A huge new study of sexuality in France has just been released, with a shocking conclusion: French women like sex. They are becoming more like men in the age they first have sex (17-ish), the number of sexual partners, and the length of their sex lives—90% of women over 50 say they're still getting laid, versus a mere 50% in 1970. But more surprising than that is a worrying trend among young French men: they're just not that interested in this whole sex business, thank you very much!

According to the study, one-fifth of all French men between the ages of 18-24 have "no interest in sexual or romantic activity whatever." This is presented without any real explanation. And I can think of none, except some unrelated stock jokes about the French being punks. They totally chickened out in WW2!

That number is baffling. Without having a detailed comprehensive study of American sexuality sitting in front of me, I'd be astounded if that number in the US was even 10%. The report also found that the rate of abstinence among French men 18-35 is more than 6%, versus only 3.5% for women. The study has been presented in the press, generally, as "French women are totally sex fiends and French men are not!" Which has a grain of truth. But the figures also say that women there report an average of 5 sex partners over the course of their lives, while men have an average of 13. So the weird "disinterest" among a large portion of younger men is just...weird.

Will this lead to a brisk business in virile young men traveling to France to serve as paid concubines for young women whose male counterparts have no interest in satisfying them, in a strange reversed version of the 2005 Charlotte Rampling sex tourism film Heading South? It's impossible to rule out.