Human male sexuality

Human male sexuality covers physiological, psychological, social, cultural, and political aspects of the human male sexual response and related phenomena. It encompasses a broad range of topics involving male sexual desires and behavior that have also been addressed by ethics, morality, and religion.

There are a number of factors that influence male sexuality and sexual behaviour, including expected parental investment, and paternal presence during development.

Elizabeth Cashdan proposed that mate strategies among both genders differ depending on how much parental investment is expected of the male, and provided research support for her hypotheses. When men expect to have to provide a high level of parental investment, they will attempt to attract women by emphasising their ability to invest. In addition, men who expect to invest will be more likely to highlight their chastity and fidelity than men who expect not to invest. Men with the expectation of low parental investment will flaunt their sexuality to women. The author argues the fact the research supports the idea that men expecting to invest emphasise their chastity and fidelity, which is a high cost strategy (because it lowers reproductive opportunities), suggests that that type of behaviour must be beneficial, or the behaviour would not have been selected.

A relationship between the early experiences and environment of boys, and their later sexual behaviour, has been drawn by several studies. Research suggests that father absence can lead to an increase in rape behaviour. Research conducted by Malamuth found that men raised in the absence of their father (or where resources were scarce) reported more use of sexual coercion in the past, and were more likely to indicate being more willing to rape, in the event that there was no chance of them getting caught. Research has also found that parental divorce and rape correlate positively.

Males who are in a committed relationship, in other words have a restricted sociosexual orientation, will have different sexual strategies compared to males who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation. Males with a restricted sociosexual orientation will be less willing to have sex outside of their committed relationship, and adjust their strategies according to their desire for commitment and emotional closeness with their partner. It has been found that such males are less likely to approach attractive females who have greater waist-to-hip ratios (0.68-0.72). It has been found that a greater waist-to-hip ratio, the ideal being 0.7, is associated with youthfulness, physical attractiveness and reproductive potential. Therefore, such females would be viewed as a risk to the male’s current sexual partner. Consequently, males will adjust their sexual strategies by showing less willingness to approach such females.

...
Wikipedia