Sexual Attraction
Subconscious Sexual Attraction and Gender
Sexual desire is a complex science, perhaps equally impacted by sociological imperatives as by innate biological imperatives. While physical attractiveness constitutes one basic and salient reason that individuals are drawn to one another, this feature only serves as part of the explanation for what causes unilateral or mutual desire. A host of other subconscious factors enter into the reaction that is triggered when one individuals is sexually attracted to another. As the discussion hereafter will demonstrate, sexual attraction is influenced by a subconscious-level reading of DNA and a fulfillment of gender-loaded biological imperatives. The discussion will additionally demonstrate that while procreation is often the biological and the subconscious engine driving sexual attraction, sociological forces such as control and patriarchy have also long played a part in how gendered sexuality is studied, discussed and even how it is manifested. These sociological and biological forces converge to create the subconscious level of desire that is at issue in the present discussion.
Discussion:
Part and parcel to understanding sexual attraction is recognizing that several distinct characteristics separate the sexual behavior of men and women. Among these characteristic, the male gender is far more prone to a wide range of non-committed sexual behaviors that suggest attraction is driven by surface desires for sexual gratification. To this point, according to the article by Schmitt (2003), "among those men and women who are actively pursuing short-term mates, over 50% of men (but less than 20% of women) desire more than one sexual partner in the next month." (Schmitt, 14) This is a finding that is largely consistent with studies across cultures and experimental frameworks, indicating that male sexual desire creates a greater propensity toward multiple partners, toward promiscuity and toward attraction that is more primal than rational, if one presumes that procreation is the rational desire of sexual gratification.
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