Peer-reviewed article
Least Equal When Most Teachable: The Biodevelopmental Learning Opportunities and Outcomes Model of Gender Differences in Sexuality.
Diana E Peragine, Emily A Impett, Doug P VanderLaan ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed paper proposes a model explaining gender differences in sexual interest and enjoyment, arguing that these differences arise primarily from unequal learning opportunities during adolescence rather than from biological differences alone. The authors contend that adolescence is a critical period when individuals are most capable of learning about sexuality, but girls and women face unequal costs and rewards in their early sexual experiences. The paper calls for ensuring equal opportunities for healthy sexual development and education across genders to address this developmental gap.
Key points
- The gender gap in sexual enjoyment is largest during adolescence, a developmentally sensitive period
- Girls and women debut with men/boys in conditions offering the greatest costs and fewest rewards
- Adolescence represents a window of opportunity for sexual incentive learning, particularly for individuals with high sexual plasticity
- Gender differences in sexuality may be acquired through unequal experiences rather than innate biological differences
- Equal opportunities for healthy sex and sexual health education are needed to address this developmental inequality
Limitations
This is a theoretical model and synthesis of existing evidence rather than a primary empirical study, so it does not present new data on intervention outcomes. The document does not specify which countries or populations have been studied, limiting understanding of geographic and cultural scope.
Abstract
Academic AbstractGender differences in sexuality are often attributed to evolved biological differences organized before adolescence or experiential ones learned afterward-neglecting learning that endures because it is evolutionarily expected, and we are biologically sensitized to it. Here, we present the Biodevelopmental Learning Opportunities and Outcomes Model (BLOOM) of gender differences in sexuality, arguing women's lower interest in sex originates not from unequal capacities to want/desire it, but unequal opportunities to like/enjoy sex when biospsychosocially primed to learn from it. We synthesize evidence indicating sex is least equal in adolescence, offering the greatest costs and fewest rewards to women/girls who debut with men/boys (WDM). Concomitantly, it is most teachable in adolescence, when a window of opportunity for sexual incentive learning may open, particularly among individuals with heightened sexual plasticity/learning aptitude (i.e., women/girls). Implications for distinguishing gender differences in sexuality from experience-contingent similarities, and realizing equal sexual rights, education, and health are discussed.Public AbstractGender differences in sexual enjoyment are among the largest in psychology and have remained so over decades despite other advances in gender equality. The gender gap in sexual pleasure, for example, has gained widespread attention and is increasingly discussed as an explanation for gender differences in sexuality. Here, we spotlight the largest, but least discussed, gender gap in sexual enjoyment: the developmental gap. We review evidence that adolescence is not simply a vulnerable period for sexual health, but a window of opportunity for learning to have healthy, enjoyable, and desirable sex-and one wherein equal opportunity is lacking. We propose women get the least equitable sex during this window, when they are primed to learn from it, and this learning informs sexual interest thereafter, generating acquired differences that are often mistaken for inborn ones. We close with recommendations for ensuring equal opportunities for healthy sex and sexual health across genders.