YIKES! that place scared me.
oh dear, catherine, ange you've really got to take a look. there's even commentary on erections and vaginal penetration. that is, an erection is *really* an erection if it's capable of vaginal penetration. this is quite shocking. (not). but read on.... women like aggressive looking men, you know. [they don't say what happens if the grrRl likes other grrRls or if buoys like aggressive looking buoys. wonder why?]
""The common occurrence of penile erection in prepubertal boys shows that vaginal penetration could be obtained with little circulating Testosterone. [T] However, most researchers agree that a full repertoire of male sexual behaviors, including libidinous feelings and ejaculation, is unlikely without a T level near normal."
"On theoretical grounds, it is clear that dominating mechanisms -- whether aggressive or nonaggressive in form -- would have evolutionary advantage in helping an individual acquire valued resources, especially in competition for mates. This is not simply a matter of a dominant man taking what he wants; women regard men who look dominant as attractive (Townsend 1993). Teenage men rated by naive judges as having "dominant looking" faces (often with prominent chins, heavy brow ridges, muscular rather than fleshy or skinny faces) report copulating earlier than their submissive-looking peers, presumably in part because they have an easier time finding willing partners (Mazur et al. 1994). --------------
what's interesting here, of course, is that later on they say that men with high testosterone levels have a hard time staying married and tend to be bachelors!!!
------------- " Maturation produces profound social effects on the adolescent. His peers, parents, and other authorities all treat him differently because he has "suddenly" grown up. Thus, T affects adolescent behavior mostly through indirect social responses, elicited by maturation, rather than through direct activation of target receptors by T in the bloodstream. This is a provisional conclusion because much remains to be learned, but studies to date give little consistent indication that circulating T level per se affects behavior as much as the overall masculinization of the body during the teen years."
"There are similar age trends for male libido, aggressiveness, and antisocial deviance, all being highest among teenagers and men in their early 20s, then diminishing (Segall 1979; Wilson and Herrnstein 1985; Gagnon et al. 1994). However, the causal connection from hormones to behavior remains open to question."
"The administration of exogenous T [Testosterone] to 31 normal men in stable heterosexual relationships, nearly doubling circulating T for up to eight weeks, had no more effect than a placebo on overt sexual behavior, but it did increase some sexual attitudes (Anderson et al. 1992)." -------------
that one slayed me. is this support for the seven year itch hypothesis? ladies, looks like you can't do anything about his sheer boredom after being in a 'stable' het relationship --that is, a long term one. inject him with testosterone and he's *still* bored. -------------
" Jeffcoate et al. (1986), studying four male physicians aged 28 to 38 who were confined on a boat for a two-week holiday cruise, report T to be correlated with the physicians' assertive and dominant behavior, as ranked by three women also on the boat." ------------- WOW! that one was even funnier. didn't they make a movie out of this one??!!
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6. T IN WOMEN
" Also among these college women, T was negatively correlated with frequency of smiling, the absence of which is sometimes regarded as an indicator of dominance. The lack of consistency among these correlational findings is a caution to await further research." -------------
OK! i'm laughing but i'm feeling a little testy (testes?) too. what could that mean? smiling? smiling in women is meaningful, but apparently not in the studies of men and aggressiveness/dominance or lack thereof.
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9. BASAL VS. RECIPROCAL MODELS: DIVORCE AND MARRIAGE
" A more extensive analysis of data from 4,462 former military servicemen in their 30s and 40s showed that males with higher T (measured once) are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce (Booth and Dabbs 1993). The likelihood of never marrying is 50% higher for men whose T is one standard deviation above the mean compared to those one standard deviation below the mean. Similarly, among men who have married, those at the higher level of T are 43% more likely to divorce than those at the lower level. Once married, men with higher T are 31% more likely to leave home because of a troubled relationship with their wife, 38% more likely to have extramarital sex, and 13% more likely to report hitting or throwing things at their spouse. In addition, high T men are more likely to report a lower quality of marital interaction. The occurrence of these behaviors increases continuously with T; it is not limited to men with exceptionally high T." ------------- huh. whatever could this mean. when contrasted with the opening statement: "would have evolutionary advantage in helping an individual acquire valued resources, especially in competition for mates. This is not simply a matter of a dominant man taking what he wants; women regard men who look dominant as attractive" oh but there's more.... -------------
"Furthermore, men who divorced during the decade of the study had elevated T in the examinations just before and after their breakups, compared to examinations further removed in time. The T of men who married during the decade fell as they made the transition from bachelor to husband, and T remained low among stably married men. Thus, T is highly responsive to changes in marital status, falling with marriage and rising with divorce."
"These results have an easy interpretation in the reciprocal model. Normal marriages are secure and supportive, more free from stress than single life, consistent with the relatively low cortisol found in married Air Force veterans. Single men are more likely than married men to face confrontations and challenges and, lacking the social support of a spouse, they are more likely to face situations where they must watch out for themselves, acting defensively and adopting protective postures. These are precisely the kinds of situations in which T rises. The abrupt act of marriage is the culmination of a longer and more gradual period of courtship and engagement, in which a man accepts the support of his partner, removing himself from the competitive area in which he has operated with his fellows. It is for this reason, we suggest, that T declines with marriage." -------------
so george gilder is right, huh? men are just aggressive animals if they aren't married. i mean, this was gilder's argument, the one that inspired reagan so: women must get back in the kitchen and keep those men in line, otherwise they'll engage in too much antisocial behavior
kelley