Promiscuity is attributed to men as a virtue for centuries, but not for women.  Appearance of Lynn Barber on the list of people with many lovers is still shocking to the world, regardless the fact that we are living in the 21st century. 

Myths about guys seducers such as the one of Don Juan who has slept with 2,065 women or Casanova whose bed "hosted" 122 ladies, made promiscuity a big plus for stronger sex. Is there anyone who’s not familiar with the urban myth about Warren Beatty and 12 775 sexual partners he had over 35 years, or the story of Fidel Castro who, allegedly, had intercourse with, on average, two women a day?




Such figures didn’t shocked the public. That was about men, right? But then journalist Lynn Barber appeared on the list of people with many lovers and everyone was shocked. In her book “An Education”, (a film of the same name was made) Lynn Barber revealed that during her education at Oxford she slept with “probably 50 men”. For the first 18 months of her three-year English course at St Anne's College, Oxford, she had only one boyfriend, but then she decided not to waste her time.

 "My thinking after that was that I must get a boyfriend immediately and that I haven't got time to waste going punting or to dinner with them. Why don't I just go to bed with them first, eliminate them if they are no good and not waste time. Which is, I suppose, a pretty bad attitude.” - Barber told on BBC radio.

This 67-year-old journalist is known as a real devil in the media world because she was merciless and direct in her interviews, but even so, many were surprised with her confession regarding the number of men with whom she slept. However, she said that she never felt any shame.


“I would criticise more what I call the Elizabeth Taylor syndrome, where highly sexed women feel they have to marry the man they sleep with. Then they get divorced and do the same thing over and over again.” – said Barber, who was, otherwise, married for her college friend David Cardiff. Considering the fact that they were married until his death eight years ago, it seems that this attitude of hers is not without merit.

Many have experienced Lynn Barber’s confession as a call for an alarm – mainly because she is a woman. Even though promiscuity was attributed to men as a virtue for centuries, women’s recognition of playful past doesn’t go in their favor even in the modern 21st century. On the contrary, they are advised to keep this information hidden like a serpent’s legs, with a proven recipe to tell every man, after the first one, that he is the second in their life.


A more amusing revelation came several months ago, when it emerged that throughout the sixth series of Sex and the City, the main characters had 115 million indirect sexual partners. Although they are fictional characters, promiscuity of New York Four, led by columnist Carrie Bradshaw, is more in line with the modern type of women than in the case of their mothers and grandmothers. Believe it or not, the latest studies show that girls today have three times more partners than those from few decades ago, even in comparison with the swinging sixties of last century.  Ten percent of women admitted that they had more than 10 partners by the age of 24. On the other hand, according to the same study, about 20 percent of men, by that age, had only one partner! And so ... men have several partners while women have a lot more ... is it possible that things are drastically changing lately? And furthermore, is it really that important how many partners have you had?

Tracey Cox, a sex therapist, says that the best answer to a question on the number of previous partners is - "none of your business ".

“If you do confess, especially if you’re female, I guarantee that no matter what number you say, it’ll be too many. Even if you’ve only had five, it will still be four too many.”