Housework and Female Arousal

by Jason Stotts

Most people don’t think of housework as having any ties to a woman’s sexual arousal, but perhaps they should.  A new theory called “choreplay” is making its debut and could have implications for the gusto with which men take to their chores.  The idea is very simple: women tend to be preoccupied with things that need to get done, in a way that men are not, and this preoccupation prevents them from relaxing and enjoying sexual pleasure.

Researchers in the Netherlands found that “the key to female arousal seems to be deep relaxation and a lack of anxiety.” In a study in which the brains of men and women were scanned during the process of sexual response using a technique called positron emission tomography (PET), the results showed that the parts of the female brain responsible for processing fear, anxiety and emotion reduce during sexual activity.

Men showed far less change in these areas of the brain. Says Dr. Gert Holstege, “What this means is that deactivation, letting go of all fear and anxiety, might be the most important thing, even necessary, to have an orgasm.” So what’s the lesson? If you want to turn a woman on, the key is to help her turn off—turn off her brain, that is—and that means helping her not worry: like about all the chores that still need to be done.

It would be interesting to find out whether the women were responding to the chore itself, or, as I suspect, that their partner doing chores signified their commitment to the relationship and to maintaining a partnership.  Frankly, sex is rarely so simple as “doing chores will get you laid,” although doing chores may be the proximate cause, the real cause is in how a woman views her relationship with her partner and whether or not she thinks that he is contributing.

EIther way, all men should take heed: that pile of dishes may just be a red light to sex tonight.