Ancient Historian Recasts 2,000 Years of Women's Sexuality as Modern Sex Rates Decline
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 15
Ancient Historian Recasts 2,000 Years of Women's Sexuality as Modern Sex Rates Decline
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 15
A new historical analysis argues today’s concern over falling sex frequency misses a deeper question: whether women are having pleasurable sex at all.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers often cast women as sexually voracious, using ideas like the “wandering womb” to frame sex as a medical necessity and a tool of social control rather than mutual pleasure.
That contrasts with modern narratives that often depict women as less interested in sex, even as surveys point to lower orgasm rates, pain and anxiety as reasons women defer sex more often than men.
Texts, graffiti and artifacts also show women in antiquity pursuing pleasure outside male prescriptions—from Sappho’s poems to possible dildos such as the 6-inch Vindolanda phallus reinterpreted in 2023.
The historian argues both ancient and modern stereotypes flatten women’s desire, and that economics, living conditions and social norms may explain the “sex decline” better than libido alone.
From ancient 'wandering wombs' to modern pills, does medicine still control women's desire?
Is the sex recession a true crisis, or are we just redefining intimacy?
Are plastics and pollution the silent killers of our sex lives?