License To BANG!

It was just after midnight and Leah and I been working each other over into a sweaty mess of tangled limbs and tousled hair for the better part of an hour. Our hotel room was thrashed. The repeated slamming of the headboard had knocked both lamps on the floor and the king-size mattress was hanging halfway off the bed frame. Both of us were dripping with sweat and my heart was about to thump out of my chest. All in all, it had been a damn fine evening.

Life was good.

REALLY good.

As I inhaled the scent of sex and drank in the sight of Leah’s sensual curves, I felt that old familiar rush. Once again, I was under a woman’s spell. From the moment she barked her carnal command, I was all hers. She had all the power. If the world was mine, I would have turned it over to her in that instant.

No questions asked.

A woman’s beauty and sensuality does strange things to a man. Ask any guy and he’ll tell you…the feeling he gets when you’re lying naked in front of him in all your splendor is intoxicating beyond words. It doesn’t matter what you look like naked. As men, we’re thrilled just to be in your presence. And if you could see yourself through a man’s eyes while he’s looking at you in the throes of ecstasy, you’d see a sensuality that defies description and beauty a thousand times more powerful than you ever imagined.

As a woman, your sexuality is your trump card.

It’s your ace in the hole.

Your home court advantage.

Said another way, your feminine charms are pure unadulterated, high-grade, VVS1 Kryptonite and we are but lowly and vulnerable Supermen.

And so shall it forever be.

That being said, sex isn’t as powerful as some people would have you believe. So it’s high time to slay one of the most persistent myths about the power of sex by answering the age-old question of how long you should wait to jump into the sack with a man.

Now I get this question ALL the time.

As one of the top mentors to women in the country, I’d say it’s easily one of the most common inquiries flooding my email inbox on a regular basis. There’s no shortage of women who want to know how long they should wait to “give it up” after meeting a man they like.

And it’s a legitimate question, right?

Of course.

You don’t want to blow your chances with a good guy by doing the wrong thing so being smart about how you leverage one of your greatest assets is just smart business.

So that begs the question…

How long SHOULD you wait to play hide the pickle with a man worthy of your time and attention?

Now before I give you my answer, make sure you’re sitting down because what I’m about to say usually shocks the shit out of most women.

So are you sitting down?

Yes?

Are you sure?

Good.

The answer to the question of how long you should wait to sleep with a man is…

IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER!

Yes, you heard me correctly.

How long you wait to seal the deal with Tom, Dick and Harry doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the big scheme of things. Now I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom and everything you’ve ever heard but it’s absolute fact. Whether you give it up on the first date or make the dude wait until his balls turn cobalt blue makes little difference in the long run.

Unfortunately you won’t hear this truth from anybody else but me.

In fact, you’ll hear the exact opposite.

And my guess is you already have.

There’s a whole movement right now of therapists, counselors and public figures dispensing what is quite possibly the most moronic slice of dating advice ever thrust upon womankind…namely that a woman should make a man wait for sex if she wants to be taken seriously and seen as a potential long-term partner. I call the well-intentioned but misguided puritans peddling this pile of excrement, “the waiting crowd”.

Or, Waiters, for short.

At the forefront of the Waiter movement is author and comedian, Steve Harvey. In his bestselling book, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, ol’ Steve devotes an entire chapter to what he calls “The 90-Day Rule.” The 90-Day Rule essentially advises women to wait a minimum of 90 days before having sex with a man. Steve Harvey makes the argument that women who give it up too soon essentially cheapen themselves and thus sabotage their chances with good men right out of the gate.

Banging before the 90 day mark, Steve says, sends a man the message that you’re basically his “plaything”… something to be used and discarded. That a man will seriously question whether you’re marriage or long-term material if you open the gates to your kitty’s kingdom too soon. So Steve recommends implementing a 90 day rule…a sort of probationary period which he claims will elevate your stature in a man’s eyes as well as give you the opportunity to assess a man’s true intentions.

Now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Steve Harvey. I really do. He’s a first class gentleman who’s helped lot of women over the course of his long and distinguished career. But on this topic he and the other Waiters are dead wrong. On the surface, their argument appears to have merit but when you take a closer look it just doesn’t hold water in the real world.

