Recent studies say that stress, particularly job stress, has women so stretched and frazzled that sex is disappearing from their radar screens. One such study found that 6 of 10 British working women believe that job stress "dramatically affects their sex lives."
Author Jilly Cooper says:
Women don’t want to have sex anymore because they have too much on their plates.“Doctors’ waiting rooms are absolutely brimming these days with women suffering from low libidos,” Cooper told The Telegraph.
“I have talked to a lot of young women about this, and they just don’t seem to do it any more,” Cooper adds. “Honestly, I suppose it’s because we all have so many other demands on our time now.”
And stress has the opposite affect on some women. A travel magazine study found that 40% of women in their 20's had a one-night-stand while on vacation and 10% of them average more than 4 sexual partners a week.
Maybe it's just that the young have more energy. Maybe it's that they haven't yet formed dreams and had them crushed beneath the relentless burden of daily stress in a world gone mad. I don't think it's just sex that women are too stressed for these days. So many of us feel like the camel - one more straw will be one too many for our backs- our psyches- and our lives.
Romance novels allow women to escape long enough to shed a straw or two from their load, so they can keep on keeping on a bit longer. Combine that escape with racy, raunchy and over-the-top bad boy sex a la Fifty Shades of Grey, and it may even perk up enough interest for a mattress mambo.
Hopefully we'll all get to chill out soon. Until that happens, I'll be reading a little romance to give me an escape hatch and writing a little more to provide one for all the other women out there who, like me, are tired of racing rats. Right now, I'm working on a new one for my Forever Series - this one is Peter's story and it's gonna be good. I hope it'll hit the shelves in time to be on everyone's Christmas list.
Until my new one is out, boogle on over to my book list and pick up one to rev your engine enough to speed straight through your 9 to 5 and wind up in your bedroom for the best kind of nightcap.