When Sir Mix-a-lot announced in a catchy song that he enjoyed large female posteriors, he probably wasn’t lying.
New research shows that overweight and obese women average as many male sexual partners in a lifetime as “normal”-weight women do, and are slightly more likely to report having sex with a man at all.
Bliss Kaneshiro, gynecologist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, led the study in collaboration with several physicians at Oregon Health & Science University. The group studied 6,700 women aged 15-44 who represented a variety of racial and economic backgrounds. The women ranged in weight from normal to obese, and the study excluded pregnant women. “Normal,” “overweight” and “obese” were defined using Body Mass Index measurements.
Kaneshiro said the average number of sexual partners for the women studied was six or seven. Older women likely had more partners than younger women did, Kaneshiro said, because they had more time to acquire them. There was no significant variation between weight groups.
As to which group was most likely to be a virgin, it was the normal weight range. Kaneshiro hopes findings like this one might work to dispel some stereotypes physicians have about their female patients. When she presented the study, she said, many doctors told her they were surprised – they had often been making incorrect assumptions about their patients’ sex lives.
Representatives at the University Women’s Center found this research encouraging as well. “Women whose bodies aren’t represented in mainstream media are assumed to be unlike other women,” said University senior Kelsey Rook.
Kaneshiro said a parallel study found that normal weight men have an average of 10 more female sexual partners in a lifetime than overweight men do.
Kaneshiro offered two hypotheses for this. First, men may simply feel more pressure to stay in shape in order to find a mate. The men whose goal is to attract amorous females might be making an effort, while similarly lusty ladies might not be so worried about their own bodies.
The other hypothesis is that someone is being inaccurate. Kaneshiro pointed out that there is societal pressure for men to have more conquests and for women to have fewer. It’s possible men are over-reporting their number or women are under-reporting, because both studies measure heterosexual sex. If women have six or seven partners and men have more than 10, something isn’t adding up.
Juliane Collaco, University senior and Women’s Center representative, said the study only scratched the surface with its definition of sexual activity. She also said sexual activity depends a lot on personality and how one presents herself, probably more than it depends on appearance.
Kaneshiro added that there are societal factors to sexual activity. “The study didn’t touch upon issues like comfort with appearance and self assurance,” she said.
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