Name: 快來搞懂性愛經濟學！ (The Economics of Sex)
Uploaded: 2025-05-15T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 9 min 57 s

[Marriage rates in the U.S. have hit an historic low.]

[Annual revenue of the online dating industry is at an all-time high⏤$1.049 Billion.]

[線上交友產業出現前所未有的高年營業額，十億四千九百萬美元。]

情態副詞

Ever wonder if romantic relationships are getting increasingly more difficult to navigate these days?

曾經覺得愛情關係是否在現今變得越來越難以掌控？

Why fewer couples are getting married and later than ever before?

為什麼相較於過去，結婚人數變少婚齡也變晚？

Time for a crash course on the Economics of Sex.

歡迎收看「性愛經濟學」懶人包！

Let’s think about sex as an exchange, where each person gives the other person something of themselves.

讓我們來把性愛想成是一個交換，在這裡每個人都要與另一人交換一些自己的東西。

It might appear at face value that they are giving the same thing: intimate access to each other’s bodies,

從表面價值上來看，他們看似付出相同的東西：親密地接近彼此的身體，

but there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

Men and women both enjoy sex; we all know that.

But what’s interesting is how the data tells us that men and women experience sex differently.

但有趣的是資料告訴我們，男人和女人如何以不同方式體驗性愛。

On average, men have a higher sex drive than women.

一般來說男人的性慾比女人強。

Blame it on testosterone, call it whatever you want.

怪罪給睪固酮吧，隨便你怎麼稱呼它。

But on average, men initiate sex more than women, they're more sexually permissive than women,

但是一般而言，在性愛中男人比女人更常採取主動，性觀念上也比女人更開放，

and they connect sex to romance less often than women.

加上他們比起女人，較少將性愛與感情聯想在一起。

Nobody’s saying this is the way it ought to be; it’s just the way it is.

沒人說這件事應該這樣。只是事實就是這樣了。

Women, on the other hand, are likely to have sex for reasons beyond just simple pleasure.

相反地，女人做愛不只是為了享受魚水之歡。

Her motivations for sex often include expressing and receiving love, strengthening commitment, affirming desirability, and relationship security.

她們對性的動機通常包含表達和接收愛、鞏固承諾、確認自我魅力和安全感。

So, in an exchange relationship where men want sex more often than women do, who decides when it will happen?

所以在這場交易中，男人比女人渴望性愛由誰決定發生的時機？

She does, of course; sex is her resource.

當然是女人，性是女人的籌碼。

Sex in consensual relationships will happen when women want it to.

在兩廂情願的關係中，性愛在女方想要時才發生。

So, how do women decide to begin a sexual relationship?

那女人該如何決定發展床上關係？

- Pricing. Women have something of value that men want.  - Badly, something men are actually willing to sacrifice for.

- 定價策略。女人擁有某樣男人想要的有價值東西。  - 男人迫切想要到願意為此犧牲奉獻。

It might cost him nothing but a few drinks and compliments, or a month of dates and respectful attention,

這或許只會花他幾杯酒和甜言蜜語，或是一個月的約會和殷勤的關心，

or all the way up to a lifetime promise to share all of his affections, wealth, and earnings with her exclusively.

或是從一而終，承諾一生只獨與她分享他的感情、財富和所得。

The "price" varies widely, but if women are the gatekeepers, why don’t very many women "charge more", so to speak?

「價格」變化很大，但是如果女人是掌控的人，為什麼沒有很多女人「收費高一點」？

Because pricing is not entirely up to women.

The "market value" of sex is part of a social system of exchange, an "economy" if you will,

性愛的「市場價值」是社會交易體系的一部份，也就是 「經濟」，如果你想這樣說的話，

where men and women learn from each other (and from others) what they ought to expect from each other sexually.

男女雙方可從另一半或其它人身上，滿足各自的性需求。

So, sex is not entirely a private matter between two consenting adults.

所以性愛不全然是件兩個成年人之間的私事。

- Think of it as basic...  - Supply and demand.

- 將它視為最基本的⋯⋯  - 供給和需求。

When supplies are high, prices drop, since people won’t pay more for something that’s easy to find.

供過於求時價格會下跌，因為人們不會為唾手可得的物品花費。

But if it’s hard to find, people will pay a premium.

但是如果這很稀少，人們會願意付高價。

Men know that sex is cheap these days, if they know where to look.

現在，男人知道只要有管道，「性」可以很廉價。

So, how did we get here? How did the market value of sex decline so drastically?

