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Sexual Motivation by Canadian Adult Sex Toys

Sexual Motivation

Suppose that visitors from another planet arrived on earth and visited one of our cities. What would they see? That’s right—it would be countless signs, bill boards, and advertisements focused on two topics: food and sex. The space aliens might quickly conclude that human beings are obsessed with these two topics— particularly with images of women (Lanis & Covell, 1995). Since we have al ready considered human behaviour with respect to food in some detail, we will now turn to sexual motivation, or the motivation to engage in sexual activity.Hormones and sexual behaviour: Activation and differentiation, at the onset of puberty there are rapid increases in the activity of the sex glands, or gonads. The hormones produced by the gonads affect the body in many ways. Do these hormones influence sexual motivation? In most organisms other than human beings, the answer seems to be yes. Sex hor mones have activational effects. In their absence, sexual behaviour takes place with very low frequency or does not occur at all. For example, in many animals re moval of the ovaries totally eliminates female sexual receptivity. Removal of the testes in males produces similar (though somewhat less clear-cut) results.

Human beings, however, are somewhat exceptional. Most women do not report large changes in sexual desire over the course of their monthly cycle, despute major shifts in the concentration of various sex hormones in their blood Kelly & Byrne, 1992). Further, many women continue to engage in and enjoy sexual relations after menopause, when the hormonal output of their ovaries drops 90). sharply. And in men there is little evidence of a clear link between blood levels of a sex hormones (such as testosterone) and sexual responsiveness (Byrne, 1982).

That is not to say, however, that sex hormones play no role in human sexual tthe motivation. Some women do experience peaks of sexual arousal in the middle of tal in their cycle and again prior to menstruation (Harvey, 1987). Among some men, testosterone levels are associated with differences in sexual arousal. For example, men with high levels of testosterone become aroused more quickly by erotic films than those with relatively low levels (Lange et al., 1980).

In general, though, the link between sex hormones and sexual motivation appears to be far less the clear-cut and less compelling for human beings than for many other species.

Other chemical substances in the body, however, may play a more direct and ng dramatic role. Recent findings suggest that when people are sexually attracted to another person, the brain produces increased amounts of several substances that of are related to amphetamines, amphetamines are stimulants, so the increased production of amphetamine-like substances such as phenylethylamine (PEA) may account for the fact that many people de scribe strong sexual attraction—the first stage in falling in love—as a feeling that “sweeps them away.” As one researcher puts it, “love is a natural high” (Walsh, 1993), one that confirms the words of the old song, “I get a kick out of you.”

In sum, sex hormone levels do not seem to be as clearly linked to sexual motivation in humans as in other species; at the same time, there is some scientific evidence that other substances produced by our bodies do play an important role in sexual motivation, and even in romantic love. Does this mean that we will someday be able to produce pills that cause us to fall in (or out of) love? Probably not; because, as we will now see, where human beings are concerned, cognitive factors—our own thoughts, fantasies, and memories—play a very pow erful role in sexual motivation. There does, however, seem to be a biochemistry of love, and biochemical effects, too, deserve careful attention as we try to un derstand the nature of human sexual motivation.