Women 'as likely as men to enjoy casual sex'

It's not just men who are looking for 'friends with benefits'.

A Deakin University researcher has said that women are as likely as men to enjoy casual sexual arrangements, but for different reasons.

Kylie McCardle, who has been looking for 400 'friends with benefits' to take part in a survey, said the women who took part in an initial study said these arrangements gave them sexual confidence.

"The men were more likely to say they enjoyed the intimacy of the friendship," the Age quoted McCardle as saying.

The initial study was based on in-depth interviews with 15 couples, or 30 'friends with benefits'.

"A lot of study of casual sex has focused on the negative impact, especially for women. While 'friends with benefits' have been part of popular culture for a while now, it's only just started to be researched," she said.

The study identified two kinds of relationships -- 'sex buddies' who had little contact outside the bedroom, and those who were friends before and after the sexual relationship.

While many of the respondents were in their 20s, McCardle also interviewed several Generation X divorcees who preferred sex with a friend to emotional involvement.

A 2010 survey of customers on the RSVP website found that 36 per cent of women and 30 per cent of men had had friends with benefits.

Photograph: rt69 on Flickr.com, Wikimedia Commons