所以，我們是怎麼來到這一步的？性愛的市價是如何劇烈地衰退呢？

Economists often speak of "technological shocks" that dramatically alter markets.

經濟學家常說「科技衝擊」造成市場劇烈變動。

Pesticides revolutionized agriculture, enabling its mass production on a level unparalleled in the history of human civilization.

殺蟲劑造成農業改革，量產技術達到人類文明史上空前進步。

Lawns became greener, produce became better and widely available with a marvelous variety.

草地更青綠、農產品更優良也更具豐富多樣性。

Here’s another example: Artificial hormonal contraception or the pill, allowed men and women to have sex while avoiding pregnancy.

另一個例子：人工賀爾蒙避孕法，也就是避孕藥，讓男女做愛同時也能避孕。

This was a technological shock that forever altered the mating market, by profoundly lowering the cost of sex.

這個科技衝擊大幅貶低性愛價值，導致擇偶市場的改變。

It didn’t change overnight, but the effects have been, one might say, revolutionary.

雖然轉變不在一夕之間，但卻造成，嗯~革命性的巨大影響，

Before contraception, sex before marriage took place during the search for a mate, someone to marry.

避孕藥發明前，婚前性行為在尋找結婚對象時才會發生。

Sex didn’t necessarily mean marriage, but serious commitment was commonly a requirement for sex.

性行為不一定意味著結婚，但通常伴隨著重大承諾。

Don’t believe people who say your great-grandparents were secretly as casual about sex as your friends are. They weren’t.

別聽人說曾祖父母那一代，私生活跟你朋友一樣隨便，這是不可能的！

Because to mess around with sex eventually meant, well, becoming parents.

因為遊戲人間的結果，就得為人父母。

It turns out that they had unforeseen effects that are wreaking havoc on the environment and weakening the natural ecological systems that we depend on.

事實上它帶來不可預見的後果，造成環境浩劫，導致我們賴以生存的自然生態體系惡化。

Scientists believe that because of pesticides, the bee population is dropping at an alarming rate.

科學家相信，殺蟲劑使蜜蜂數量以驚人的速度銳減。

One-third of all the food we eat depends on those bees for pollination.

而我們有三分之一的食物須仰賴蜜蜂授粉。

It is now feared that the overuse of pesticides is throwing ecology as we know it into disarray.  

現在擔憂的是過度使用殺蟲劑，將導致生態環境陷入混亂。

While the original purpose of the pill was to prevent pregnancy, the data reveals an unanticipated side-effect: the pill threw the mating market into disarray.

避孕藥最初目的是避孕，研究卻意外揭露一項副作用：避孕藥使擇偶市場陷入混亂。

Having sex and thinking about marriage have now become two quite different things.

做愛與考慮結婚現在已經成為兩件相當不一樣的事。

- One corner where people are largely interested in sex.  - And one corner where people are largely pursuing marriage.

- 一邊是對性愛非常感興趣的人。  - 而另一邊是非常積極追求婚姻的人。

- And there are more men looking for sex than women.  - And more women looking to marry than men.

- 男人比較想要性愛。  - 而女人比較想要婚姻。

The language of online dating reinforces the reality of this split mating market.

交友網站上的用語，強化了擇偶市場分裂的事實。

Men are more apt to write that they’re "looking for fun," while women tend to signal very different things,

男人傾向於寫他們「想找點樂子」，然而女人偏向於發出非常不同的訊號，

saying things like "only serious inquiries, please" or "not into games".

她們寫著「非誠勿擾」、或是「不玩愛情遊戲」的訊息。

So this split mating market poses a particular problem for women.

因此擇偶市場的分歧，為女人帶來嚴重的問題。

They certainly call the shots when it comes to short-term sexual relationships because men outnumber them.

當談到短暫的性關係時，她們當然可以發號施令，因為男性人數比他們多。

This enables women to be more selective in the short-term.

這使女人在短暫關係中有更多選擇性。

But the reverse is true when they decide they want to settle down.

但反之亦然，當她們決定好想要定下來時則不是如此。

- We often hear about "men’s lack of commitment".  - But the blunt reality is an economic one:

- 我們常常聽到關於「男人對承諾的缺乏」。  - 但經濟的事實是最直接的：

Women vastly outnumber men in the "marriage market", which means men can be picky and can insist on extensive sexual experience before committing.

女人在「婚姻市場」的數量大幅超越男性。也就是說男性可以很挑剔，和在給予承諾之前享有大量的性愛經驗。

Men are in a position to maximize their rewards while investing fewer resources.

