The long and the short of the latter study is that researchers took a look at what women wore at different points during their monthly cycle, and found that the women were more likely to wear flashier clothing and jewelry when they were ovulating (right around the fifteenth day of their cycle, or the spike in the body’s estrogen count). This may be as simple as a skirt instead of trousers, more skin or more fashionable clothing. Generally, anything to attract a mate.
Flashier clothes are a drop in the bucket compared to what happens to other animals when they ovulate. I asked Hugh, a researcher friend of mine, to help me on a fact finding mission to see what happens in other phyla of the animal kingdom during this hormonal surge; and I tell you what: humans have it easy.
Some animals release powerful scents or change skin color. Almost all male birds vainly parade around with their plumes on display. Some members of the ape family (like the chimp and bonobo) experience extreme swelling and redness of the genitals. What’s more, in the ape world, multiple males cannot even be around an ovulating female ape cooperatively. Nor can they hold back sexual impulses; rather, males in the group approach the female with erect penises, and the female ape chooses one of them as a mate. She will mate in public with any ape except her young male offspring.
So long romance. See ya, intimacy. Hello, incest.
If humans were more like the bonobo, I imagine a very different Friday and Saturday night bar scene. Just picture it: an ovulating woman, her swollen genitals albeit uncomfortably concealed by tight, stretchy, fashionable denim from her male counterparts. The males around her, noticing the strong scent permeating the stale cigarette air, begin to approach her with no modesty: erect penises waving at her from every direction. Said ovulating woman decides which mate to accept for the night based on his testosterone level, who has displayed the most dominant behavior.
Wait. Is our behavior that different from the apes? Perhaps our mating rituals start more subtly (i.e., “I think he’s looking at me” instead of penises waving), but isn’t it all just a matter of finding a suitable partner to mate with in order to pass along the strongest genes? Our bodies lead us down a path of looking for the perfect mate – not a boyfriend or a girlfriend – someone to create children with, even if we tell our bodies that we lack a paternal or maternal instinct.
If I take a lesson from the animals, it is this: If I am out on the prowl and all the men seem to be scoping out the other women around me, I am not going to assume I am being rejected. Perhaps it is something beyond my control; perhaps all of the other women are ovulating, attracting the men with a subconscious registration of ovulation pheromones, drawing men in with a Morse Code undetectable by radio waves and bleeping in their brains:
“Mate with me…Mate with me…Mate with me.”
• "A Single Serving" appears second and fourth Mondays every month, exclusively in Lumino Magazine. E-mail Melissa at m.koss@yahoo.com. Photo of Melissa by Anne Coloso.
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woo
Written by Guest on 2006-10-23 17:47:58
just wanted to vote yes to that picture! yay! and now my name appears at the end! i feel so prevlidged.
-anne |
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Written by Guest on 2006-10-23 21:08:19
It is a much better picture. Looks less psycho for sure. |
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Written by Guest on 2006-10-25 21:05:22
The picture is much nicer. Article very interesting |
Written by Guest on 2006-11-07 13:29:29
very interesting for sure. This girl is interesting. |
