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From: david@gladys.UUCP (David Dalton)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med,sci.psychology,soc.motss
Subject: Re: The persistance of homosexuality in a gene pool
Message-ID: <2888@gladys.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jul 90 11:19:17 GMT
References: <32214@cup.portal.com> <1619@oravax.UUCP> <8250@pitt.UUCP> <1990Jul31.012219.3299@ariel.unm.edu>
Organization: Humanities Forum III, Winston-Salem, NC
Lines: 49

>In article <8250@pitt.UUCP> rozin@speedy.cs.pitt.edu.UUCP (Roman Rozin) writes:

>Since Kinsey (sp) said,
>as I remember the numbers, that most people are bisexual then most
>folks would "key in" on both "sets" of pheromones.  Which one 
>attracted them the most would be the one that would "control" their
>sexual orientation.  

For AGES I have been looking for a study on pheromones and sexual
orientation, but so far I haven't found anything. It would appear to
be a really fruitful area for study. For example, we know that people
who lose their sense of smell (nasal polyps, brain problems, etc.)
often lose interest in sex.

But mainly the idea intrigues me because of one of my earliest
memories. I was about five years old. Our neighbors' washing machine
had broken down, and they were doing laundry in our basement. I
remember being in the basement alone and seeing their laundry, neatly
sorted, in piles on the floor. There were two teen-age daughters and
one teen-age son in the household. I didn't have the slightest
curiosity about the girls' clothing, but I was very curious about the
boy's. I picked up his jeans and sniffed them very thoroughly, and I
found it very exciting in a way that I did not at all understand. I
believe that, long before I understood sex and sexuality, this
experience showed that I was already thoroughly oriented toward males,
and that scent is an important cue. 

These sorts of things happen on a very low level, mostly beneath
consciousness, but I have tried to make myself as aware as possible of
my reactions to other people's scents. If someone I like walks by, I
often time my breathing to take in their scent. If someone I don't
like, or who I find repulsive in some way, walks by, I often hold my
breath so I won't have to smell them. If I like a woman, I do enjoy
her scent, but I don't find it erotically stimulating.

I've been helplessly in love with a co-worker for five years. He's
been dealing with a lot of stuff, but he's getting there. (Remember
this one, Jess?) I think that the smell of him in close quarters is
more tantalizing to me than the sight of him. And, to make things
really difficult, he's in my house a lot these days, and he does his
laundry here every week. I can't tell you what it does to me to come
in and find his tennis things in the laundry room, waiting for him to
come back and finish up. Or, when he house-sits for me, to come home
to the scent of him in my bed. Or hot and sweaty, moving a bookcase.
Or arriving after a long bicycle ride.

What sweet torture...
-- 
David Dalton	pacbell!gladys!david	mcnc!gladys!david