男性可以投入較少的資源將利潤極大化。

- Why do men do this?  - 'Cause they can. Here’s the thing:

- 男人為什麼這麼做？  - 因為他們有本錢！事情是這樣的：

In the past, it really wasn’t the patriarchy that policed women’s relational interests. It was women.

在過去，控制女人相關權益的其實不是父權社會，而是女人自己。

But, this agreement, this unspoken pact to set a high market value of sex, has all but vanished.

但這項協議，這種把性愛市價訂得很高的默契，如今也消失了。

But in a brave new world where having sex no longer means babies and marriage has become optional,

當現代性愛不代表生小孩，再加上婚姻自由，

the solidarity women once felt toward each other in the mating market has dissolved.

在擇偶市場中，女人團結一致的情況已經瓦解。

Women no longer have each other’s backs; on the contrary, they’re now each other’s competition.

女性不再是彼此的靠山，相反地，她們現在互為敵手。

And when women compete for men, they tend to do so by appealing to what men want.

而當女人為了競爭男人，她們會做出許多事只為吸引男人而去變成男人想要的樣子。

  Here’s where women are wrong about men:

Men are not actually afraid of commitment at all.

- While women are the gatekeepers when it comes to sex.  - The deal is that men are in the driver's seat in the marriage market.

- 當談到性愛時女人是掌控者。  - 事實是男人在婚姻市場裡才是真正主導大權的。

They can navigate it exactly how they want to.

他們可以依照自己所希望的去操控局面。

And unlike women’s fertility, men’s virility doesn’t expire by 40, or 45, or 50, or even 60. So what’s the rush?

而不同於女人的生育率，男人的精氣到四、五、六十歲都很旺盛，所以急什麼呢？

So, it should come as no surprise that the average age of first marriage in the United States continues to rise,

所以毫無意外地美國人首次結婚的平均年齡持續上升，

and that the share of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 years old who are married is continuing to drop.

而且介於 25 到 34 歲之前的美國已婚人數則持續下降。

While there are certainly factors that contribute to each of those trends, the gender imbalance in a split mating market is a big one.

然而一定有一些因素導致這兩項趨勢，擇偶市場中的男女失衡是關鍵。

- Talk about a profound irony!  - By nearly every measure, young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life.

- 這還不是深刻的諷刺嗎！  - 幾乎從各方面來看，年輕男性無法適應現代社會。

When attractive women will still go to bed with you, life for young men, even those who are floundering, just ain’t so bad.

當充滿魅力的女人仍願意跟你上床，這種生活對年輕男人來說，也包括那些未定下來的男人們，這種生活不差嘛。

In reality, men tend to behave as well or as poorly as the women in their lives permit.

在現實中，男人傾向於表現地與他們生活中的女人所允許的範圍相當，可能表現很好或很壞。

Economists say that collusion, women working together, would be the most rational way to elevate the "market value" of sex.

經濟學家提到女人同謀合作，是提高性愛市價最明智的辦法。

But there is little evidence of this happening among women today.

但是現在只有極少的證據顯示女性會表現出這樣的行為。

If women were squarely in charge of how their relationships transpired and demanded a "higher market price" for the exchange of sex, so to speak,

可以這麽說，如果女人能直接掌控自己的情感關係，並要求以「更高的市場價值」來換取性，

we’d be seeing, on average, more impressive wooing efforts, greater male investment, longer relationships, fewer premarital partners, shorter cohabitations, and more marrying going on.

我們屆時會看到的，平均來說會出現更熱烈的追求、更願意付出的男人、情感關係穩定、不婚伴侶減少、 同居時間縮短、步入婚姻者增加 。

For a woman to know what she wants in a relationship and to signal it clearly, especially if it’s different than what most men want, this is her power in the economy.

對一個女人來說，女人在性愛經濟中的力量，就是明白自己在關係裡要尋求什麼，並清楚地表達出來，尤其是她們所期盼的與男人所要的不同時。

But none of these things seem to be occurring ⏤ not now, at least.

但似乎這些事情都還沒發生，至少目前是這樣。

Today, the economics of contemporary sexual relationships clearly favor men and what they want, even while what they are offering in the exchange has diminished.

如今，現代的性愛經濟很明顯對男性及他們所想要的有利，即使他們付出的代價逐漸減少。

And it’s all thanks to supply, demand, and the long reach of a remarkable little pill.

這一切全歸功於供給和需求，以及神奇小藥丸的深遠影響。

Brought to you by the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture.

本集節目由奧斯汀家庭文化研究協會贊助播出。