Though inspired by TV and movie plots, in which a man and a woman (or two gay characters (though I haven’t seen this in a movie I assume it happens as well)) are thrown into some situation and eventually fall in love, I’m m curious about the accuracy and/or probability of this occurrence IRL.
I’ve seen and met some women who I absolutely would not want to touch. And I’m sure that there are zillions of women who would feel the same way about me.
Have any studies been done about this wrt some deep seated need to perpetuate the species, that would even include overriding personal indifference or even distaste?
It would be hard to study this without arranging some kind of global thermonuclear war, or launching the participants on a one-way trip to colonize Mars. Maybe maroon them on an island for 10 or 20 years? I will confidently say that the gay characters are not going to be motivated by a deep-seated need to perpetuate the species.
Actually, I know: following the mutiny on the Bounty, the mutineers and accomplices holed up on Pitcairn Island. That was 1790. Within a few years most succumbed to alcoholism, extreme violence, murder, disease, and suicide. That’s not a controlled experiment, though.
Honestly, the sort of highly charged situations typically seen in movies are going to be catnip to the average person as far as instigating romance. It is the situation, not the people.
Think about online dating. A fair number of people meet this way and form long term couples. Even higher for groups with demographic issues, i.e. gays. Despite this, the format is generally hated, because of the impersonal mechanics necessary.
Given the types of situations detailed in movies, this is one area where they are absolutely spot on.
A workplace affair saves you the trouble of chatting someone up at the bar, sure, but would you really start an affair with someone you find distasteful?
I suppose that it must be true if you are forced to interact with someone for a length of time, that would compensate for any misleading first impressions, so maybe you would start an affair with someone you would otherwise ignore.
I travel for a living. I fall in lust nearly nightly wherever I go. Although I do NOT act on that lust, I certainly might on any given day.
Right this instant minute I’m on the road and would easily take my current target upstairs to my room if she was willing (which she might well be) and I was less invested in my ongoing lfe with my real love & wife back home. So tonight will remain theoretical, not real. But it’s enormously entertaining to think about.
Childless at 60-something I can’t claim any desire to actually perpetuate the species as such. But practicing perpetuating the species is Job #1. All else is details. Distracting details.
There are some guys that seriously can’t go more than a day without getting laid. Put them on a desert island and they’ll fuck a tree if the knothole looks sexy enough.
didn’t we have a question that was like " you’re lost on an island with one person of the opposite sex and you’ve been getting rebuffed for years… would it be bad just to take them and damn the consequences? " recently and the consensus fell between hard a hard yes its evil and depends on how long "
There are also TV and movie plots where two gender-appropriate people are put in a similar situation and develop a deep antipathy toward each other. While those are often the plots of comedies, it suggests that the writers do not believe instant attraction is always the rule.
Right, and for those of use who aren’t that sex-crazed, we’re not going to be voluntarily celibate forever on the basis of not fancying anyone. For everyone it is just a matter of time.
It could be months though. Which might be far beyond the kind of situation that the OP was alluding to.
You don’t need a set up that extreme. Just send your subjects on a treasure hunt through the jungle/desert or a cross country road trip. Maybe have some thugs chasing them for good measure. That always seems to do the trick in movies.
In 1981, Lucy Irvine responded to an advertisement placed by writer Gerald Kingsland, and they became self-imposed castaways for a year on the isolated and uninhabited island of Tuin, in the Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia. Chosen by Kingsland from over 50 applicants, Irvine agreed to marry him to satisfy immigration restrictions before they travelled to Tuin. She was 25 years old, and he was 49. After a year, they returned home, and in 1983, she published her account of the experience in Castaway , which was later used as the basis for the 1986 film.[2]
I remember liking it but I’m sketchy on the details.
And, yet, in real real life, Thomas Neale spent a total of 16 years living alone on a desert island. According to his own book, he toyed with the idea of going there with a woman (he was even married at one point), but decided, nope, no way.