Here’s the problem with their logic…

Sex just isn’t THAT powerful. It really isn’t. I don’t care if your whisker biscuit can bake a cake while calculating trigonometry on the fly, sex BY ITSELF won’t make or break your budding relationship. Sure, it’s important but it’s merely ONE component of many in the delicate courtship dance. In order to be taken seriously as someone with long-term potential, who you are OUTSIDE the bedroom is far more important than what you do INSIDE the bedroom. In other words, if you’re not a great catch before your panties hit the floor, it’s a nonstarter anyways.

Know what I mean?

NEWSFLASH, LADIES!

Making a man wait for sex won’t miraculously transform you into a woman he can’t live without!

It doesn’t work that way.

Again, sex by itself isn’t THAT powerful so holding out on a guy isn’t going to make him respect you if you don’t command his respect already. By the same measure, if you’re a great catch, rocking a man’s world right out of the gate isn’t going to make him lose respect for you. Yet that’s exactly what Steve Harvey and the waiting crowd want you to believe.

But think about it logically for a second…

What does a man want from you more than anything else at the start?

Sex, right?

Duh!

And you give him great sex, right?

Of course you do.

With rare exception, any sex is good sex for a man. It’s like Disneyland for a kid. When was the last time Junior had a lousy day at Mickey’s place?

Exactly.

So…if you’re an awesome chick AND you rock his world in the sack, you’re the perfect woman as far as he’s concerned. So why would he lose interest in you UNLESS SOMETHING ELSE about you wasn’t to his liking?

The answer is he wouldn’t.

Look, no sane man is going to drop off the face of the earth or tell you to hit the road SOLELY because he sampled your feminine finery early in the game. That would make ZERO sense. Men are selfish. We’re drawn to people who give us what we want. And since sex is pretty much at the top of every man’s shopping list, a woman who rocks our world is a woman we want to see again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

So if a man loses interest in you it’s NOT because he pinned your ankles behind your ears on day 21. If a man decides to cut and run, it’s ALWAYS for reasons other than sex. Maybe the woman was needy. Maybe she was a bitch. Maybe she lacked confidence or was a drama queen. Perhaps the chemistry wasn’t there or he decided another woman was a better match. It could a million different things. The point is, whenever I pulled the plug on a woman it was always because SOMETHING ELSE wasn’t working for me.

I NEVER lost interest because she slept with me to soon.

Now the other side of the waiter argument is that you should make a man wait for sex because doing so will weed out the suckers. In other words, if sex is all a man wants from you, then putting yourself on lockdown will cause him to take a hike thus exposing himself as the wolf in sheep’s clothing he really is.

Sounds logical, right?

WRONG!

Again, while this might sound good in theory it just doesn’t hold water in the real world.

Here’s why….

Putting your vertical smile under lock and key may weed out a player or two but in the end it really only tests a man’s resolve to wait for sex. In other words, if the ONLY thing he wants from you is sex then you can bet your sweet ass he’ll wait as long as it takes. No arbitrary waiting period is going to deter him. Oh sure, he’ll probably sample some other women while he bides his time – after all, he needs to keep his skills sharp for you – but he’ll be there when you’re ready. Waiting in the wings like the knight-in-shining armor he is.

NOT!

So don’t be fooled, girl.

If all a man wants from you is sex, you holding out will ONLY test his resolve to wait for that sex. Then, once he gets it he’ll either disappear or continue using you until the thrill is gone.

So here’s the bottom line…

Don’t believe the hype.

Steve Harvey’s 90-Day rule and the rest of the waiting crowd’s arguments aren’t the worth the paper they’re printed on. Using sex as leverage or a weapon is a fool’s errand and doesn’t work anyways. Making a man wait for sex WILL NOT make you more desirable in his eyes. Nor will him giving you a pearl necklace three weeks into your courtship cause him to question your value or make him lose respect for you. That will only happen if something else about you isn’t working for him. As I said earlier, sex by itself isn’t going to make or break your budding relationship. I don’t care what your pastor, BFF or therapist says.

So you want my advice?

Here it is….

Bang your heart out, Girl!

Yes, I’m serious.

Let this be your license to bang!

IF you want to have sex, rock his world until he’s nothing but a quivering shivering mass of pummeled masculinity lying on the bedroom floor. Pull out ALL the stops. Swing from the chandelier, knock over a lamp or two and make that boy beg for buttermilk! As far as I’m concerned, the only walls that should exist in your relationship are the ones he slams you up against while making your toes curl in a rush of orgasmic bliss.

