原作者：
来源The Science of Cougar Sex: Why Older Women Lust Read more: http://wwwtimecom/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2007422,00html#ixzz1Tw1JXwnj
译者flyingheart
Men who cheat on their spouses have always enjoyed an expedient explanation: Evolution made me do it. Many articles, especially in recent years, have explored the theory that men sleep around because evolution has programmed them to seek fertile (and, conveniently, younger) wombs.
男人在欺骗自己的配偶时总是爱用一句冠冕堂皇的话搪塞过去：这是进化论决定的。特别是在近些年，许多文章（译注：原文有两处链接，可参阅）都在探讨一个理论，那就是男人到处留情是进化论使然，是进化论让他们寻找肥沃的子宫（当然女人越年轻越适宜）。
But what about women? If it's really true that evolution can cause a man to risk his marriage, what effect does that have on women's sexuality?
但女人呢？如果说进化论使得男人甘愿冒着牺牲婚姻的危险尝试婚外情，那么进化论对女人的性行为有什么影响呢？
A new journal article suggests that evolutionary forces also push women to be more sexual, although in unexpected ways. University of Texas psychologist David Buss wrote the article, which appears in the July issue of Personality and Individual Differences, with the help of three graduate students, Judith Easton (who is listed as lead author), Jaime Confer and Cari Goetz. Buss, Easton and their colleagues found that women in their 30s and early 40s are significantly more sexual than younger women. Women ages 27 through 45 report not only having more sexual fantasies (and more intense sexual fantasies) than women ages 18 through 26 but also having more sex, period. And they are more willing than younger women to have casual sex, even one-night stands. In other words, despite the girls-gone-wild image of promiscuous college women, it is women in their middle years who are America's most sexually industrious.
某杂志一篇新的文章提出，尽管是以一种意料之外的形式出现的，但是进化的压力也在驱使女人表现得更加性感。这篇文章发表在《个性与个体差异》（Personality and Individual Differences）杂志第七期上，作者是得克萨斯大学心理学教授大卫·巴斯，另有三名研究生参与了此项研究，朱迪斯·伊斯顿（第一作者）、海梅·肯佛和卡莉·戈茨。伊斯顿及其同事们发现30年龄段和40年龄段的女人比她们年轻的同类更显性感。较之年龄在18-26岁之间的女人，27-45岁之间的女人报告说她们不仅有更多的性幻想（以及更强烈的性幻想），而且还有更多的性生活和更长的月经期。她们也比年轻女人更愿意发生比较随意的性爱、甚至一夜情。换句话说，尽管大学女生性关系混乱的行为给人以女孩都变坏的印象，但是美国的中年女人才是最热衷于性的。
By contrast, men's sexual interest and output, usually measured by a reported number of orgasms per week, peaks in the teen years and then settles to a steady level (an average of three orgasms per week) for most of their lives. As I pointed out in March, most men remain sexually active into their 70s. According to the new study, as well as the study I wrote about in March, women's sexual ardor declines precipitously after menopause.
与之相对的是，男人的性兴趣和性发泄状况（通常由受访人群报告每周的性高潮的次数）显示，男人在青春期时性欲达到最高峰，然后在一生中的大部分时间都维持在一个稳定的水平上，也就是平均每周有3次性高潮。正如我在三月份（一份报告中）指出的那样，大多数男人直到70多岁都会保持性能力。根据最新的研究成果以及我三月份所做的报告显示（译注：原文有链接可参阅），女人在绝经期之后，性欲会陡然下降。
Why would women be more sexually active in their middle years than in their teens and 20s? Buss and his students say evolution has encouraged women to be more sexually active as their fertility begins to decline and as menopause approaches.
为什么处于中年的女人性欲会高于其青春期时和20多岁时呢？巴斯教授和他的学生认为，随着她们的生育能力开始衰退以及绝经期的临近，进化的压力在鼓励女人提高性活跃程度。
Here's how their theory works:
下面对他们的理论做一阐述：
Our female ancestors grew accustomed to watching many of their children — perhaps as many as half — die of various diseases, starvation, warfare and so on before being able to have kids of their own. This trauma left a psychological imprint to bear as many children as possible. Becoming pregnant is much easier for women and girls in their teens and early 20s — so much easier that they need not spend much time having sex.
