive. effect. Hunter gatherer women had their first child on average at 19, breastfed for over 3 years, had 4.7 children, and typical birth spacing was 44 months, which is approximately how long it takes for prolactin to return to normal.

That translates to about 18 years spend either pregnant or under the contraceptive effect of breastfeeding. Add the 19 years of growing up, and that gets you to 37 years of age. Considering that fertility should decline from 40-50 and that not all women would have been at peak fecundity and that some women might have been "single" sometimes, the gap isn't super surprising.

We can therefore conclude that hunter gatherer women were having sex basically all the time and were having about as many babies as biology would naturally allow (keeping in mind the contraceptive effect of breastfeeding means that their fecundity was lower). There is therefore no reason to think that sex was an "occasional" experience.

churnthrowaway123456 · 2020-03-03T12:05:45+00:00

Daily? Probably not.

Regular sex without wanting to procreate? Absolutely. Records from medieval and early modern Europe estimate that 30-40% of brides were pregnant on their wedding day. The Ancient Romans gathered a herb with contraceptive properties called Silphium to extinction, which had been used since at least ancient Egypt.

SherbertBacon · 2020-03-03T10:47:09+00:00

Birth control has been around for thousands of years. Many animals besides humans have sex for reasons other than just procreation.

mandoa_sky · 2020-03-03T11:26:15+00:00

well there were quite a few "shotgun marriages" - some people noticed that their own birthdays were suspiciously close to the date of their parents' wedding anniversaries... etc.

NarniaFox · 2020-03-03T10:47:57+00:00

People got pregnant a lot, so I guess they had sex a lot too. But you probably could read some historical books to get more reliable information.

I've read some piece of memoirs and I can't remember whose their were exactly, I think one of the Russian Queens or a doctor, I can't tell for sure, but they wrote that in villages some men were having sex with their wives even when they were sick from pregnancy and child birth. I expect people had a lot of sex, but it wasn't generally for mutual pleasure, only for men's.

Workaholiconew · 2020-03-03T13:06:51+00:00

... you understand that bonobos, dolphins and many other animals do it too, correct?

Birth control just made it easier to avoid the bad consequences "the birth part". But it is a non rare occurrence in mammals (and sometimes, birds).

geyges · 2020-03-03T13:12:49+00:00

Is daily sterile sex just a modern construct?

Not true, Ancient Greeks famously poked holes in their Trojan condoms, and basically stealth impregnated all the Troy's women.

YES! Where do people think sexual repression came from in the West? To create a functioning civilization, or be successful in life you can't just run around swapping fluids because taking care of bastards will really drag down your scientific pursuits.

says_harsh_things · 2020-03-03T13:33:55+00:00

Sterile? No. Why would you ask something like that?

CatchPhraze · 2020-03-03T14:02:46+00:00

Daily? Probably not. But recreational? Sure. After 8 kids the plan isn't to stop at 10 but you ain't got anything better to do.

rus9384 · 2020-03-03T14:04:04+00:00

Not sure about daily sex at least because that does not seem an average sex drive even in men.

Pastelitomaracucho · 2020-03-03T14:34:51+00:00

Is regular, recreational sex normal human behavior?

📷

Yes

Remember when the bible (or whatever religious dogmatic bullshit) was prohibiting coitus interruptus for centuries? Yeah, they wanted people to breed and multiply but people were trying not to.

extrachromozomes · 2020-03-03T17:09:23+00:00

My Irish great grandmother had about 17 kids so yeah I would say sex was a normal everyday thing

MuleFool42 · 2020-03-03T18:51:19+00:00

Since the 70's, yes. We always had condoms and other options but I don't think it was considered 'normal' until after that.

So for humans, recreational sex is relatively new, IMO. But I'm sure there are other points in history we could point to as well that would indicate another point of reference that put us on the path.

Dora_Bowl · 2020-03-03T10:48:05+00:00

People had recreational sex for before birth control, yes.

insertcredit2 · 2020-03-03T10:57:08+00:00

People would pull out and time it around ovulation. Also they get pregnant A LOT.

AutoModerator · 2020-03-03T10:05:40+00:00

Attention!

You can post off topic/jokes/puns as a comment to this Automoderator message.
For "CMV" and "Question for X" Threads: Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies.
If you want to agree with OP instead of challenging their view or if the question is not targeted at you, post it as an answer to this comment.
OP you can choose your own flair according to these guidelines., just press Flair under your post!

Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

ElGupo1978 · 2020-03-03T14:51:27+00:00

Some anthologist report that some remote savages didn’t actually make a intellectual connection between sex and procreation

astrobrah · 2020-03-03T17:26:26+00:00

Recreational sex has likely always been a part of human behavior. However, promiscuity is not natural among females, but it is among men.

richlad · 2020-03-04T07:38:31+00:00

No, drive to sex was not high enough only when hormones drove you crazy in some particular season people had sex.

CHAD_TDK · 2020-03-05T03:58:47+00:00

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs: YES

Source 1: https://i.imgur.com/ea7b78z.png
Source 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs#Ranking_of_sex

NOTE 1 [from WikiPedia]: Ranking of sex: The position and value of sex on the pyramid has also been a source of criticism regarding Maslow's hierarchy. Maslow's hierarchy places sex in the physiological needs category along with food and breathing; it lists sex solely from an individualistic perspective. For example, sex is placed with other physiological needs which must be satisfied before a person considers "higher" levels of motivation. Some critics feel this placement of sex neglects the emotional, familial, and evolutionary implications of sex within the community, although others point out that this is true of all of the basic needs.

NOTE 2: the image that I linked above is the "original" pyramid, as proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. Interestingly enough, if you do a google image search for "Maslow's hierarchy of needs" the top results do not include "sex".

vicistvic · 2020-03-06T11:43:52+00:00

No, it is ridiculous and unhealthy. Mankind progressed both physically and mentally with discipline and strength provided by adherence to sexual morals.

Pola_Lita · 2020-03-03T10:54:10+00:00

Definitely not just a modern thing because birth control was around at least as early as Cleopatra's time, but interesting question.

Title	Is regular, recreational sex normal human behavior?
Author	majani
Upvotes	14
Comments	88
Date	March 3, 2020 10:05 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/fcsh0b/is_regular_recreational_sex_normal_human_behavior/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/is-regular-recreational-sex-normal-human-behavior.351879 https://theredarchive.com/post/351879