Anything That Moves

Is it true that boys will screw anything that breathes? One man ponders the gender bias.

“You boys will fuck anything that moves,” she said to me. It was the second time in a week that someone said that to my face. It really hit a chord, and I got to thinking about the truth behind the statement.

I’m a “boy” and am I really like that? I have a fairly high sex drive. But still, I do have standards — and I’ve turned women down before.

What she said rings of some sort of truth-ism. But in my mind, it doesn’t feel real. Can a man be reduced to one primal urge? If we could, our world would look more like Bosch’s painting of the Inferno. Why do some people think that males are animals when it comes to sex?

I recently saw a Tumblr post where a female blogger talked about sexism and school uniforms. In the post, she discusses how her school postulates that “boys will be boys” and that the girls’ uniforms were changed to be less enticing to the male population. So, the school assumes that males have no self control.

I’m not a social scientist. I’m just a guy who has thoughts on the issue. Instead of doing formal research, I asked my friends what they thought when we all went out for a drink.

One of my guy friends said, “Maybe not men, but boys will.” This means that younger males are experimenting with sex, so they’re more likely to stick their thingy in anything because it’s a new experience. I believe this is a valid statement, but I know that there’s a range of behavior in the adolescent male population.

My female friend said, “Well, men do have higher sex drives…” Do we? Or are we just programmed to be the aggressor or pursuer of procreation?

I followed up with a discussion about online dating and why men seemingly pursue women without aim online. This is something that has also come to my attention recently since stories of female online dating experiences have come out. The women in our group confirmed these stories.

In a way, this proves that men will pursue anything in the search for sex. By playing a numbers game and pursuing every girl out there, someone has to say yes, right? Well, maybe. In this case, the Internet provides a filter to the rejection that these men must feel when doing that in real life. So, it’s easier to just send one line emails and expect you won’t hear back. Way easier than in person.

However, I know for a fact that not every male is like that. I’m not, and my other male colleagues don’t behave this way. Yes, we may pursue them, but not without some level of standards and taste.

So, which is it? Are men just animals destined to try and fuck anything that will sleep with them, or are we civilized human beings with standards and taste? I think it’s a little a bit of both at all times — with changing degrees of either way over time.