French Women = Sexual Predators?

A recent article in the British Telegraph newspaper sports the following rather panic-stricken headline: French women 'are the sexual predators now.'

Now, those quotation marks strongly suggest that someone is quoted in the article asserting that French women have become sexual predators -- whatever that means. But a close reading reveals that no such quote appears. So what does the article say?

Not much, as it turns out. The author quotes from a recent survey of sexual behavior, but the information reported is anything but shocking:

"The proportion of French women who claim to have had only one partner has dropped from 68 per cent in 1970, to 43 per cent in 1992 and 34 per cent in 2006. A woman's average number of partners has risen from under two in 1970 to over five today, while a man's has remained the same for four decades, almost 13.

"French women's first experience of sex is now almost as early as that of the opposite sex: in 1950 there was a two-year difference, but the gap has narrowed to four months, to around 17 and a half. Meanwhile, more women remain sexually active for longer than previously: nine-out-of-10 women over 50 are sexually active today, compared to just 50 per cent of that age group in 1970."

Quick, hide your teen-aged sons! Two thirds of French women have had more than a single sexual partner! Nine of ten French women are having sex after their 50th birthdays! Mon dieu! They've become predators!

Here's an easy question for you: was this article penned by a man or a woman?

Reminds me of a funny line from Donald Symons' now-classic book The Evolution of Human Sexuality:

"The sexually insatiable woman is to be found primarily, if not exclusively, in the ideology of feminism, the hopes of boys, and the fears of men."

Especially, it seems, in the fears of English men!