> the average number of relationships for men and women should be identical!
When those studies say average they usually mean median.
Imagine a population with 10 men and 10 women.
3 of the men sleep with each woman once.
The average hookups for both men and women are three each, but the median for men is none while the median for women is three.
This is a contrived example, normally in each population you'd have outliers, but the point is the data presented here shows that "hookups" are more evenly distributed amongst women than men.
seems women's ideal sex frequency is lower than men’s. what to do ?
The market answer is to price relationships with women, weather short or long term. And the market does do this, under various names in increasing cost: hookups, porn, escort, dating, mistress, marriage.
People just don’t always manage risk: children, disease, divorce, alimony, dying married bedroom, aging...
banning / discouraging prostitution favors women over men. But it harms men more than it helps women.
Interestingly, encouraging female promiscuity actually work economically in the same direction as prostitution by adding to the total number of sexual encounters involving women (ie in favor of men, lowering the price of sex with women)
When those studies say average they usually mean median.
Imagine a population with 10 men and 10 women.
3 of the men sleep with each woman once.
The average hookups for both men and women are three each, but the median for men is none while the median for women is three.
This is a contrived example, normally in each population you'd have outliers, but the point is the data presented here shows that "hookups" are more evenly distributed amongst women than men.