Posted on 09/09/2001 7:56:10 AM PDT by blam
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 08 2001
Why women have sex on the brain
BY NIGEL HAWKES
Scientific study has answered the question of why we fall in love in the most unromantic way possible
THE question that has perhaps most obsessed and mystified the poets, philosophers and thinkers — why do we fall in love? — has been answered in the most unromantic way possible: by the scientific study of the humble prairie vole.
Music was the food of love in Shakespeare’s book, but the truth, according to Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh, lies in a “love potion” created in women’s brains after the act of sex, which helps her to form a bond with her partner.
Professor Leng, speaking to the British Association Science Festival in Glasgow yesterday, said that it is all in the chemistry because of evidence gleaned from the vole, which engages in enormous bouts of sexual intercourse, far in excess of that needed for reproduction.
“If you were to spend (many hours in) intense sexual activity with a partner, something fundamental might happen to your behaviour,” he said. “That’s often what you see in animals. Many animals bond for life. It’s not going to surprise anybody to think something fundamental is happening in the brain.”
Oxytocin, produced by the pituitary gland in the brain, is probably also involved in creating the bond between mother and child at birth and during breast-feeding. In prairie voles, a monogamous species, the effect is especially strong.
“If you put a male and female prairie vole into a cage, but don’t allow them to mate, they seem to form a kind of friendship. But if you inject oxytocin into the female’s brain, she will form this sexual bond.”
Professor Leng said: “We’re talking about 24 hours of constant copulation.” Translated to human behaviour, he said, this could mean that the more sex a couple have, the deeper their bond becomes, at least on the woman’s side.
“So how does a brain fall in love? My answer, perhaps, like yours, would be: a time, a place, a pair of eyes.”
I'll sign up for the first 10 minutes.
And so, this "study" gives a lot of hope to stalkers who might read it. All they have to do is keep their prey captive and abuse them for 24 hours, and, "presto, they're mine..."
What if a woman is very attracted to a man, but her reason and logic tells her he's not a good choice for her. Is there the possibility that she might "ask for it" in order to have oxymoxy or whatever it is take over and force (allow) her to be with this man over her own "objections?"
And that wraps it up for me. Way too much thinking for one day. ;o)
Awww... Well how nice of you to say! Thank you, my dear! :-)
Mine, too! I couldn't have found a better mate. He's everything to me and my kids. He still makes my heart(and other strategic parts) go thump after 20 years.
Yes dont you just love tlling your date you are pro-life and then having a conversation about how God has changed your life. Hun why would you want to date them anyway...? We are talking about the dregs of humanity.. ;)
As you said razorback-bert...... " I will have sex on the brain, the sofa, the chair, etc.".......
I second that motion. OH did I say that. Tee hee....
Actually for me its just the opposite. Isnt that why Jane Wyman divorced Ronald Reagan...? She said all he ever wanted to talk about was politics.
Oh, it's not your politics or your morality or anything highbrow like that that's running them off. Jay Leno explained it in his autobiography: it's called "The Rule of 39-1/2". Women have sensitive, autodetecting software built in, that measures how old you are. Once you hit 39-1/2, a macro is invoked that re-codes all your charming idiosyncrasies, your little tics and oddities that, when you were 20, added up to your uniqueness, into icky shortcomings, as in "Eeeewwwwwwwwww!"
That's the "Rule of 39-1/2".
Leno wasn't just woofing, by the way. That's backed up by psych studies that show that men in their early forties overestimate their attractiveness to women by a "factor of three", however that "factor" was arrived at, according to an abstract I once read that was made into a newspaper story. What is happening is that the guys are evaluating themselves by objective criteria, and figuring that they must still be pretty attractive since they haven't put on very much weight or lost very much muscle tone or hair since they were 35 or so.......but what they don't count on, and what the scientific study didn't pick up on, was that women change their criteria according to the guy's age, and basically discount his attractiveness by 2/3 when he turns 40 -- Leno's "Rule of 39-1/2". It isn't that the guy's less attractive -- it's just that women are less attracted to him because they're discounting the living daylights out of his advantages, on account of his age. It's the ultimate age discrimination!
There's another thing that begins to happen when women turn about 28. They start losing a hormone that encourages helpfulness and the urge to take care of another person -- this is the hormone that drives teenaged girls to want to pick up a baby, take care of their younger sibs, look after their young swain. By the time they're 35, that hormone is long gone and they're working off memory and habit....and by the time they're 40 or so and the old man is just getting comfortable with life and thinking he's finally getting to where he wants to be in life......wham! She serves him with divorce papers, throws him out on his butt, and goes off and joins a group of like-minded, male-bashing grass widows.
And remember, Jack, it's all your fault!
I'll give that last part a bump.
LOL. I thought that said, "Talk about a desire to kill her."
Deep breath. It'll all be over soon.
Two more cats later he often teases me about our menagerie.. (adopting the last one was his idea, although he'll never admit it. LOL!)
Kind of reminds me of that super-sappy Land Rover commercial where the guy runs the turtle to the sea in the pouring rain while his wife sits in the car because she wanted him to save the turtle.....is it sappy? Heck yeah!! BUT you can bet that guy "got some" that night LOL!!!! ;-)
What can I say. I'm a perfectionist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.