Are men inherently more likely to commit lustful sin?

[CatholicELATeacher]

It seems like we’re little more than transient pawns in the creation and raising of life.

Absolutely not so. For more information, read Theology of the Body.

 

[Guest1]

This makes me wonder what value men have. I mean, we do participate a little in child bearing, but that’s almost nothing compared to what women do. And women involved in divorces almost always get custody of the children…a lot of the time, men aren’t even involved with the rearing of children at all in countries like Brazil, with women and grandmas raising the children on their own. So what place do men have in anything? The acquisition of material wealth to help in raising their children which the mothers may not even need? It seems like we’re little more than transient pawns in the creation and raising of life. Makes me depressed, to be honest.

I’m a woman. May I pm you a Catholic video on Theology of the body for teens? Not saying or presuming you’re a teenager.

 

[MamaJewel]

Not to mention that men tend to think about sex much more often than women.
Thoughts?

Only in cultures where females are socialized to think about sex less than males.

Wasn’t there a St. Teresa of the Cross or her name was similar to that. She was pals with St. John of the Cross. Her temptation was romance novels. And that’s a female saint we’re speaking of.

I think lust really depends on the person. Like gluttony, sloth, and other serious sins.
I remember blushing at some of the things Baby Boomer ladies spoke about…openly…out in public.

Wait. Wait!
I just re-read my post. About St. Teresa…I’m not saying she lusted or anything. Just that she liked romance novels. I don’t want to commit calumny or scandal or anything like that.

 

[Benjinho]

Benjinho:

This makes me wonder what value men have. I mean, we do participate a little in child bearing, but that’s almost nothing compared to what women do. And women involved in divorces almost always get custody of the children…a lot of the time, men aren’t even involved with the rearing of children at all in countries like Brazil, with women and grandmas raising the children on their own. So what place do men have in anything? The acquisition of material wealth to help in raising their children which the mothers may not even need? It seems like we’re little more than transient pawns in the creation and raising of life. Makes me depressed, to be honest.

I’m a woman. May I pm you a Catholic video on Theology of the body for teens? Not saying or presuming you’re a teenager.

Yes you may!

 

[D.Erasmus.R]

Interesting that this is being asked because in the past it was thought that women were more lustful than men. Now this has reversed to men being thought of as being more lustful than women.
I think that men & women are just as sexual & visual as each other. This “men are more visual/sexual” is just an excuse for having women dress more modestly than men (gay men never complain about men being dressed immodestly).
Sexual sins consisting of consensual/wanted/welcome sex are probably committed by both genders equally. Men though are more likely to perpetrate wanted/unwelcome/coercive sexual acts against another than women, though on rare occasions women do so to.

 

[LilyM]

ATraveller:

This is not true. Testosterone activates sexual attraction but higher levels don’t make men more lustful. How do we know? A number of experiments involved injecting healthy young men with T and increasing their T levels. What these studies have shown is they don’t become more prone to lust and they aren’t going to engage in more sexual activity.

Perhaps you’re right with regard to the point of increasing T not entailing increase in sexual urges. But this point you make does not address T naturally reducing in males with age and corresponding reduction in sexual urges.

But is that specifically because of lower testosterone? Older men are more prone to any number of health conditions that by themselves are accompanied by lower libido even if testosterone were to stay the same.

 

[LilyM]

JimR-OCDS:

If you doubt it, post the latest news report of woman being accused of sexual assault against a man.

This is nothing to “laugh” about. Men are sexually assaulted by women.

Sexual assault is about power, it is not about sex

Exactly. There have been quite a lot of cases of female teachers, to take one scenario, having inappropriate sexual relationships with male students. Which is statutory rape and therefore sexual assault.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

What’s the ratio of female teachers having sex with male students to males being accused of sexual assault ?

The numbers can’t even be compared as male’s are overwhelmingly accused of sexual assault.

Lust is begins with sexual fantasy, not power. The power issue is for the person to force the other to provide them with sexual satisfaction.

Those who exclude sex from sexual assault cases don’t really have a handle on it.

Jim

 

[Londoner]

Given that men are much more visual than women (with women being more interpersonal)

This has been disproven:

Sexual images are just as arousing for women as they are for men

It was thought that male brains respond more to pornographic images than female brains – but a large review finds there is no significant difference

www.newscientist.com

Spoken like a true man.

I think you mean spoken like an ignorant man.

(from what I’ve heard)

Unless you heard it in a peer-reviewed journal, I’m taking this with a pinch of salt.

If you doubt it, post the latest news report of woman being accused of sexual assault against a man.

I’m pleased you accessorised that with a “grinning” emoji, just so we know how funny it is!

Jesus apparently thought it more needful to speak to the men about it

I would say: (1) we don’t know that Jesus didn’t also address women on this point - not everything Jesus said was written down, (2) Jesus may simply have chosen his words to suit his audience or for cultural, literary, or stylistic reasons, a little like when Benedict XVI in a casual remark suggested that prostitutes might use condoms - the English media widely reported that he had specifically ruled that male prostitutes might be able to use condoms because he had used only the masculine form of the German word for prostitute, whereas in fact he probably simply didn’t think it was necessary to specify that female prostitutes were included in his remark.

