Editing Promiscuity (section)

==Female promiscuity==
{{Main|Female promiscuity}}
[[File:Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeevna by anonymous after Rotari (18th c, Russian museum).jpg|thumb|Empress [[Catherine the Great]], a crucial figure at the time of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], is popularly remembered for [[Legends of Catherine the Great|her sexual promiscuity]].]]

In 1994, a study in the United States found almost all married heterosexual women reported having sexual contact only with their husbands, and unmarried women almost always reported having no more than one sexual partner in the past three months. Lesbians who had long-term partners reported having fewer outside partners than heterosexual women.<ref name="nejm" /> More recent research, however, contradicts the assertion that heterosexual women are largely monogamous. A 2002 study estimated that 45% to 55% of married heterosexual women engage in sexual relationships outside of their marriage,<ref name="Atwood">{{cite journal|last=Atwood|first=Joan D.|author2=Limor Schwartz |title=Cyber-Sex: The New Affair Treatment Considerations|journal=Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy |year=2002|volume=1|issue=3|pages=37–56|doi=10.1300/J398v01n03_03|s2cid=147203411}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2019}} while the estimate for heterosexual men engaging in the same conduct was 50–60% in the same study.<ref name="Atwood"/>

One possible explanation for hypersexuality is child sexual abuse (CSA) trauma. Many studies have examined the correlation between CSA and [[risky sexual behavior]]. Rodriguez-Srednicki and Ofelia examined the correlation of CSA experienced by women and their self-destructive behavior as adults using a questionnaire. The diversity and ages of the women varied. Slightly fewer than half the women reported CSA while the remainder reported no childhood trauma. The results of the study determined that self-destructive behaviors, including hypersexuality, correlates with CSA in women.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rodriguez-srednicki|first=Ofelia|date=2002-04-23|title=Childhood Sexual Abuse, Dissociation, and Adult Self-Destructive Behavior|journal=Journal of Child Sexual Abuse|volume=10|issue=3|pages=75–89|doi=10.1300/j070v10n03_05|pmid=17522001|s2cid=30198394|issn=1053-8712|doi-access=free}}</ref> CSA can create sexual schemas that result in risky sexual behavior.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Schloredt|first1=Kelly A.|last2=Heiman|first2=Julia R.|date=June 2003|title=Perceptions of sexuality as related to sexual functioning and sexual risk in women with different types of childhood abuse histories|journal=Journal of Traumatic Stress|volume=16|issue=3|pages=275–84|doi=10.1023/a:1023752225535|pmid=12816341|issn=0894-9867|citeseerx=10.1.1.572.1113|s2cid=9603046}}</ref> This can play out in their sexual interactions as girls get older. The sexual behaviors of women that experienced CSA differed from those of women without exposure to CSA. Studies show CSA survivors tend to have more sexual partners and engage in higher risk sexual behaviors.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Noell|first1=John|last2=Rohde|first2=Paul|last3=Seeley|first3=John|last4=Ochs|first4=Linda|date=January 2001|title=Childhood sexual abuse, adolescent sexual coercion and sexually transmitted infection acquisition among homeless female adolescents☆, ☆☆|journal=Child Abuse & Neglect|volume=25|issue=1|pages=137–48|doi=10.1016/s0145-2134(00)00223-4|pmid=11214808|issn=0145-2134}}</ref>  <!-- READ THIS BEFORE EDITING: The list of slang terms is not intended to include every single term ever used. If you believe that the list would be genuinely improved by an addition, please propose it on the article's talk page. Obscure or regional slang will likely be removed. Thank you. -->

Since at least 1450, the word '[[slut]]' has been used, often pejoratively, to describe a sexually promiscuous woman.<ref>{{OEtymD|slut}}</ref> In and before the [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] and [[Jacobean era]]s, terms like "strumpet" and "whore" were used to describe women deemed promiscuous, as seen, for example, in [[John Webster]]'s 1612 play ''[[The White Devil]]''.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Thornhill and Gangestad found that women are much more likely to sexually fantasize about and be attracted to [[Extra-pair copulation|extra-pair men]] during the fertile phase of the [[menstrual cycle]] than the [[luteal phase]], whereas attraction to the primary partner does not change depending on the [[menstrual cycle]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thornhill|first1=Randy|last2=Gangestad|first2=Steven W.|title=The evolutionary biology of human female sexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionarybiol00thor|url-access=limited|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-534098-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionarybiol00thor/page/n254 244–45]}}</ref> A 2004 study by Pillsworth, Hasselton and Buss contradicted this, finding greater in-pair sexual attraction during this phase and no increase in attraction to extra-pair men.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thornhill|first1=Randy|last2=Gangestad|first2=Steven W.|title=The evolutionary biology of human female sexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionarybiol00thor|url-access=limited|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-534098-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionarybiol00thor/page/n255 245]}}</ref>

In Norwegian students, Kennair et al. (2023) found no signs of a sexual double standard in short-term or long-term mating contexts, nor in choosing a friend, except that women's self-stimulation was more acceptable than men's.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Andrew G. Thomas, David M. Buss ja Mons Bendixen |date=27 March 2023 |title=Examining the Sexual Double Standards and Hypocrisy in Partner Suitability Appraisals Within a Norwegian Sample |journal=Evolutionary Psychology |volume=21 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/14747049231165687 |pmc=10303487 |pmid=36972495 |s2cid=257772494 |doi-access=free}}</ref>