Tuesday, March 15, 2011

SEX

See, I got your attention! I can see your eyes lit up when you saw the word SEX. This three letter word attracts people like magnets. That is the power of the word; it makes the world go round. Now that you are here, I won’t disappoint you, let’s talk sex.

Birds do it, bees do it, and humans since the dawn of time have done it.”



Even though speaking of sex is a taboo in many societies, it sells like hot cakes. In fact, even hot cakes do not sell close to as much as sex. It runs a billion dollar porn industry. Every second ~28,258 internet users are glued to pornography. Even though pornography is said to be a product of Victorian England, we find numerous forms of erotic arts in many ancient cultures, specially India. The history of prostitution goes all the way back to antiquity. We find it mentioned even in the 3700 years old Code of Hammurabi. So why is sex so attractive?


It is the single most enjoyable act on earth! Good try, but it does not really give the full answer. It only modifies the question to, why is sex such an enjoyable act. 

No sex no us, more sex more us. A very good answer. But we must not forget that sex is not the only method available to life for reproduction. Asexual method of reproduction came first and is still seen in flatworms and many microbes. May be even asexual method of reproduction gave the same pleasure. So whenever the asexual you felt the urge you could have reproduced. It would have been more effective as we could have saved a lot of time (and money) involved is finding (and maintaining) a partner (and mating). Not only sex drains out our precious nutrient resources, it also means, compared to asexual reproduction, the chances of replication of individual genes are halved. So, the question comes back, why is sex so attractive?

The answer lies in our good old philosopher Charles Darwin’s famous quote “survival of the fittest”. However, the answer did not come from human beings but from some genetically modified yeasts. A study done on them showed that the yeasts reproducing sexually were more hardier and had better chances of survival under stressful conditions compared to their asexual counterparts. 

"Bingo! Sex indeed is beneficial" 

It also gives genetic diversity to the offspring. This simply means that there is plenty to choose from. A sexually reproducing human being can have a choice of an Indian, a Chinese, an African or a white-skinned partner. However, the unfortunate (and virtual) asexually reproducing human being won’t have that choice. That choice helps in immune system diversity to keep ahead of parasites and pathogens. Evolution preferred sexual organisms compared to the asexual ones. 

Different people get different amount of pleasure during sex, which might be hereditary. In that case, people who got more pleasure had more sex and hence had more children to transfer their genes. On the other hand, people who got less pleasure, had less sex, and hence had less children to transfer their genes. Thus, with time, those people who got more pleasure dominated, and the ones who got less pleasure perished. That's how human beings became sex-maniac. 

"The pleasure associated with sex is a nature’s way of helping us survive"

46 comments:

  1. Ohh..nice article...but still in India, the country of kamasutra..ppl wont talk abt sex and in rural areas..ppl wud often consider it as a sin if dey tok abt it publicly... :|

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  2. @Sanjana...
    yea...the taboo do exists...but India, 2000yrs ago, was nt like this....they were very liberal...things started to change only after the Afgan invasions....bt the good thing is it is changing again for good...:-))
    thanks for your comments...

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  3. was nice to know. well as someone said that there is nothing negative on this earth.i wud like to say something m not against about increasing the awareness.awareness must be there.but if we consider that like western countries we also become liberal (and now a days we are becoming )in dressing(the way they dress up we are totally copying them) ,and enjoying late night weekend parties then rape cases wud arise more. i think so bcoz India is a hot country here couples need only two minutes to get excited but in cold countries people take more than an hour or two hours. now imagine its 2 am in the night a single girl is there among three boys and they are talking about sex then what will happen in India. we are still standing very far behind from being liberal.

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  4. @ some unspoken words...
    Thanks for your comment, and it was nice to know your thoughts. Firstly, i do not think that we should be coping any one. the Western cultures have been successful, but they are not perfect...also every culture has their own strengths, and a culture should grow based on their strengths...copying others don't take you anywhere...Secondly, our own culture is a very rich one....and was very liberal [http://khonjtheeternalsearch.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-huntress-to-seductress.html]...so by being liberal it does not necessarily mean we hav to copy sm1...Finally, I personally believe that crime increases when people tries hard to restrict it...i do not really think 3 friends talking about sex (when they are in their senses) in the middle of the night is threatening for a single girl (obviously it depends on what kinds of friends one chooses). Yes India is still behind...but with the strength of its past culture it can grow very fast if we want it to grow....its up
    to us... :-)

    Cheers!
    SUB

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  5. BTW...it is an interesting piece of info that in hot countries couples need only two minutes to get excited but in cold countries people take more than an hour or two hours.....never heard of that before...thanks for sharing...

