Are you getting your fair share of "creative" sex?

I had a good little chuckle yesterday when I read, in the Arts & Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times, the article "What Artists Do When Not Suffering" by writer Susan Dominus. With the subhead "Scientists say that creative types get lots of action. Isn't that what creative types have been saying all along," the article reports that two psychologists - from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Open University - announced last week that creative types of both sexes have about twice as many sexual partners as non-artistic people. It seems that creativity may be an aphrodisiac. Research was done on 425 British professional artists and it was discovered they had 4 to 10 sexual partners in their past - compared to the 3 claimed by those who are less creative. The study will be published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

In her article, Dominus says, "Perhaps there is an easy explanation for the tendency toward multiple affairs. Procrastination, for example – artists and poets tend to be world-class work avoiders, and what better way to put the empty page than an elaborate, time-consuming seduction. Or perhaps it's poverty – sex is, after all, one of the great, cheap recreational pleasures available to the penniless, if highly lauded poet."

Dominus also notes that the researchers seem to try to console the public by reminding them that "creative types" also have a higher rate of depression. She asks, "...could that be why they're seeking so much sex? Or maybe it's all that empty sex that is depressing them."

When I brought the article to the attention of my partner he burst out laughing and could not stop. Was he laughing at the article or me - the one he always refers to as one of those "creative types?"

You can read the article here on the NYT web site if you are a registered visitor to the paper's web presence.

© 2005 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives