Animals and Us. Part 3

Following up from Saturday – I’m skipping forward in this post to the end of chapter 19 from my book Don’t Use My Sweater Like a Towel.

After all this research, I wanted to know how this information played with others. So, of course, I did a survey. Once again, my sample included men and women of varying age, race, economic and relationship status. My enthusiastic participants were very candid, and gave some surprising insight into human animal behavior.

My first question was about what first attracts you to somebody. Most men responded that the face came first, especially the eyes and the smile. Age, body type, and perhaps surprisingly, boobs were down on the list. Women gravitated more to the eyes and mouth, and it was no surprise to me that smell charted with women as well.

Keeping with physical appearance, I asked my participants if they would still be attracted to someone whose style of dress they didn’t care for. Men seemed the least interested in clothing, particularly one man who responded, “No clothes is best.” The women gave mixed responses. Some were not concerned at all with style, while others were more adamant that the clothes make the man. Next, I offered a similar scenario with regards to specific body parts. Once again, the men said they could deal with one flaw (just one!) in a woman’s body, while the women were split. A shining example: “Tiny nose when I like big noses, sure [I can deal with that]. A cock like a soup can? Maybe not.”

For the next set of questions, I asked my survey-ees to rate the importance following in a relationship on a scale of 1 to 10: physical attractiveness, sex, and communication.
Physical attractiveness – Men averaged 7.8, women averaged 7.6.
Sex – Both women and men averaged 9.
Communication – 10 across the board.

And when asked if they preferred model-good looks to intelligence and compatibility, the panel voted unanimously that what goes on inside a person is hands down more important than what’s happening on the outside.

Finally, the monogamy questions were not so simple. 75% of the men, and 60% of the women said that they had cheated on a partner at least once in the past. So perhaps, it’s not shocking that 80% of the sample said no when I asked if they thought monogamy was possible. But they’re reasons were fascinating. A single, 28-year-old woman said, “I think mating for life is possible but difficult, and rare. People change so much over the years, that a lot of times they become incompatible. I think that it is natural to have multiple partners over the years. But as far as monogamy is concerned, I believe it is totally possible and important within the lifetime of a relationship (weather a few months or a years) especially when it comes to building trust, and having a solid emotional foundation.”

One of the men (single, age 45) agreed, “I feel too many people make their life-mate decision too early. One goes through many changes from 25-35, frequently these changes result in severe incompatibilities with their mate. Post-35-change is less aggressive and life-mates should be healthy and fulfilling relationships. Long term trust and love are very important to me, and I believe are key in longevity. “
Judging from the survey answers and my endless research into human vs. animal behavior, I believe that whatever our motivation or however we go about finding a partner in life, we all just want to experience a pure, human connection. It took a full year to complete this book and during that time, I saw seasons change, natural disasters on a biblical scale, man-made disasters, wars, death, birth, had my heart broken, and may have broke a few along the way. What I have come to realize is that as the seasons connect us just like the oceans. The mysteries of the universe are equal to the mysteries of love and mating. I think my grandmother was right about keeping some mystery in life. Mystery keeps us thinking – and living.

Related posts:

1. Animals and Us. Part 2
2. Animals and Us. Part 1
3. Shocking Sex Survey…
4. First Kiss Etiquette
5. Don’t Be A Slave To Your Dick. Part 3

• Categories: Uncategorized
• If you enjoyed this post: Subscribe to my RSS!