Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex! Sex!

Hah! Knew that would grab your attention!

My buddy Andy's on a sex kick lately. In addition to some extremely interesting photos, he's also got a good theme going concerning human sexuality. He's covering a lot of issues, namely infidelity, fertility, monogamy & divorce, and the biology behind the human mating ritual.

It's a pretty good read, and this part had me laughing as I wholeheartedly agreed with it:

In light of this, it should be no surprise that women's infidelity is generally underreported. It is unlikely that there is a small group of promiscuous women who are servicing a large portion of unfaithful men. And if they are, someone should forward me some names and numbers.

Andy's posts on the subject remind me of a documentary I saw on cable concerning why women are so screwed up all the time very different from males in their behavior. As much as we try to pretend we're superior to other life forms in regards to rising above our animal instincts, studies are showing that when you get down to it, humans are still very much obeying our lizard brain in regards to propagating the species.

Case in point: The documentary showed how that during a woman's menstrual cycle, her taste in men consistently changed according to her fertility levels. The researchers asked the study group to view photographs of males over their cycle, and point out which ones they found sexually attractive. What the researchers found was that the nearer a woman was to ovulation and peak fertility, the more she was attracted to the "manly man", a male with strong physical features, a wedge-shaped torso, and slim hips. Later, as the women in the study passed their fertility window, their tastes in men changed, and they preferred men with milder features.

Basically, when the lizard brain & surging hormones say "Go forth and knock some boots", women wanted Brad Pitt. When the ovaries shut down, they wanted someone less attractive to other females, and more likely to hang around and provide for the family.

Now, guys aren't immune from lizard brain shenanigans. We'll gleefully sow our wild oats wherever there's a willing field, as long as the pleasure outweighs the consequences, and often when it doesn't. To fulfill the biological imperative, we need to ensure our genes are spread as far and wide as possible, hence the eternal horn-doggedness of men in general.

This also explains why barely talented tarts like Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan get so much press time devoted to their feminine charms. On a rational or intellectual level, I think most males would rather gnaw off our arms than have to listen to those two bubbleheads prattle on about whatever it is that bubbleheads prattle on about. However, those biological cues speak directly to our inner caveman, saying "Urgh! Wide hips! Her squeeze out fine litter of rug-rats! Mmmm! Huge gazongas! Her feed my rug-rats for years with those!"

To borrow a line from 'The African Queen', "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

Well, maybe so, Ms. Sayer. Still, when that low voice in your medulla oblongata starts talking to your gonads, it appears that you're more likely to heed the call of nature than to rise above it.