It seems that - at least in mice - all it requires is one relatively minor manipulation of a tiny bit of brain and you can turn female mice into aggressive “pelvic thrusting lotharios.” We’re not sure yet if the reverse is true too.
“All the thinking until now was that female brains can produce feminine behaviors while male brains can produce masculine behaviors, with little or no cross talk between them,” says Marc Breedlove, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. “These results do suggest that, at least for mice, the brain retains circuitry to display both masculine and feminine behaviors into adulthood.”
Inside Every Girl Mouse Brain Is a Swaggering Boy Mouse [Video]: Scientific American
I’ve long noticed the “date the exciting guy when you’re younger, find the radically opposite stable nerdy guy when you’re ready to settle down and have kids” phenomenon amongst my friends. Books like Sperm Wars posit a Richard Dawkins-esque “sexy sons” evolutionary reason for this. Women are attracted to men who will produce attractive children, making the woman’s genes more likely to continue on to future generations. However, these sexy men aren’t necessarily the type to stick around and raise the kid well, so the female will find a more stable man to raise the kids, sometimes tricking him into believing that the child is his own.
I’m not sure I agree with this theory, but it’s fun to mention at parties. Still, it’s hard to deny that my female friends often do make a very sharp turn from rock star to school teacher about the time that they have, or decide that they want to have kids.
Women see masculine men as unsuitable long-term partners, new research suggests. Conversely, the psychologists from Durham and St Andrews Universities found that men with feminine facial features are seen as more committed and less likely to cheat on their partners.
Read: Women Prefer Less Macho Men For Long-Term Relationships
According to this study, 9 out of 10 mammals that mate for life are “unfaithful” to their partner.
The eastern bluebird was considered a prime example, with male and female partners working together to build nests, incubate eggs, then feed and raise their young.
But researchers have found that the bluebirds have a sex life that rivals a television soap opera.
Patricia Adair Gowarty, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Georgia, has found that 15% to 20% of chicks cared for by a pair of bluebirds were not fathered by the male.
She found that only 10% of 180 socially monogamous species are sexually faithful.
Read: BBC News | Sci/Tech | Infidelity ‘is natural’
An analysis of literature from numerous cultures & across centuries shows that men are attracted to a woman’s waist-hip ratio, and modern science believes it knows why: women with hourglass figures have more estrogen.
The psychologists from the University of Texas today publish research showing that lovestruck men have only one thing on their minds: a woman’s WHR - waist-hip ratio, calculated by dividing waist circumference by that of the hips.
Jordan and Twiggy have something in common: both have waists that are noticeably narrower than their hips and Prof Singh has found evidence this “belle curve” is ingrained in the male brain in his studies of Playboy centrefolds, the ancient Egyptians and tests on men from Africa to the Azores.
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Because they used shadow figures and animations where at first glance the sex was not obvious, the 370 people who assessed the figures had to make assumptions about the person’s sex and masculinity or femininity. The researchers found that a person perceived as female was rated more attractive when moving in a feminine way, such as with a hip sway, or had feminine characteristics, such as a small waist-to-hip ratio.
Read: Men lust for hourglass curves, say researchers | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Read: Secret of attraction? It’s all due to the wiggle | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Yet another reason sex is good for you.
Biologist Winnifred Cutler found that regular sex is good for you. It orchestrates a woman’s body biologically, regulating the flow of hormones that make it fertile and, in turn, increase well-being. It also props up testosterone levels in men.
Read: Psychology Today: Sex by Schedule
An earlier article (from before I had this blog) about why sex is good for you.
IT DOES not take a degree in medicine to work out that sex is good for you. Anything that is free, feels fabulous and leaves you glowing is plainly a good idea.
But scientists are now beginning to understand that the perceived feel-good effects of sexual intercourse are merely the tip of the iceberg. Sex, they are discovering, can offer protection from depression, colds, heart disease and even cancer.
Read: The secret of being in rude health is intercourse