Why Petraeus Proves Power and Money Are the Greatest Aphrodisiacs

Responses to the downfall of CIA chief General David Petraeus - forced to resign after revelations of an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell - have been predictably mixed. But surely the most laughable were suggestions the four star general simply had no right to be cheating with a foxy lady 20 years his junior on the grounds of age and looks alone?

Responses to the downfall of CIA chief General David Petraeus - forced to resign after revelations of an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell - have been predictably mixed. But surely the most laughable were suggestions the four star general simply had no right to be cheating with a foxy lady 20 years his junior on the grounds of age and looks alone?

Okay, while Petraeus has top-flight military credentials, it's true he's not exactly been blessed in the looks department.

His gawky smile, tousled hair and sticky out ears lend him an unmistakable resemblance to the bug-eyed Mad magazine mascot. Petraeus might have had security clearance to die for, but Jason Bourne he ain't.

But why should that stop him dating a woman years younger, and undoubtedly many times more sexually attractive?

Leaving aside the awkward fact the general - and his amore - were married, surely it shouldn't?

The truth is that power and money are the greatest sexual stimulants ever invented, many times more effective than oysters and champagne, and as physically empowering as Viagra.

If you could bottle them... well suffice to say you'd never be short of a date on Friday night.

To paraphrase The Beatles, it might not buy you love - but money can certainly improve your enjoyment between the sheets.

So it came as no surprise to me to read via CNN that 70% of millionaires surveyed by a marketing firm said they enjoyed better and more adventurous sex than before they got rich.

More frequent sex, more sexual partners and higher quality lovemaking were common among responses and, frankly (though I've added this myself), looks be damned.

Men, and women, have been playing power games over sex and power since the first caveman learnt to make fire and offered his cavegirl a slightly more palatable woolly mammoth steak.

Fast-forward several thousand years and power, influence and wealth are still making a difference. Money and power can provide financial and emotional stability. Take away the uncertainties of life and of course it's going to feel better and promote risk-taking, especially where sexual partners are concerned.

There will always be those, like perhaps General Petraeus, who take those adventures too far, thought many grown-ups will condemn the general only for getting caught.

Delivering champagne to the hotel room of George Best, a porter found the legendary footballer entertaining a scantily clad Miss World on a bed covered with his casio winnings.

'So George, where did it all go wrong?' enquired the awe-struck hotel employee. One might well wonder aloud the same of General Petraeus amid his recent travails.

Earlier this year I launched a website - www.MissTravel.com - which I'm proud to say is the world' first travel dating site.

'Generous' travellers - men or women looking for company - are matched with attractive - once again men, or women - companions. Instead of meeting in their local pizzeria, they might meet at a pizza parlour in Rome. Or go bowling, in New York. Or catch a movie, in Paris.

My other dating site www.seekingarrangement.com pairs so-called sugar daddies with sugar babies.

Three years ago researchers at Newcastle University working with statistics from a Chinese Health and Family Life Survey revealed that as the man's income rose, so did the frequency of his partner's orgasms.

Like our caveman whose invention of fire gives him an evolutionary lead over his competitors in finding the best partner, money and power give modern man similar advantages. That might be a flight of fancy on my part. But we know humans are already attracted to strength, IQ, hair and eye colour, so why not earning power also? If a man, or woman, can make money and be a better provider, why should they not also be a more suitable sexual or life partner? Another key study of 16,000 Americans showed the more sex you have, the happier you are.

So why shouldn't those that can afford it treat those that cannot? In Hollywood movies, I believe it's called 'friends with benefits'.

I prefer to see it an honest approach to dating that takes into account the shallow truth about both men and women - men, initially at least, judge by looks and women by wallets.

So men can be generous and women can be pampered. It's not for everyone and it's been called controversial.

But as I see it, I'm simply helping men and women meet in mutually beneficial circumstances. And it all comes from my own experiences.

I was a nerd when I was at university. In baggy trousers and Harry Potter-style glasses dating was a nightmare. I was socially inept and very lonely for much of my teenage years.

My mother told me to focus on my goal. To study hard so I would succeed in later life and have financial means, then dating would be easier.

Like so much of my mum's advice, it worked. Maybe it worked for General Petraeus too?

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