And it doesn’t matter if you’ve known him 4 days, 4 weeks or 4 months, as long as you’re a class act outside the bedroom, having sex with a man early in the game is NEVER a liability. After all, this isn’t the 1950s anymore. The idea that a man isn’t going to find you desirable unless you’re some kind of prim and proper princess is absurd. Talk about an old school mentality. Steve Harvey and the rest of the waiting crowd must be stuck in a time warp. Hey Steve! Did I miss something because I’m pretty sure women today are more sexually liberated than at any point in history!

Which leads me to my final point.

Why is the waiting crowd only talking about the MAN’S desire for sex?

What about YOUR desire?

What if you’re the one who doesn’t want to wait?

Women love sex too so shouldn’t you be able to enjoy it without being made to feel like you’re a second-class citizen?

Or being told you’re less desirable because you want to rip his clothes off too?

The double standard drives me nuts.

Few things are more exciting for a guy than when you have the hots for him and YOU want to consummate the deal. So don’t listen to the fuddy-duddies who tell you to censor your sensuality. Now is the time to embrace your inner goddess and let your freak flag fly!

Oh, and if you’re someone who chooses to abstain from sex on the basis of religious or other personal beliefs, then that’s cool too. Far be it for me or anybody else to tell you how to live your life.

But for the rest of us, it’s time to get naked and party!

Now before you drop your dress, please understand I’m not telling you to spread your kitty around like rice at a wedding. It goes without saying you ALWAYS want to be selective, smart and safe about who you allow into your holy of holies. But assuming the guy meets your standards and you’ve taken proper precautions, you can be absolutely certain that expressing yourself sexually DOES NOT make you a plaything. It doesn’t mean you’re desperate, a sinner, easily manipulated or any other number of idiotic labels the waiting crowd would love to pin on your forehead. Your worth as a woman is defined by far more than some arbitrary timeline designed to govern how often you should spread your legs.

Can I tell you a secret?

Remember that little bang-fest I detailed for you at the beginning of this chapter?

The one with Leah?

Well, that was our second date.

And you know what?

We dated for well over a year until we amicably agreed to go our separate ways. Leah was and still is one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever known in my life. I will forever cherish our time together and I have the utmost respect for her in every regard. As of this writing, she’s engaged and there’s no question in my mind her fiancé is one of the luckiest bastards on the face of the planet.

So I ask you?

Did the fact Leah slept with me on our second date prove to be a liability for her?

Umm…..No.

Did I duck her calls, use her, abuse her, play her, lie to her or go AWOL because she dropped her panties after spending only a few hours with me?

HELL TO THE NO!

As I said before, from the moment she barked her carnal command, I was all hers. And because she was such a damn fine catch OUTSIDE the bedroom, she continued to hold my interest on every level.

The same can be said for my girlfriend, Danielle. She’ll probably pluck my pubes with tweezers while I’m asleep for telling you this, but she gave it up on the second date as well.

And guess what?

We’ve been together over five years and are still going strong. I can’t wait for the next five. Thinking about a decade with that incredible woman by my side puts a goofy grin on my face every time I think about it. I never lost interest in Danielle or questioned her value because she rocked my world the second time I saw her. To the contrary, making me forget my name was just one more feather in her cap of feminine awesomeness.

So don’t believe the hype, my beautiful friend.

It’s easy to assign blame when something doesn’t go our way or work out the way we’d hoped and that’s what a lot of women do with sex in the dating game. Because of well-intentioned but misguided folks like Steve Harvey, many women automatically assume sleeping with a guy early causes him to think twice about a future with them. But as we’ve just shown, that’s not the case at all.

So to hell with the 90-Day rule!

Bang away if you’re so inclined and know that expressing yourself sexually isn’t a liability of any sort. As long as you don’t confuse sex with love or allow that pesky oxytocin get the best of you, all will be right in your world. So for the sake of all mankind, don’t keep your erotic awesomeness under lock and key. Share it with your fellow man. If you want to scream at the top of your lungs as you’re being driven into the headboard on Day 21, then knock yourself out. There’s no need to censor yourself or miss out on the spicier side of life because you think strutting your sexual stuff might come back to haunt you. As long as you blow a man’s mind outside the bedroom, you can do whatever the hell you want inside the bedroom.

Now go rock his world!

Austin