I edited that post to change the word pleasurable from pleasure bowl. My voice dictation is not very good on the phone
I wonder if oxytocin had anything to do with it. You spend more time having sex, you get that pair-bonding thing going, which results in overall more stable communities? Something like that, maybe?
What makes you think that? Why would animals be so compelled to do it if they weren’t enjoying it? I guess it depends how you define “fun” but any species that didn’t really want to have sex would quickly die out.
–Mark
Need and enjoy are two different things. Instinct can make animals do things they may not really enjoy. I don’t enjoy scratching but if I have an itch, my instinctual reaction is to scratch. I don’t enjoy defending myself against someone trying to kill me either but if I’m sure I would instinctually do so. Animals are no different but it’s certainly possible some or even all animals may perform the act of sex purely out of instinct rather than enjoyment.
You’re probably thinking of Ian Sanderson’s “The Aquatic Ape”. But I don’t remember those kinds of details in the book, but it’s been a long time.
Not to derail this thread - here is a Straight Dope article on that topic:
that was one of the more endearing episodes of the seinfeld franchise. true … while she said “fake, fake, fake” … what elaine did not mention was the fact that the pure act(sex) was a motivating force for her own self-esteem … “i am sexy and that very fact makes me feel as a woman”. so … at least part of elaine’s act was not fake.
Actually, enjoyment is precisely how instincts work. To say that we have a mating instinct is exactly the same thing as to say that we derive pleasure from mating.
Even “clubbing and raping”, as you put it, still requires that it at least be pleasurable for the male. But doing it that way means that the woman is likely to resist, and even though males are stronger, resistance will at least sometimes be successful. The whole process is easier if the female is willing or even eager, and she’s more likely to be willing and eager if she enjoys it, too.
If you react with pleasure they’ll keep doing it to you.
Food mentioned upthread. Me, massage, more than sex.Even at the barber, massaging the wall after a shampoo.
I totally could be mixing up two books I read at the same time.
A few possible advantages:
IIRC, women are more prone to conceive if they orgasm.
If she likes it, she’s more likely to sneak out to have sex with you instead of screaming for help. Or show up later with her three brothers and have them hack you to tiny pieces. Or cave in your skull with a rock while you are asleep.
It selects for clever, persuasive men over stupid, crude ones.
It’s a useful test for identifying men more likely to be willing to invest emotionally in a relationship.
Sounds legit.
I wonder whether, on some level, a male praying mantis screams during sex, as he’s being eaten by the female.
My male cat was neutered as an adult; he’s still a horny thing, and regularly tries to “make it” with various soft items in the house (pillows, blankets, my wife’s sweaters, etc.) While he’s in the middle of the act, he growls and moans – muffled, because he’s biting his “girlfriend” of the moment the entire time.
Couldn’t it also be “cessation of painful / annoying sensations” or something? (Assuming that doesn’t count as pleasure in and of itself.)
Oh, that reminds me of a Greg Egan book, Incandescence I believe, where one of the main characters was from an alien species where the males produced seed pods that made them uncomfortable, and eventually became painful, if they didn’t find a female to remove the pods with a specialized “mating claw”. To the males in that species, there was certainly a mating instinct, but there was no pleasure involved.
“Is this better, or is this worse?”
“Is this better, or is this worse?”…
How an optometrist makes love.
[I wouldn’t have, but Loach started it]
And “number 1, or number 2?” takes on a whole 'nother meaning. . . .
That explains why Friedman’s rabbit died.
Yiff! Yiff! Yiff!