Dollars and Sex Retrospective
Today’s post is the one hundredth post for Dollars and Sex and to mark this occasion I thought I would provide a retrospective of the fifteen most popular posts to have appeared here over the past ten months. What is interesting about this list is how diverse the topics are–from online dating to prostitution to monogamy to faking orgasms. Dollars and Sex readers certainly have a wide range of interests!
1. How Promiscuous Are You? Take Our Online TestThe test itself is no longer on the page but the post is still fun to read. If you want to see the results from the tens of thousands who did take the test you can see them here.
2. Sex in ChinaThe Chinese google the search terms “sex in China” a lot. The only possible explanation as to why they search that term so often (and, as a result, end up reading my posts) is that they just don’t have sex often enough.
3. Does Sleeping Around Make People Happier?This post was very popular with Christian websites who were pleased with the results that the happiness maximizing number of sex partners is exactly one.
4. Confessions of a College Pimp This post is a word-for-word transcript of a conversation I had with a man who had pimped his way through university. It inspired others who had done the same to write me to explain that they were not nearly as mean as this guy.
5. When it comes to Faking Orgasms Who’s Kidding Whom?This posts was so popular with readers we didn’t fake the pleasure it gave us.
6. The Dating Surplus for Chinese Women Much of the popularity of this post, which is a letter from a student who is spending a year in China, came from his use of the phrase “I would rather cry in the back of a BMW than laugh on the back of a bicycle.”
7. Free Porn Lowers Rape RatesApparently the Google search terms “rape” and “porn” are very popular. I don’t judge how my readers arrive on the page. I am just glad they are here.
8. An Online Porn Traffic Surge in Red States? Republicans apparently found a little time to read this page in the days following the U.S. midterm elections despite their increased demand for internet porn (or maybe because of it!).
9. What Explains the Lesbian Wage Premium? This is my most cited post (including in the New York Times) which led to an internet furor over why lesbians are paid more than other female workers.
10. Why Aren’t Porn Stars Paid More? Not all my readers agreed with the use of the word “star” in this context, but whenever we talk about pay in the sex trades someone has an opinion on how much a worker’s time is worth.
11. Online Dating Sites Creating “Beauty Inflation”Anna North at Jezebel wrote a post on this one furthering the debate both on and offline about how online dating skews our expectations in romance.
12. Sex in College: It’s a Buyer’s Market Good post for anyone whose teenage son is refusing to do his homework.
13. Prostitution Paradox: Regulating Brothels Can Spread Disease One thing that sex workers and I can agree on is that there can be too much regulation of the sex trade, but probably for different reasons.
14. Education May Explain Why Rich Nations Prefer Monogamy This post took a shot at explaining why we have institutionalized monogamy in rich nations and made it onto the front page of the UK’s Daily Mail.
15. Do Women Really Value Income Over Looks in a Mate?My very first Dollars and Sex post and still a favorite with readers. Who doesn’t want to know what matters more – good looks or money?
