The Connection Between Art and Sex
How the pleasure in some stately piece of beautifully pro- portioned architecture, the thrill produced by solemn music, or the calm sweetness of a summer landscape in the evening, is to be attributed to the feeling of sex only, it is hard to see; they have in common a pleasurable emotion, and that is all. That a very large part of art is directly inspired by erotic motives is perfectly true, and that various forms of art play an important part in love songs and courtship is obvious; but this ...
notesBoth instill pleasurable emotions, but is one a strategy to get the other or are they naturally connected via the similar emotions they generate?
transcend sexual desire
It is a life-affirming and soul building accomplishment to overcome the pull of sex desire and transmute the saved energy into productive endeavors.The one thing that keeps us from becoming something more than animals is our sexual desire, the mindless urge to procreate. That is our basest instinct.if you could liberate yourself from that, completely, I think you would be well on your way to becoming something greater. Sexual desire is so deeply ingrained into our every thought and action, woven into our very being in every way. Almost everything we do, some way or another (wanting a good job, buying a nice car, getting a hair cut, anything) can be tied into it. It's the motivating factor for almost everything. It would be nice to free ones self and instead of looking through the world through the sex-influenced prism, one could look at it true objectively
Mating Strategies of Males and Females
A vivid demonstration of this difference can be seen by looking up the
record number of children sired by a human female versus a male. If you
were to guess the maximum number of children that a woman could
produce in a lifetime, you’d probably say around fifteen. Guess again.
The Guinness Book of World Records gives the “official” record number
of children for a woman as sixty-nine, produced by an eighteenth century
Russian peasant. In twenty-seven pregnancies between 1725 and
1745, sh... notesA Great summary of the differences between them evolutionarily.
Postmating Competition
Sexual selection doesn’t end with the sex act itself: males can continue
to compete even after mating. In many species, females mate with more
than one male over a short period of time. After a male inseminates a
female, how can he prevent other males from fertilizing her and stealing
his paternity? This postmating competition has produced some of the
most intriguing features built by sexual selection. Sometimes a male
hangs around after mating, guarding his female against other suitors.
Wh... notesVarious evolutionary strategies males of different species keep a female from mating with other males after sex.
The Discovery of Bacteria Sexes
I was preoccupied with sex, but not of a type that needed encouragement. The mating habits of bacteria were admittedly a unique conversation pieceçabsolutely no one in his and Odile's social circle would guess bacteria had sex lives. On the other hand, working out how they did it was best left to minor minds. Rumors of male and female bacteria were floating about at Royaumont, but not until early in September, when I attended a small meeting on microbial genetics at Pallanza, did I get the f... notesWatson describes the early discover that bacteria exchange genes, which is mistaken for bacterial sex.
Cultural Moors and Sex
Different cultures today have evolved different sets of sexual mores, resulting in differences in male and female behavior. In Sweden, a social democracy where women have great economic independence, we see a high degree of sexual freedom among women. Without needing to depend on men for their security, Swedish women need not be concerned so much with testing potential mates for commitment and generosity. The result is greater promiscuity among women: a study showed Swedish men prize a potent... notesCountries with equality between the sexes have more sex and less violence.
Humans are a Self-Domesticated Animal
Mankind is a self-domesticated animal; a mammal; an ape; a social ape; an ape in which the male takes the initiative in courtship and females usually leave the society of their birth; an ape in which men are predators, women herbivorous foragers; an ape in which males are relatively hierarchical, females relatively egalitarian; an ape in which males contribute unusually large amounts of investment in the upbringing of their offspring by provisioning their mates and their children with food, p...
1 A list of the behaviors in human beings.
Human Pairs Must Keep Each Other Interested
Likewise, the manner in which sexual selection capriciously seizes upon preexisting perceptual biases fits with the fact that apes are by nature naturally "curious, playful, easily bored, and appreciative of simulation." Miller suggests that to keep a husbanc around long enough to help in raising children, women would have needed to be as varied and creative in their behavior as possible, which he calls the Scheherazade effect after the Arabian storyteller who entranced the Sultan with 1,001 ... notesMen and women in marriage seek to keep each other entertained to retain interest.
Male and Female Differences on Pornography
Hard porn, which depicts actual acts of sex, is almost invariably about the gratification of male lust by willing, easily aroused, varied, multiple, and physically attractive women (or men, in the case of gay porn). It is virtually devoid of context, plot, flirtation, courtship, and even much foreplay. There are no encumbering relationships, and the coupling duo are usually depicted as strangers. When two scientists showed heterosexual students pornographic films and measured their arousal by... notesMales prefer pornography, while women prefer romance novels.
Reproduction is the Most Important Evolutionary Trait
Those strains that reproduce persist; those that do not reproduce die out. The ability to reproduce is what makes living things different from rocks. Besides, there is nothing inconsistent with free will or even chastity in this view of life. Human beings, I believe, thrive according to their ability to take initiatives and exercise individual talent. But free will was not created for fun; there was a reason that evolution handed our ancestors the ability to take initiatives, and the reason w..."Everything can be inherited except sterility."
