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In a portrait of her made last August by Le Journal du Dimanche , the Minister of State responsible for equality between men and women, Marlène Schiappa, declared herself "sapiosexual". A neologism which had caused much ink to flow at the time. Appeared in the 1990s, but still little used, it designates a sexual attraction for intelligence, eloquence or even the education of one's partner, more than for one's body. In the show Sans rendez-vous on Europe 1, sexologist and psychoanalyst Catherine Blanc returns to this word. She answers in particular to an auditor who wonders if she, too, would not be sapiosexual.
Carla's question
"For some time now, several of my friends have been telling me that I am sapiosexual. What does that mean?"
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Catherine Blanc's response
" Sapio is a Latin word, this term designates what relates to intelligence. Initially, we are moved towards each other by the idea of reproduction, and therefore by our bodies, with elements of excitement that can be the muscles, the power in men, or the forms, such as a lap pool, in women. So many physical criteria from which we build the idea of the best partner for procreation, to proliferate our genes Now, sapiosexuality betrays the social evolution of the human being, who develops an attraction towards other criteria, which always allow to occupy a strong position, but in society this time, and no longer in the Nature, notably intelligence, culture, age too, with older partners who could serve as Pygmalion, so sapiosexuality is much less focused on the partner's physique.
Does the role of the physical in seduction disappear completely in sapiosexuals?
It does not disappear, but it is no longer the main vector of attraction among sapiosexuals. Some may however go so far as to completely abandon it to develop something exclusively intellectual - like the pleasure of a letter exchange - which can also become a source of primordial excitement. However, sexuality remains bodily. At the time of mating, the body becomes an object of excitement again.
Does sapiosexuality concern women more than men?
It is true that sapiosexuality is encountered a little more often in women, which means that women do not go to older men for venal questions, but for questions of intellectual stimulation. A young woman who goes to a man older than her, having been professionally successful, does so because she likes the idea of being by the side of an intelligent person.
But just as the perfect body does not exist, neither does perfect intelligence. There is material to find in each other the richness, the echo of that intelligence that delights some and some, because men also love feminine intelligence. I want to believe it anyway! "