‘Satyress with a Putto’ by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
It’s hard to believe the results of a questionnaire in which 34% of the respondents say they’ve had sex with animals. This study was done in Brazil, which leads one to wonder how much they have in common with Colombia, where it’s not uncommon for men to have had sex with donkeys (if this Vice video is to be believed — WARNING: man-on-donkey action in the last two minutes of the linked video).
“Why does semen glow in the dark?” And could that trait somehow be used to stop sperm theft? “Mr. Pressil’s former girlfriend and domestic partner, Ms. Anetria Burnett, supposedly secreted Mr. Pressil’s used condoms to a fertility clinic, which then used Mr. Pressil’s sperm to inseminate Ms. Burnett. Ms. Burnett subsequently gave birth to twins. Mr. Pressil took a DNA test that proved he was the father and then began paying child support of $800 per month.”
“Female ejaculation and squirting/gushing are two different phenomena. The organs and the mechanisms that produce them are bona fide different. The real female ejaculation is the release of a very scanty, thick, and whitish fluid from the female prostate, while the squirting is the expulsion of a diluted fluid from the urinary bladder.”
“Controversial in that the thesis of [The Technology of Orgasm] has been almost universally accepted and embraced by the mainstream press and the sex toy industry, while at the same time being quite seriously critiqued by historians of sexuality. In her book Maines contends that the vibrator was regularly used by doctors to treat “hysteria” which they had previously been treating by manually stimulating women to orgasm.”
From the new movie “Hysteria” (based on Maines’ theory)
“In two experiments, we showed that memory in women is sensitive to male voice pitch, a sexually dimorphic cue important for mate choice because it not only serves as an indicator of genetic quality, but may also signal behavioural traits undesirable in a long-term partner.”
“John L. Locke … argues that men and women have radically different ways of speaking … because they have radically different evolutionary needs. Men, he argues, use antagonistic speech, or “duels,” to show off their strength and prove themselves to women. Women, meanwhile, use quieter speech patterns to bond with each other.“
“Even girls who are having a one-night-stand want to cuddle and kiss and become anxious about what their male partner is thinking of them, or whether they still find them attractive. On the other hand, the interviewed men largely declared that they usually wanted to eat, urinate or sleep after sex.” Here’s a pdf of the cited paper, “Variation in Reproductive Strategies Influences Post-Coital Experiences With Partners”.
“”When a woman has an orgasm,” he explains, “the pH of her reproductive tract shifts in a way that favors sperm that enter her at that point.” Why is this so important? Sperm competition. In prehistoric times, according to Ryan, women had “multiple lovers at any given ovulatory cycle, even in any given sexual event”.“
“[Terri Conley] disagrees with the various forms of scientific evidence indicating that men have a stronger, biologically-evolved sex drive than women. Her alternative explanation … is that both men and women are motivated by an equally strong interest in the physical pleasures of sex. It is just that men anticipate that casual sex will usually be pleasurable, while women do not anticipate that casual sex will be physically pleasurable unless a number of conditions are met.” A critique.
“Studies have confirmed that women are overwhelmingly more likely to cheat on their partner during the two or three days of ovulation. … Here’s the rub: The idea of what constitutes “the best man” also changes during that time. The good news is that you’re pretty safe for about 27 days of most months. To be fair, if her body chemistry is artificially altered by birth control pills, this instinct may be tempered.“
“In lab studies, women who are in fertile stages of their cycle are more likely to go for men who look healthy, self-confident, and masculine, which tend to be markers for good genes, but also for infidelity. … Women on the pill do indeed select men who look like they will be more reliable and steady. But outside the lab …. the team found that women who had met their partners while on the pill reported less sexual satisfaction but greater general satisfaction than women who had been off the pill. In other words, their partners were good fathers and good providers, but not necessarily on fire between the sheets.”
“Swami et al (2007) looked at WHR [waist-to-hip ratio] preferences among males in Spain, Portugal, and the UK.In all three countries BMI, not WHR, accounted for the most variance in perceived attractiveness. … This paper also has a great summary of methodological issues with prior WHR studies (e.g., the use of two dimensional line drawing, failing to control for BMI). Cornelissen et al (2009) looked at patterns of British male gaze fixation during attractiveness judgments of pictures of women. Men tended to look at the upper abdomen and face, not the hip or pelvic area.”
Sophia
“Each additional sexual partner increased the odds of infidelity by 7% while increasing years of education seem to decrease the risk by 10%. Very roughly speaking each addition partner negates the benefit of a year of education with regard to infidelity risk.“
“Paternal grandmothers will therefore share more genes overall with granddaughters than with grandsons (the authors calculate an overall genetic relatedness of 31% with granddaughters but only 23% with grandsons). … The results of this study matched the predictions beautifully. In all seven populations grandsons survived better in the presence of maternal rather than paternal grandmothers (p = 0.0081) while granddaughters survived better in six of the seven populations when they received assistance from paternal instead of maternal grandmothers (p = 0.0046).”
“A kiss puts two people in very close proximity. Our sense of smell allows us to pick up subconscious clues about the other person’s DNA or reproductive status. Biologist Claus Wedekind found that women are most attracted to the scent of men who have a very different genetic code for their immune system in a region of DNA known as the major histocompatibility complex. Pairing off with a male who has a different set of genes for immunity can lead to children that will have a higher level of genetic diversity, making them healthier and more likely to survive.“
“We investigated salivary testosterone levels in men watching (n = 26) versus participating (n = 18) in sexual activity at a large U.S. sex club. Subjects averaged 40 years of age and participated between 11:00 pm and 2:10 am. Consistent with expectations, results revealed that testosterone levels increased 36% among men during a visit to the sex club, with the magnitude of testosterone change significantly greater among participants (72%) compared with observers (11%). Contrary to expectation, men’s testosterone changes were unrelated to their age.”
“Both men and women become more religious when seeing same sex competitors. We discuss several possible explanations for these effects. Most broadly, the findings contribute to an emerging literature on how cultural phenomena such as religiosity respond to ecological cues in potentially functional ways.”
“Assuming that these studies are correct (more on that in a minute), and that sex is good for your health, then the obvious next question would be, how should you arrange your sex life so as to maximize the health benefits?“
“According to a case report from cardiologists Yarlioglues et al, a married couple deliberately ate some mad honey “for reasons of sexual performance”. … The toxin in mad honey is gryanotoxin. It acts by potentiating the opening of sodium channels, which are found both in the heart and the brain. This may be why it produces a combination of cardiovascular and psychoactive effects.”
Dancer Lisbeth Gruwez, choreographer Jan Fabre:
