From fork-admin@xent.com Sat Sep 7 21:54:10 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.spamassassin.taint.org Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8ECCB16F03 for ; Sat, 7 Sep 2002 21:52:47 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Sat, 07 Sep 2002 21:52:47 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g87KAIC31918 for ; Sat, 7 Sep 2002 21:10:21 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 820932940D3; Sat, 7 Sep 2002 13:07:03 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org Received: from relay.pair.com (relay1.pair.com [209.68.1.20]) by xent.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 394F429409E for ; Sat, 7 Sep 2002 13:06:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 19746 invoked from network); 7 Sep 2002 20:08:45 -0000 Received: from adsl-67-119-24-60.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (HELO golden) (67.119.24.60) by relay1.pair.com with SMTP; 7 Sep 2002 20:08:45 -0000 X-Pair-Authenticated: 67.119.24.60 Message-Id: <005701c256aa$5d12d6e0$640a000a@golden> From: "Gordon Mohr" To: References: <20020907135257.7E5CBC44D@argote.ch> Subject: Re: Selling Wedded Bliss (was Re: Ouch...) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@spamassassin.taint.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 13:08:41 -0700 Definitional nit to pick: Robert Harley writes: > It is perfectly obvious that (heterosexual) promiscuity is exactly, > precisely identical between males and females. > > Of course the shapes of the distributions may differ. You've redefined "promiscuity" above as "total" or "average" activity, which seems to rob it of its common meaning: activity above some specific threshold (usually "one") or norm, or involving extra or indiscriminate variety. "Promiscuity" is thus inherently a description of distributions rather than averages. Consider a population of 3 males and 3 females. Let there be three pairings which result in each person having sex once. Then, let one of the males also have sex with the other two females. Sure, the average number of sex acts and sex partners is equal between the sexes, tautologically. But here more women than men are: - above the single partner threshold - above the overall average 1.67 acts/partners threshold - above the overall median 1.5 acts/partners - above the overall mode 1 acts/partners And here women have a higher mode (2) and median (2) number of partners. So in this contrived population, females are more "promiscuous" than males, unless "promiscuity" is defined uselessly. - Gordon