我们的母性祖先在成长过程中已经习惯性地看到许多子女（或许高达一半）在还没有机会生育子女之前便死于各种疾病、饥饿、战乱以及其它灾祸。这种创伤给她们留下了精神的印记，那就是尽可能地生育更多的子女。对于处于青春期和刚过20几岁的女孩和女人而言，怀孕是很容易的事，也就因为太容易，所以她们便没有更多的时间用在享受性生活上。（译注：潜台词：她们的时间都让怀孕期、哺乳期和抚养子女占据了）
However, after the mid-20s, the lizard-brain impulse to have more kids faces a stark reality: it's harder and harder to get pregnant as a woman's remaining eggs age. And so women in their middle years respond by seeking more and more sex.
然而，从20到30年龄段的中段开始，来自蜥蜴脑（译注：蜥蜴脑是人脑中掌管与理性思考无关的部分，也被科学研究证实是掌握本能的古老部分。［百度百科］）的多育子女的内在冲动正面对一个残酷的现实：在这段仅存的生育期里，女人怀孕变得越来越难。所以中年的女人便通过越来越多的交媾寻求受孕的机会。
To test this theory, Buss and his students asked 827 women to complete questionnaires about their sexual habits. And, indeed, they found that women who had passed their peak fertility years but not quite reached menopause were the most sexually active. This age group — 27 through 45 — reported having significantly more sex than the two other age groups in the study, 18 through 26 and 46 and up. Women in their middle years were also more likely than the younger women to fantasize about someone other than their current partner. The new findings are consistent with those of an earlier Buss paper, from 2002, which found that women in their early 30s feel more lustful and report less abstinence than women in other age groups. In both studies, these findings held true for both partnered and single women, meaning that married women in their 30s and early 40s tend to have more sex than married women in their early 20s; ditto for single women. Also, whether the women were mothers didn't matter. Only age had a strong affect on women's reported sexual interest and behavior.
为了验证这套理论，巴斯和他的学生邀请827名妇女参与完成性习惯的问卷调查。事实确实如此，他们发现已经过了生育高峰期但还未到达绝经期的女人性欲最旺盛。研究发现，27-45这个年龄段的女人比其它（18-26岁和46岁以上）两个年龄段的女人报告有明显更多的性行为。与年轻女人相比，中年女人也更有可能幻想与其他人而不是现在的伴侣做爱。这项新发现与巴斯教授早期一份研究报告（2002）的结果相吻合。那份报告发现，刚过30多岁的女人（自我）感觉更好色而且报告说与其它年龄段相比她们在性生活上基本不节制。在两份报告中，这些发现都适用于有伴侣的女人和单身女人，意味着在30年龄段和40年龄段初期的已婚女人比20年龄段初期的女人倾向于享受更多的性行为；单身女人也是同样的结论。而且上述结论与女人是否为已为人母无关，只有年龄对女人的性兴趣和性行为有强烈的影响。
And yet there are a few flaws with the data in the new paper. Chiefly: some three-quarters of the participants in the study were recruited on Craigslist, a website where many go to seek hookups, meaning there was a self-selection problem with the sample. (The other participants were students at the University of Texas in Austin.) The authors also note that there are some alternative explanations for why women in their 30s and early 40s might be more sexual. Many of them may simply be more comfortable with sex than women in their teens and early 20s. Still, that raises the question of why they are more comfortable: perhaps evolution programmed that comfort.
但是在这份报告中仍然存在数据上的些许瑕疵：这项研究的大约3/4的受调查者都是从一家网站招募到的，而许多人是抱着寻找性伙伴登录到这家网站的，这就意味着调查样本有自我选择的问题。其他的参与者都是得克萨斯大学的学生。作者也提到有关30年龄段和40年龄段初期的女人性生活更多的问题也存在一些不同的解释。她们中的许多人的原因或许很简单，就是感觉她们进行性生活时比其在青春期或者20多岁时要舒服。不过，这又引发了为什么她们感觉更舒服的问题：也许还是进化“惹的祸”吧。
Buss is the author of The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating, now in its fourth edition, and has become associated with evolutionary explanations for sexual behavior. His theories help explain why men can be cads — and why women can be cougars.
巴斯教授是《欲望进化论：人类繁衍战略》（The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating）一书的作者。目前该书已经出版到第四版。其最新版已经在通过进化论的理论解释性行为。他的理论会帮助人们解释：为什么男人会玩断背山；为什么女人会成为性情母狮*。
*译注：“性情母狮”这个词是我译的，如果哪位找到更权威的译法可以通知我，它的原文是cougars。Cougars本意指美洲狮，但目前在西方报刊有另外一层意思：特指那些年过四旬依然时髦漂亮并追逐年轻男子的女人。至于为什么媒体这样称呼她们，有一种解释是，因为她们大多是中老年有钱女人，所以常常穿豹皮大衣什么的，把年轻男人当作猎物，故得此名。
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