Lust is begins with sexual fantasy, not power. The power issue is for the person to force the other to provide them with sexual satisfaction.

Those who exclude sex from sexual assault cases don’t really have a handle on it.

If you look at the case of male victims or rape and sexual assault in war, I really don’t think that that has anything to do with sexual fantasies on the part of the ones doing the assaulting.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

If you look at the case of male victims or rape and sexual assault in war, I really don’t think that that has anything to do with sexual fantasies on the part of the ones doing the assaulting.

////

I think you need to look at the true definition of what lust is.

In sexual assaults, sex is the catalyst for sexual assault, not the lust for power.

Lust for power doesn’t always lead people to sexually assaulting another. More often than not, the lust for power has nothing to do with sex and sexual assaults don’t ever take place, but taking advantage of social/political situations to obtain the power one lusts for.

Jim

 

[Neithan]

Not anymore, but I think this was true in the past when the culture (in some ways, oppressively) demanded chastity from women, for obvious biological reasons. Men “get away” with it because we can’t get pregnant. The physical consequences for a woman acting out in lust are greater. The spiritual consequences are equally grave.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Men very rarely report sexual assault, especially when the assailant is a woman. Men are often told it is “impossible” and they are not believed.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

It was St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of the Cross lived in a different time period.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Men rarely report it because they don’t see it as assault as much as women do.

Even if every female assault against a male were reported, it wouldn’t touch the male assaults reported.

Jim

 

[ATraveller]

What’s the ratio of female teachers having sex with male students to males being accused of sexual assault ?

I don’t know but look at this Twitter account. Look at the number of tweets since the beginning of this month. A number involve women taking advantage of teenaged boys. The further you scroll down, the more women perpetrators you find.
P.S. I don’t fully endorse it’s anti-public school stance but it opens your eyes to how much evil is in this world.
https://twitter.com/LeavePubSchool

 

[JimR-OCDS]

And compare this to the reports of men being accused of sexual assault just this week

Heck, even Justice Kavanagh was attacked in the New York times once again.

Jim

 

[ATraveller]

And compare this to the reports of men being accused of sexual assault just this week

So I’ll just add to what you and TheLittleLady mentioned a little earlier.

But let’s go back the OP’s question. Are men a lot more sexually minded than women? Overall, the evidence seems to be no. But sexual assault examples on their own would seem to indicate yes. But we have confounding factors here with sexual assaults.

I can see how sexual fantasy, as you alluded to, drives sex assaults. But to act on it, the perpetrator needs to been in a higher position to commit the crime. Be it physically stronger than the victim or a position of power (e.g. manager, teacher). That and the fact our culture tells men are entitled to sex. Women aren’t taught that but that’s changing. (And this is a reminder equality is meaningless. The sexual revolution brought equality by getting rid of all standards instead of expecting more of men, which would have led to a different and better type of equality than the one the sexual revolution gave us.)

So now that we’re getting more women into higher positions in companies, we’re seeing more complaints from men getting propositioned, touched inappropriately or threats if they won’t give women bosses sexual favours.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

But let’s go back the OP’s question. Are men a lot more sexually minded than women?

That’s not the question. See the title of the thread, it has to do with men being more likely to commit lustful sin.

The answer is yes because men are more aggressive sexually than women, because of biological makeup of men, where mere vision is a stimulant for sexual attraction. Men who do not control their sexual urges, will fall into lust and even sexual abuse.

The same can happen to women, but it’s far less because of biological differences.

Jim

 

[ATraveller]

That’s not the question. See the title of the thread, it has to do with men being more likely to commit lustful sin.

True but it has to start from somewhere. As Jesus said, sin starts from inside us. My re-wording doesn’t affect the answer, which is no.

because of biological makeup of men, where mere vision is a stimulant for sexual attraction. Men who do not control their sexual urges, will fall into lust and even sexual abuse.

The same can happen to women, but it’s far less because of biological differences.

But I posted a few studies that counter this argument based on biology. Others have shown men and women think about sex about the same number of times. The only biological difference is strength and height. This element is why women are less likely to be perpetrators of sex assaults.

But sexual desire and thoughts? The evidence points to no difference between men and women. In fact, porn use by women is now about the same as men. Women in positions of power threatening male subordinates with job loss for not giving sexual favours are likely increasing. There’s some indications women hiring male prostitutes is also increasing. Cultural attitudes are much more powerful than a lot of people think they are. It shouldn’t be a surprise given how divisive culture wars are. There’s a lot at stake and effects many don’t foresee when the culture shifts from one direction to another.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

But I posted a few studies that counter this argument based on biology

And I don’t accept those studies and neither do most men

In fact, more psychologists like Dr Jordan Peterson are showing that those studies were not what the current scientific community accepts.

We’ve been told that there is no difference between men and women with regards to sexual desire, but the facts say different and the differences are obvious,

Jim