性行為的發展

對青年人來說，婚姻會使得他們的性行動與從前不一樣了：20歲之前，已婚男人每週平均有5次性高潮，而未婚青年男子每週只有約3次性高潮。但是，從那時以後不久，兩組的統計頻率曲線就開始下降：在50歲，男性的每週性高潮的數量少於2次；對於60多歲的男人，每週略高於1次；70歲老年男人，每週少於1次性高潮。這些統計資料是20世紀阿爾弗雷德 C.金西的研究發現，而由於種種理由，這種原來的統計資料因而可能受到質疑。儘管如此，甚至時至今日，就這些資料背後的舉例來說，則少有人懷疑。的確，因為新近的研究已經給予了證實。

另一方面，對於女人來說，金西及其同事們曾經發現相當低的頻率曲線，他們例舉的女人整個一生的頻率相當低。從曲線上看，既沒有陡然上升的頻率高峰，也沒有顯著下降的頻率低谷。就像對男子的研究樣本一樣，對青年婦女來說，婚姻也會使得她們的性行動與從前不一樣了。一旦結婚，她們每週有2-3次性高潮。當然，女性在30-50歲之間時，她們仍然每週有約2次性高潮。另一方面，未婚女人，終其一生，記錄的結果是每週也只有1次性高潮或更少；超過50歲已婚女人的性高潮頻率也與之相同。

當然，必須強調的是，這些資料意味著一個平均數，而在個體之間存在巨大的差異。此外，這些統計資料只是代表著性高潮而已。還需要說明的是，對於這些“可量化的”行為來說，準確地說來這似乎是缺乏頭腦的產物，但是這些資料極好地舉證了男女的性反應是如何隨著年齡的增長而變化的。就這個意義上看，金西的研究資料仍然是中肯的[1]。

For young men, marriage makes a difference in their sexual performance: Before the age of twenty, married men have an average of 5 orgasms per week, while the unmarried have only a little more than 3. However, soon thereafter the frequency curves in both groups begin to descend: At age fifty, the weekly number of orgasms for all males is less than 2, for those in their sixties, it is slightly above 1, and for the seventy-year olds, it is below 1. These were the findings of Alfred C. Kinsey in the mid-20th century, and the exact figures may therefore be questioned for a variety of reasons. Still, even today, there can be little doubt about the tendency they illustrate. Indeed, it has since been confirmed by more recent research.
For women, on the other hand, Kinsey and his associates found a rather flat curve which illustrated a much lower frequency level throughout the life span. There was neither a steep initial rise nor a pronounced later decline. Just as in the male sample, marriage made a difference for young women. Once married, they had between 2 and 3 weekly orgasms. Indeed, between the ages of thirty and fifty, they still had about 2 orgasms per week. On the other hand, unmarried women, throughout their lives, registered only about 1 orgasm per week or less. The same figure applied to married women over fifty.                                         
It must be emphasized, of course, that these figures mean averages, and that there are enormous differences between individuals. Moreover, the figures only represent orgasms. They say nothing about the sources of these orgasms and, more importantly, they ignore all other sexual responses short of orgasm. Still, it is exactly this seemingly mindless reduction to the bare numbers of “countable” events that illustrates best how the female and male sexual responses develop over the years. In this sense, Kinsey’s findings remain relevant ¹.

1. Sources: Alfred C. Kinsey et al., “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”, 1948, p. 267 and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” 1953, p. 549.