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  6. even i also didnt know.i just came to know from my maa. one day she told me and i just shared it here.but i have never tried to know about it on net.so u must not be sure about it.u r very right our own culture is very rich.but it is very obvious that we are copying western culture whether it is in corporate world or colg lyf or in common lyf. we are just mad about it.if u talk about colleges then on their annual function some hot actresses are hired to make it a grand event.. just for the sake of increasing popularity of their college. what we are doing??? we love sheela ki jawani more than the movie omg movie GUJARISH... thats the way we youth are.but yeah i loved the way some people like u are trying to spread more info about our own culture. keep going..i love history but being an engineering student i rarely face some topics like urs.. and ur blogs are quit different too.

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  7. @ some unspoken words...
    Oh! that was very kind...thanks for the wonderful comments...
    Even i am not a history student...i'm a geologist...in fact as a kid i used to run away from history :-)
    but now that i don't hav to give exams...i like reading the past...
    thanks again...

    SUB

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  8. Taboo or not, sex sells. That's all I know about sex. And people have been making money out of it for quite a while. From prostitutes, who belongs to one of the oldest professions, to advertisers, they have all used sex to attract customers and clients. Doesn't that says enough?

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  9. Quite an interesting article, and yes the word SEX does attract instant interest in the post :)

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  10. @ Siddhartha Joshi...
    :-)...yea it does...
    Thanks for your comments....:-)

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  11. Indians define the word Sex with narrow eyed looks and a long silence. Taboo, yes this is what it is in India. We need to learn a lot.

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  12. You have managed to put a certain seriousness, a certain maturity to a topic which could have gone haywire, if not dealt with properly.

    And a wonderful and intersting explaination to why sex intersts humans! esp the last lines say it all!

    wish we had more such brave attempts into the taboo issues of our society.

    RESTLESS

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  13. There is a typo in the header write up... u may delete the comment after reading.

    take care

    RESTLESS

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  14. @Prateek @ RESTLESS...Thanks...yea we need to get rid of the taboo....we need sex education in school...and i mean a proper one...some thing more than just biology...it will not only reduce sex-related diseases...will also make the world safer for girls...

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  15. Very well written.. i-like-it.. and very interesting

    Seems as if someone is really there..n he is taking me through the article. :)

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  16. Subrashis Da, I remember that when i was in my 8th or 9th Grade i tried to paint an anatomy figure. My mom freaked out on seeing the nude painting of a guy in my sketch book and I was lectured why it is wrong according to our traditional beliefs (???). Years later, (in 2010) when I took my parents to a visit to different temples in Puri and around, I pointed her out the different nude figures and intimate sex scenes carved on the walls of an ancient Hindu temple. She was out of words. I sometimes wonder when did we (Indians) stop becoming open about sex? when did we start to take our steps backward?

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  17. @ primmadona...
    lol...i can understand :-)
    there was a time when we were very liberal...and then we started to westernize!!!
    remember Afghan invasions?

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  18. @Shalini...lol...yes...think of it this way...if the pleasure of intercourse was not so important for nature we could have got the same amount of pleasure from from something else that is more imp...afterall, it is all in the mind!!! :-)

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  19. u know wht.. the the survival of the fittest is the most ABSURD way of telling how pleasurable intercourse is. I mean LOL! But seriously?!

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  20. Thanks a lot...I am glad you liked it... (I'm smiling)....
    I just hope it becomes true for everybody...right now i am making that wish :-)

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  21. Wow! A new outlook, truly!
    Is it just me, or does everyone fall more and more in love with your blog as one moves from one post to the next. :)

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  22. Never read something more awesome on this topic:)

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  23. i knew it!!!

    you just proved it...thank you...

    watch out world , here i come...its life or death matter.

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  24. meh...sex is overrated... :D
    Nice write up though....

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  25. which part? it is the reason we are here...
    if it's the part about pleasure then yea, it is just in the mind....but pleasure is not sex, it is a byproduct....:)

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  26. It sells for sure...Interesting read...:) You wrote it in March, Thank God, I thought I missed your post again. :)

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  27. a hot topic liked ur post and no comments lol

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  28. yea....it's an old post :)...thanks Saru

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  29. ha ha...thanks for your no comments

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  30. I especially liked the last paragraph. Yes, it's the evolution which is the real culprit in us becoming sex-obsessed :D

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  31. you do it everytime, and its not just the content (information) where the appeal of your posts lies, its the way you navigate throughout the post and slowly segue into what you finally want to convey...

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  32. that's kind of u...thanks a lot Stuti :)

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  33. that's right, sex is beneficial in more ways than one. the primary one is survival. 
    no wonder it gives you healthy skin/hair/mood - overall good health
    good post, saw it only today

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  34. yea...it was an old one....thanks Sujatha....

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  35. I wonder where you come up with those kind of thoughts LOL. Are you inspired by some books or is it just your brain being the workshop?

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  36. No sex, no male-female bonding.

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