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 If men want more sex, they could try improving their appearance 

If men want more sex, they could try improving their appearance

Like some perverted Nike ad, Australian women are being exhorted to "Just Do It".

Observe your "wifely duties", we are told. Get down and pucker up. A quick romp in the sack? Yes! A roll in the hay? Right here, right now! A little more rumpy-pumpy? Yes, yes, yes!

The new euphemism for any self-respecting Australian woman: just put the canoe in the water and start paddling.

Men aren't getting enough, and it seems it is women who are at fault. Quelle surprise.

As sex therapist and social commentator Bettina Arndt explains in her book The Sex Diaries, many men - though otherwise happily married - are starved of the sex and affection we should all expect from our relationships.

Low libidos, long working days and onerous household chores have been cited - among other things - as reasons why some men want it more often, only to find their women cringing at their creeping hands in the bedroom.

In 2007, Arndt asked 98 "ordinary Australian couples" to keep a diary for six to nine months. They were meant to confess the very personal issue of how they negotiated sexual relations with their partner.

There were a range of responses: delightedly, some couples couldn't tear themselves apart. Sadly, others hadn't enjoyed congress for years. There were many shades in-between the black-and-white of love and hostility, like those couples exhausted by their young children but willing to steal intimate moments when opportunities arose.

But somehow in the ensuing debate, the complexity of human responses has been ignored when it comes to apportioning blame. It seems it's all a woman's fault.

This debate is founded almost entirely on generalisations, some founded on evidence - like from Arndt's couples - some on experience, some just on feeling.

Generalisations are useful but dangerous, especially when it comes to something as deeply personal and individualistic as sex. It's difficult to paint half the population with the same brush.

That said, I'm going to.

Could there be another explanation? May something less practical - and more superficial - be at play? Could male attractiveness be a problem?

Maybe, just maybe, some women shy away from having sex with their men because they're just not that into them.

They might have been once. They might still, occasionally, get themselves interested.

But maybe it's the blokes who've lost their sex appeal, their ring of confidence, and the women are too nice to say it. Once they were turned on, now they're just … not.

Let's face it, many men lose their attractiveness.

Cocooned in married bliss, well fed and watered, with someone else changing the sheets and washing the towels, they quickly go to seed. Their beer bellies swell, body parts droop, and their breath goes sour, and don't they get all of us in the mood.

How many men fret about their wardrobe? How many take particular care with personal hygiene? Many men think three days of facial growth is sexy, far more than for whom it actually is. They think an old Rolling Stones T-shirt is chic, when it's just plain shabby. And most wouldn't be seen dead in a gym, claiming it's too metrosexual, too homosexual or anything but the truth: it's just too hard.

It's hard to keep up appearances, hard to keep the crow's feet at bay and hard to keep your tummy taut. But that is what is expected of women. We are expected to keep ourselves nice, keep our weight down, do our hair, paint our faces and dress like we're not off to Coles. But not men.

And yet it's our fault there's not enough rooting?

Most women are generous in praising the virtues - physical and mental, if not emotional - of their menfolk. Few women would demand their partner visit an Ashley & Martin hair-loss clinic, for instance. Hair loss is a natural, if unwelcome, process and bald men can look hot. And which woman would insist on their fella dyeing his hair or having pec implants?

Apply that to the other half. How alluring do men find women who've lost their hair, or gone grey, or have small breasts, or gained weight, or stopped doing their hair or otherwise … let themselves go?

The debate sparked by Arndt's book, including much of the commentary about it, has framed the domestic sex war as one largely grounded in supply, or more accurately, a lack of supply of sexual services by women.

But we shouldn't ignore demand. If women are going to get "real" about our mismatched libidos, men need to get real about their sex appeal.

Wendy Frew is a Sydney Morning Herald journalist.

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Date: Newest first | Oldest first
Well that's a two way street isn't it? Besides, sex tends to become quickies when your children have the ears of a bat and wonder what mummy and daddy are doing. There's also a popular saying I've heard over the years which goes something like; Why is it that a woman will spend the first ten years of her married life changing the habits and ways of her husband, then complain to her friends that " he's not the man I married" Every man should be married, no-one should go through life enjoying themselves.
Posted by Jack, 3/04/2009 1:32:00 PM
Your response is so typical - blame males for all the issues in a relationship. It takes two to make a relationship work. To believe its always someone else's fault is absolute rubbish. Why not acknowledge there may be 'some' truth to what she is saying and move on. Instead you call it a 'domestic sex war' which shows you have no idea how a relationship should work.
Posted by It takes 2 to tango, 3/04/2009 1:50:07 PM
Fair Dinkum. Women make the decisions on sex. Always have, always will. I'm in very good shape, take pride in my appearance (and breath), work hard and help constantly with the kids and housework. My wife has not worked for 8 years, has put on over 20kg and we haven't had a sex life since we married in 2002. She's completely lost her libido and this means we don't have sex. I'm sure some women are no longer attracted to their men, but your story is toilet paper - the sort of thing that would be called "sexist" if written (in reverse) by a man.
Posted by Fair Dinkum, 3/04/2009 2:01:44 PM
I have to agree...we are lazy , when we have nabbed the partner, we no longer feel that we have to compete with the others, we have what we wanted.... it is sad, that we dont care enough, ... whats wrong with growing old gracefully?.. we cant always be expected to be 'attractive' it just isnt possible..... I must admit though, I, personally would rather be single than have to be seen with a fat, low, rent, 'trog'
Posted by suzhousid, 3/04/2009 2:11:31 PM
Why hasnt she pointed out that there are plenty of women who let their bums spread and frump up a storm more than a man could dream - are we to blame the men then for the lack of sex drive in that relationship? not bloody likely!
Posted by Nak, 3/04/2009 5:07:49 PM
I don't think it's got anything to do with either partner being unattractive. It's biological. We can talk about it till the cows come home, but that is valuable time when we could be having sex!
Posted by Frenchie, 3/04/2009 6:00:56 PM
Spare a thought for the women in sexless marriages - sometimes it's the male who doesn't want to have sex. My husband has an extremely low sex drive - there is no mistress or lover - I'd be relieved to hear it at this point! He's loving, committed and loyal, but not interested in sex. Sadly, there are lots of men with low/no sex drives for whatever reason - these men usually don't see doctors - they're quite happy - their partners usually leave or live without sex. I've also read that sexless marriage is often the result of a porn addiction - men in the end are incapable of having sex with a real woman - that is not my husband's issue though...he's just not sexual. I guess these men marry for companionship.
Posted by Lucy, 3/04/2009 9:36:17 PM
I wear my tux to bed every night, polished shoes, hair combed, nails clipped. Still doesn't help, but then again at sixty three why complain.
Posted by intouch, 3/04/2009 11:09:56 PM
It's a women world after all.
Posted by intouch, 3/04/2009 11:11:06 PM
Since when did it become acceptable for women to trash males but politically incorrect to criticise females? Have males become so subserviant to women that they can't point out publically that woman have faults as well? it took a female author to raise the topic. Males of the world - burn your stubbies and stand up for yourselves !!!!!!
Posted by It takes 2 to tango, 4/04/2009 1:14:58 AM
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