About two years ago, a story on equal but sexless marriage told us about a 2013 study claiming couples who enjoyed a 50/50 split of household chores engaged in less sex than other couples.
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In other words, couples who adhered to a more "traditional" division of labors - the men took out the garbage and the women cooked and washed the dishes - were more satisfied with their romantic lives.
That 2013 study, it turns out, was based on data from couples married in the 1980s. I could have told you, based on my own relationship and other similar couples, that those findings weren't true.
And now we have proof, thanks to recent research. Among couples interviewed in 2006, their desire for each other deepened when they shared similar tasks rather than the typical gender-stereotyped ones.
Other groups - including those in which the woman did the bulk of the housework - experienced declines in sexual frequency.
Because our ideals of heterosexual love have changed, the predictors of marital success have changed profoundly in the past 50 years, said Stephanie Coontz of America's Council on Contemporary Families.
"Love used to be seen as the attraction of opposites, and each partner in a marriage specialised in a unique set of skills, resources and emotions that, it was believed, the other gender lacked," Coontz said.
"Today, love is based on shared interests, activities and emotions. Where difference was once the basis of desire, equality is increasingly becoming erotic."
"In marriages of the 1950s and 1960s, wives often reported having sex more often than they wanted because they were dependent on their husbands. Now that women feel free to say no, they are more likely to say yes when they feel the relationship is fair."
If you wanna bring sexy back to your marriage: share.
