Women are wild, unpredictable and just as 'animal' as men when it comes to sex: Fascinating new book busts myths surrounding female sexuality

Daniel Bergner has written a book, 'What Do Women Want?'

It's based on scientific studies of female sexuality

Study revealed straight women turned on by a naked woman exercising



Gay women were turned on by two men having sex

Sight of apes having sex was also arousing

Result of female sexuality being repressed for 'eons'

Sexy: This is a typical image which would arouse a man - but a woman's desire is much more unpredictable

For decades, we have been led to believe that men are driven by a base need to 'spread their seed' and lust after many partners, while women desire monogamy and their sexual fulfillment comes from emotional intimacy.



But an author who has researched female sexuality has said anyone who thinks women are inherently less promiscuous and sexually assertive than men is kidding themselves.

Writer Daniel Bergner, from Brooklyn, New York, says the idea that women are ' biologically programmed' to be monogamous is a 'myth' that has been perpetuated for too long.

He told MailOnline: ' I t hink that one of our conventional assumptions - that women are biologically programmed by evolution to be less promiscuous, less assertive, and less driven sexually - is a myth.



'There is very little evidence to support this theory. It gets in the way of serious understanding.'

Bergner, 53, has written a book on the subject, called 'What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire', which has been re-published this month by Canongate Books.

He busts a number of myths through his research, based on scientific studies, which include theories that women want less sex than men, watch less porn and that their desire is sparked by emotional intimacy.

In fact, Bergner said the research he has seen reveals women can be just as much of an 'animal' as a men when it comes to sex and that their desires are actually a lot more wild and unpredictable.



At the start of the book and in a video on Canongate's website, he explains a test that Meredith Chivers carried out to determine what really turns women on.



She wired up a p lethysmograph to women 's private parts and then showed them a series of images to monitor what made them become aroused.

Bergner explains: ' The results reveal th at women get turned on by all sorts of videos. Straight women get turned on by naked women exercising; lesbian women get turned on by gay male porn; the sight apes having sex is a turn on.'

Writer Daniel Bergner has debunked myths surrounding female sexuality in his recently re-released book, right



But he added that many women were in denial about what they found to be a turn on.



'The plethysmograph was showing lots of arousal when women were telling Chivers they didn't feel turned on at all,' he said.



... ' what turned men on was a lot more predictable and a lot more boring'

Bergner told MailOnline that this repression of sexual desire has been drummed into women for 'eons'.



Many other studies he looked into found women lied about, or were too embarrassed to admit, what really turned them on.

Often women would only give honest answers to questions, such as whether they watched porn and how many sexual partners they have had, if they were told their input would be completely anonymous.



'Though we live in a culture that is, in many ways, sexually unrestrained, we are still uneasy, even fearful, about women's desire. This goes back eons,' Bergner e xp lains. 'It is somehow overwhelming to confront the realities of female sexuality.'

He adds that perhaps female sexuality has been repressed in order to create some balance and order in society.

'Sexuality is a potentially anarchic force, and it is comforting to believe that - innately - half the population, the female half, is at least comparatively civilised when it comes to sex. It is soothing to believe that women are genetically scripted to serve as a stabilising force,' he said.



Yet Bergner has discovered female sexuality is a lot more interesting than men's.

Animal instincts: Women can be just as sexually aggressive and promiscuous as men, according to research revealed in the book

When men were shown the same images as the women during Chivers' test, ' what turned them on was a lot more predictable and a lot more boring,' he notes.



Bergner said Chivers' study also contradicts the idea that all women want to to settle down with one man - and that they will have the best sex with that one man - because of the emotion intimacy their relationship brings.

In fact, Chivers' study found the plethysmograph 'flat-lined' when the women were shown images of their love-term lovers. Seeing someone they knew was a 'lust-killer'. But images of a handsome stranger were a turn on.

However, while Bergner has explored what women want in his book, he humbly admits he can't give a definitive answer.

He said: 'I don't mean to imply (by the book's title) that I have a single answer - or that a single answer exists. That would be not only arrogant but terribly and monumentally foolish. We human beings are too complex for single answers, and our complexity is what makes a book like this a challenge and finally a pleasure to write. I hope that our complexity makes the book a pleasure to read as well.'

In the spirit of further research, Canongate is running a survey to find out what women really want, which you can answer at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YDJQHKF

