almost a diary

Ok, let’s face it. Mating, human mating in particular, is a complex communication process involving all sorts of biological and cultural codes that no one will ever really understand – except with hindsight, when we call it evolution, because that sounds much nicer than ignorance. Hence the proliferation of experts and (particularly paid for) advice on the matter – when no one actually knows anything, then everyone can contribute without ever really being wrong about what codes to use when.

Case in point, tonight I saw a poster ad for a singles’ party at the local university this Friday. Now I suppose some people may live under the impression that studying as a whole isn’t much more than a singles’ party, but apparently, that’s no longer the case – evolution, remember? But it wasn’t the party itself that I found interesting – apparently, the organisers are going to hand out differently coloured ribbons indicating a particular person’s willingness to flirt. While I understand that coloured ribbons or other signs have long played a certain role in identifying potential partners in particular, often sexual, subcultures, where colours are usually codes for the person’s specific preferences, I am a tad bit confused about colours indicating willingness to flirt at a singles’ party for students?

Seriously, how many different kinds of flirting are there that can be usefully differentiated? Well,  I guess I have to go and see evolution with my own eyes to find out…

Looks like Carrie Bradshaw will lose her job pretty soon. If this research (article from Sueddeutsche.de in German) from the Swedish Karolinska Institut is indeed correct, Ms Bradshaw will no longer need to write advice columns about the mysteries of the alleged male unwillingness to couple up. Instead, in the last installment of her column, she will tell her female readership to take their men and have his genome processed to see if there’s a gene that will allow the production of sufficient levels of arginine-vasopressine. If not, then, with all due scepticism, it is suggested by the research, he may not be too big a fan of monogamy. Although, depending on the culture of your choice, he may still be inclined to marry – even 86 times, like this Nigerian man did, who has apparently been ordered to divorce 82 of his wives by a sharia court…

Today, Reuters offers a possible, yet likely unrelated, explanation for the NHS’s attempts to help her majesty’s citizens to ’sexercise’ sufficiently. According to the news agency

“half of UK men would swap sex for 50 inch TV.”

According to a survey of 2000 Britons, conducted by the British Electrical retailer Comet, asking what they would give up for a large television, it was allegedly found that 47 percent of men, yet only about a third of women would give up sex for half a year.

Questions of scientific and statistical validity notwithstanding, published just before Valentine’s day, even as a joke, that’s not exactly a compliment for British women…

Die Zeit online beginnt den Weltfrauentag mit einer überaus sexistischen Einführung…

Bei ZEIT online wollen wir Zeichen setzen. Deshalb sollen am 8. März unsere Titel und alle Bilder auf der Homepage weiblich sein. Wir wollen uns bemühen, keinen Krieg, keinen Hass in die Überschriften zu lassen. Wir setzen auf die weiblichen Substantive: auf die Liebe, die Leidenschaft und die Vernunft. Es wird sicherlich auch Überschriften geben, die von Missgunst, Krisen und Niedertracht handeln. Denn – nun ja – auch das sind weibliche Wörter.

Krieg und Hass sind also männlich, Mißgunst, Krisen und Niedertracht weiblich. Nun ja. Ich freue mich schon auf die feminisierten Schlagzeilen über Bomben im Irak und einen DAX-Tagesverlauf in weiblichen Kurven…

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Ein Schelm, wer Böses dabei denkt. Für die n-tv.de Medienseite hat jemand herausgefunden, daß die Soft-Erotik-Filmreihe “Schulmädchen-Report” die Schauspielschule des Lebens für eine ganze Reihe heute bekannter deutscher Schauspieler war.