TNG Flashback: Kissing and Gender

The work day is almost over. We hope you use your last ounce of concentration to revisit this year-old TNG article. Originally published by Ms. Cavanaugh on 2/11/2008

Just in time for Valentine's Day, today's Washington Post has an article about a new, "seminal" study on kissing — on how men and women kiss and what kissing means to them. I'm always wary of anything that is about "the differences in gender," and this study seems sort of ridiculous.

First off the study was done with university students. I'm willing to bet that many students, like I, and many people I know do, treat kissing as a recreational sport. I'm fairly certain that I've had no interest in 75% of the people I've made out with other than (okay, usually drunkenly) kissing them right then and there.

This part also seemed interesting: "Women were also more likely to refuse to have sex with a partner unless they kissed first. More than half of the men said they would have sex without kissing first, but fewer than 15 percent of the women said the same." Seriously? Boys? I really don't believe that's true.


And what does this study mean for gay couples? None of us are kissing for "mate assessment," as the study seems to suggest is important: "'Perhaps males need more saliva to make subtle mate assessments,' she said, noting that previous research has suggested that a woman's breath changes across the menstrual cycle. 'He may be subconsciously detecting whether she's fertile or not.'" We are kissing for the other reasons — to bond and as a prelude to sex — though the article (unsurprisingly) doesn't mention whether there were homos included in the study.

Do we think that what this article says about kissing is actually true? Should I start being more discerning about who I make out with?