curiousgeorge

I was reading through this thread and wanted to reply. So I regestered and here I am. A bit of background, I have studied both biology and ecology, and have some graduate work in animal behavior science, as well as some coursework in anthropology. I don't mean to imply that I am an authority by any means, but I wanted to illustrate that I have been fascinated by human behavior for quite some time, especially traits that seem to be "hardwired", and why certain seemingly illogical traits develop in otherwise rational, "healthy" humans. Someone earlier remarked that they thought it was strange that the desire to be hurt or abused could last in the gene pool. Their assumption seemed to be that this type of behavior would eventually remove itself. But in order for a trait (if it is genetically encoded) to be removed, it would need to cause a net decrease in the total number of viable offspring that the trait carrier had during his/her lifetime, or decrease the likelihood that their offspring wold be able to reproduce effectively. So unless the individual with a penchant for being abused was abused to the point where he/she could not continue producing and rearing offspring, then the trait would not be removed from the genepool. It is also entirely possible that these so called "deviant" sexual preferences are not caused by any particular gene, but are caused as a side effect to the convergence of multiple other traits. The comment that interest in "deviant" behavior may be correlated to a high intelligence illustrates this point. It is posible that people whose brains work a certain way are drawn to practices that distract their brains, or need a higher level of mental stimulation for sexual arousal. Regretfully, it seems that very little scientific research has been done in this area, and little data is available to form reasonbly accurate conclusions. Most available "data" comes from anecdotal conversations like this thread. I found a poll on MrPoll.com where a pollster asked the question whether respondants had ever engaged in bondage play. An astounding 70 some odd percentage responded "yes". Of course, the only people who answered the poll were people who were curious of the subject and did a search of the available polls to find it. So most respondants were probably either involved in bondage play, or were curious of the subject for scientific reasons. One reason that so little is known of the area is the very heavy social taboo asociated with sex in general, and even more so in "deviant" sexual practices. Most posters to this thread did so knowing that their identity was relatively had to obtain. Societies have created complex social rules and taboos around sex for a long time. In fact if you think about it, we have very complex social rules about anything that involves the interaction between two people. If you look at any societal or group dwelling animals you see the same complex rule structure. I believe that much of this stems from the dangers associated with interaction. When two unknown individuals meet, there is always the threat that one may be hostile. These social norms establish a ritual for displaying intent, disposition, etc. When these types of social rules are taken to the extreme by an advanced society like a human society, things get very complicated. Since two prospective mates need to be very careful about whom they chose to mate with, it makes sense that the rituals and toboos associated with mating would be very complex, and very ingrained in the phyche of the individuals. So much so that one person may find it impossible to become sexually aroused unless their potential partner has certain traits, and follows a certain preferred code of conduct. This could lead to the development of fetishes and certain sexual needs to be fulfilled. Since the human brain is so complex, these needs could logically develop into seemingly irrational of "deviant" needs that are had coded in one individual, and seem foreign or "irrational" in another. It just takes time for society to accept these seemingly "strange" needs. Is it deviant to like your partner to wear that special red lingerie that you bought her? At first glance that may seem strange to someone who doesn't like that style of lingerie. Why would you want part of your mate to be covered with clothing? However, that is a perfectly acceptable "fetish" in today's society. Well, I've typed quite a bit and it is late. Hopefully I've inspired some thoughts on the subject and didn't bore everyone to another thread... I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on what I typed, and any other thoughts as well. I find this conversation very interesting. Thanks for reading.