Sexual Attraction

[Gvac]

Hey buddy! Recently it struck me how odd sexual attraction is. Why do we look at a woman and think "something about her face and the curves in her body is pleasing to my eye, therefore I'd like to put my penis in her vagina"?

I understand we have the primal urge to mate and reproduce, but I guess what I'm asking is why our urges are based more on appearance than seasons, as is the case with most of the animal kingdom.

[Don Stugots]

cause you cant fuck her brain.

[Thebazile78]

Hey buddy! Recently it struck me how odd sexual attraction is. Why do we look at a woman and think "something about her face and the curves in her body is pleasing to my eye, therefore I'd like to put my penis in her vagina"?

I understand we have the primal urge to mate and reproduce, but I guess what I'm asking is why our urges are based more on appearance than seasons, as is the case with most of the animal kingdom.

Greg, funny that you should ask this question this week - tomorrow night on the Discovery Channel, they're re-running "The Science of Sex Appeal (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/special.html?paid=1.14361.25832.0.0)" and it deals with exactly that subject.

[lleeder]

Only if you use the shampoo in Macy's window.

[Dr Steve]

Hey buddy! Recently it struck me how odd sexual attraction is. Why do we look at a woman and think "something about her face and the curves in her body is pleasing to my eye, therefore I'd like to put my penis in her vagina"?

I understand we have the primal urge to mate and reproduce, but I guess what I'm asking is why our urges are based more on appearance than seasons, as is the case with most of the animal kingdom.


It's odd, and I don't have an answer for you that'll satisfy you. My theory is that it has to do with a combination of mommy issues, hardwired ideas of fertility, and pheromones. For example, my mom had big ol' hooters, so I tend to be attracted to women with big ol' hooters. It goes farther than that, though...I once worked it out that my "ideal" woman fits the Greek concept of the "golden mean". This is the idea that the ratio 1.609:1 is pleasing-to-the eye in art and architecture. If a woman has a 42 inch chest and a 42/1.609 = 26 inch waist, I am so there. :-) Since the "pleasingness" of the golden ratio seems to be hardwired, sexual attraction likewise seems to be hardwired.

There was this woman I dated once who had a face from hell and a body from heaven; I'd pop a boner the minute I walked into her office each and every time. I couldn't figure it out, and it still mystifies me. She was clingy and awful in bed but I was still attracted to her even years after we stopped seeing each other. I'd be embarassed to be seen with her in public, but I couldn't shake the attraction. She did fit the "golden ratio" body-wise, but I was attracted to her when I first met her and she was wearing baggy clothes and I didn't know it at the time. I swear I think it was pheromones.

Pheromones (odoriferous hormones of sexual attraction) are used by bugs to attract mates, and have never been proven to be part of human sexuality. I have no evidence that they exist. It makes sense, though, that there would be some way to detect who was in your gene pool and who wasn't in the remote past, and that we'd be less attracted to people in our gene pool and more attracted to people from different groups. Breeding within our own group leads to weak offspring, but breeding outside it results in robust descendants. I think it explains why some people have that "thunder and lightning" thing of instant sexual attraction, but it's just an idea with no science behind it whatsoever. It's either that or we're just insane (or I am, anyway).

My wife thinks it's only boobs that make me attracted to someone, but that's not it, either. I've had tiny-titted girlfriends in the past that I was really attracted to, and enormous-knockered ones that I couldn't stand.

I think that there are hard-wired things that make us initially attracted to someone, but then other factors have to set in to make the attraction long lasting. Yes, I prefer excellent hootage, but if I don't respect the woman's intellect, it won't go beyond the second date.

So who knows? I can only cite my own experience; the science behind attraction is not very compelling.

your pal,


steve

[jauble]

Gvac is not very compelling.

your pal,


steve

Good point doc.