Finally, Science Explains Why Rush Limbaugh Gets So Mad About Women Having Sex

[DonViejo]

By Amanda Marcotte

Even though 95 percent of Americans have premarital sex, as anyone who advocates for women's reproductive rights on Twitter can tell you, there is still a shocking amount of anger, and many colorful epithets, aimed directly at women who indulge. Why is there so much angst over women's sexual choices? Jesse Singal at Science of Us looks at a recent study that suggests that a lot of the desire to control and punish female sexuality is rooted in the belief that women are, or should be, financially dependent on men. Singal writes:

In the paper, which consisted of two studies and was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers from Brunel University asked a large group of Americans to rate their level of agreement with statements like “It is wrong for women to engage in promiscuous sex” and “It is fine for a woman to have sex with a man she has just met, if they both want to.” They also had them respond to statements gauging to what extent they viewed women as economically reliant on men — "Of the women I know who are in long-term heterosexual relationships, most do not depend very heavily on money contributed by their male partner," and so on.

Overall, the more likely a given respondent believed women were economically dependent on men, the more likely they were to view female promiscuity as immoral. These were modest to medium effects, but they were statistically significant, even controlling for factors like religiosity and political conservatism.

The researchers argue that this may stem from long-standing cultural concerns about "paternity certainty" that linger on in more conservative circles despite the advent of birth control. "Beliefs," they write, "may persist due to cultural evolutionary adaptive lag … that is, because the environment has changed faster than the moral system." This suggests, I'd argue, that the recent upswing in hostility to birth control is an attempt to preserve these cultural norms.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/07/08/rush_limbaugh_s_outrage_at_the_contraception_mandate_explained.html?

[louis-t]

1. He gets mad because they don't want sex with him.

[3catwoman3]

7. Lifelong celibacy...

...would be infinitely preferable.

[BrotherIvan]

11. The men I know who are the most hateful & misogynistic

Are the ones who have difficulty with starting or keeping a relationship. That sounds obvious, but if you never truly interact with women they seem like wholly different creatures. It leads to awkwardness, which then clashes with the marketing that every man should be showered with supermodels, which then leads to a twisted hatred of women. They often don't have sisters and so their first experience with a woman is the one who rejected them. MRA types most especially.

[1StrongBlackMan]

19. I can get with much of what you have written ...

However, I have to disagree with this:

They often don't have sisters and so their first experience with a woman is the one who rejected them.

These males might not have sisters; but I would suspect that their first experience with females was with their mother. But then, again, the Oedipus thing might factor in.

[Orsino]

14. He pretends to get mad to rile up potential R voters. That's all. n/t

[LadyHawkAZ]

25. ^winner!

[ismnotwasm]

2. Excellent article

[libodem]

4. I think so too

[4Q2u2]

3. In a related article

Rushie asks if anybody has seen his penis, because he has not in a long time. Some times pill popper sometime news man(Ha Ha Ha) is worried that it is not working or maybe gone all together.

[Octafish]

5. Thus, if Rush was poor, no one would ever have sex with him.

Too bad. So sad. As it's going, his honeymoons are running about $100 million per.

[abakan]

6. Gee and I always thought...

It was because he has to pay them to have sex with him! Personally there would never be enough money in the world and I'm sure I'm not alone.

[Ilsa]

8. He has to pay them to be quiet, I bet.

He pays them to stay married to him for 3-5 years. Then they get a nice settlement including hush money.

[Fuddnik]

21. According to his former college room mate, Rush is a closeted male.

He said they used to have sex together all the time, and he guarantees that none of Rush's marriages were ever consummated. It's all for show. A front.

Ad wasn't he fired from a Pittsburgh radio show, in his early days, for propositioning men outside a gay bar?

[abakan]

27. I had no idea...Thanks for the info...nt

[ismnotwasm]

9. Too bad the article has Rush in the title

It really is interesting and well written-- but the opportunity to make fun of Limbaugh is hard to resist

[d_r]

10. Marcotte

makes a classic correlation ne causation fwiw

[ismnotwasm]

13. But intriguing nonetheless

I'm not sure I buy it, except possibly the 'catching up with the time' implication

[d_r]

20. yeah that's fair enough

and I think there is good value in thinking and discussing these sorts of findings.

I just wish she'd framed her argument in a different way. but that's me.

[mopinko]

12. my take too. fear of the cuckhold is deep, and the evolutionary reasons are strong.

male involvement with a small number of offspring is a risky business. it requires a high level of trust.
some people arent smart enough to override their amygdala.

[elleng]

18. Yes

[Initech]

15. My personal theory is that the men who are angry scored low on South Park's TMI index.

[noiretextatique]

16. this is precisely why "beliefs" have no place in secular society

In places like the supreme court, congress, and the white house. How about looking at the cold hard facts instead?

[elleng]

17. 'cultural evolutionary adaptive lag'

I'll remember that!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

22. I think this extrapolates a little...

They saying it's the desire for paternal certainty that causes the change in attitudes.

Could it just as easily be the belief that if a woman is financially independent, the financial consequences of an unintended pregnancy are milder than they would be for a woman who is not financially independent. These people might just be subconsciously stating the belief that a financially independent woman can afford the consequences of her actions, while a financially dependent woman cannot.

Or to put it another way -- Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[underpants]

23. Rush and his wife fit that pretty accurately

[IkeRepublican]

24. Folks, you're reading too much into this

It's what you'd expect - he's catering to his old-broken-dick audience. That's why his ads are mostly about broken-dick pills, hoarding goods and the rest of that old fogie shit.

And it's not due to his "lost advertisers". His show has always had that string of sponsorship for over 20 years.

[calimary]

26. Well, science discusses and probes and studies gas giants, so why not?

Why shouldn't science weigh in on this, then?