Rather than Sex: 'I'd probably choose an hour with a ball of wool'

At the Daily Mail: “A SURVEY of 1,000 women has found that the majority prefer reading a book or knitting to having SEX.”

The poll of women aged between 18-50 found that 18 per cent of women would rather do a ‘craft activity’ like knitting, sewing, painting or card-making instead of romping with their partner.

Asked to pick from a range of ‘options’ if they were given a spare moment to relax, women chose reading a good book as their ‘top option’, trumping sex, crafting or having a bath.

The top four options chosen by women in the poll released today were:

1 – Read a book – 37 per cent

2 – Have a bath – 26 per cent

3 – Crafting (Knitting, sewing etc) – 18 per cent

4 – Have sex – 8 per cent

The poll, to mark the launch of the novel Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses by author Carole Matthews earlier this month, also found that 77 per cent of women often felt ‘stressed and anxious’.

It also found that 36 per cent of the women polled said their stress levels had rocketed in the wake of the events of 2016, including Brexit, Trump’s election and financial worries.

Mum-of-one Claire Harper, 39, of Hertford, Herts, said: “If I get an hour to myself I usually get into the bath with a good book.

“I enjoy knitting as well and would probably choose an hour with a ball of wool than with my partner, however bad that might sound!” She added: “To be honest, he’d probably go down the pub or watch YouTube if he had an hour to himself, so I’d have no-one to have sex with anyway!”

The article mentions that women’s stress has rocketed because of Brexit and Trump’s election. Could it be that the media has bombarded women with negative messages about how bad Trump and Brexit are, and this, not reality, has led them to feel more stress?

After all, watching the news has been found to cause heightened levels of stress and anxiety and with all the negative press on Brexit and Trump, women who believe fake news and buy into the “war on women” meme may be more prone to take out their stress on their male partners. It would be interesting to break a study down showing how women who voted for Trump or Brexit compare on stress levels to those who did not vote for either.