Seasons
This is a forum or general chit-chat, small talk, a "hey, how ya doing?" and such. Or hell, get crazy deep on something. Whatever you like.
Posts 5,764 - 5,775 of 6,170
Posts 5,764 - 5,775 of 6,170
Bev
16 years ago
16 years ago
Prob, I thought the German somehow sounded more dragonish too. Maybe because in my mind German is always very guttural like in old WWII movies.
Irina
16 years ago
16 years ago
Would the use of artificial sex pheromones be manipulative/seductive? Supposedly, one can apply a sex pheromone like a perfume, but according to at least one commercial manufacturer,
1. The person who responds to the pheromone is not aware of it; it doesn't have a 'smell'.
2. The receptor (in the nose) for the pheromone signals directly to the limbic system (i.e., produces a very primitive emotional/motivational/instinctive response of attraction, not mediated by rationality, either ethical or prudential.
The one influenced by the pheromone would therefore have no knowledge that this was what was producing the feelings of attraction, unless s/he was informed so by the wearer.
Would it be manipulative/seductive even if the wearer informed the one influenced that s/he was wearing a sex pheromone?
1. The person who responds to the pheromone is not aware of it; it doesn't have a 'smell'.
2. The receptor (in the nose) for the pheromone signals directly to the limbic system (i.e., produces a very primitive emotional/motivational/instinctive response of attraction, not mediated by rationality, either ethical or prudential.
The one influenced by the pheromone would therefore have no knowledge that this was what was producing the feelings of attraction, unless s/he was informed so by the wearer.
Would it be manipulative/seductive even if the wearer informed the one influenced that s/he was wearing a sex pheromone?
Bev
16 years ago
16 years ago
Irina, if pheromone products worked (a rather dubious claim) I would not say such methods be overly manipulative anymore than wearing nice clothes or presenting a generally pleasing personality is manipulative per se. My concerns about pheromone products for humans are (1) they are a scam, (2) targeting a specific person is different than being generally attractive and (3) sending out general "sexually available" signals to the world at large rather than to a specific person is asking for trouble. That being said, my short answer is still a qualified no, using perfume and calling it a pheromone is not manipulative at a level anyone needs to worry about.
On that note, while smell can be very sensual we have only begun to find evidence of human pheromones and we do not fully understand what they are and what role they may play, much less understand how how to synthesize them and use them to control others' behaviors. There is no doubt we communicate to each other through smells and chemicals at a primal (often subconscious) level, but humans do not go into heat and there is no evidence that pheromones overpower one's higher reasoning and force one to act on every attraction. Pheromones may effect the length of human ovulation (http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9803/11/pheromones/) but that by itself doesn't back all the claims of the people selling pheromone products (besides, other researchers have questions the methodology of the U of C study). There are pages and pages of people selling things and popular science magazines pushing a sexy headline to sell articles, but "no pheromone substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study.[14][16][15]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheromone#Humans). To claim a product has human pheromones or that animal and plant pheromones wills sexually attract humans is at best puffery and speculation.
There is nothing overly manipulative about being attractive, however, nor in smelling nice, or doing things to turn on your lover or intended lover, assuming the other person is a healthy, competent and single adult and there is a level playing field. Whether or not the other person should act on your invitations and enticements is another matter. Whatever you use, the smell, the cleavage, or the chocolate offered may well be attractive, but it doesn't completely overpower the other's free will nor present any undo influence or coercions as I see it. Just consider other people before sending the sexy signals--both because often people you don't want to attract get the signal and because the choices you make have emotional and social consequences for you and your lover and those who care about the two of you.
My final concern when it comes to buying pheromone products is a sort of "be careful what you wish for" caution. Plenty of people want to have sex, but you really wouldn't want to send out and invitation to all of them at the same time. Remember that you will be attracting real, average to below-average looking people and not the hot guys in the ads. Personally, I don't see why a straight woman would need pheromone products, unless the man she wanted were particularly desirable and there was lots of competition for his attentions (in which case all the women around him are probably naturally producing whatever chemical signals may exists for human mating and the bottled product won't give you more than a psychological edge). On the average, however, attracting men isn't difficult, and you don't need to do all that crap women keep doing. I imagine it's even easier for pretty women. I don't think it's really worth spending lots of money on. I swear, some men will hit on you if you are in sweats and rolled out of bed to run to the Quickymart without even combing your hair properly. Sure, these men are usually not the men a woman is trying to attract, but the people selling products to make you more attractive never claim their products will target only the men you are attracted to and make the rest treat you like a sister or respected aunt. If those products worked we would also need a "men be gone" spray to get rid of the ones we don't want.
PS You don't have to give me an example of an ad, my spam folder is full of them.
On that note, while smell can be very sensual we have only begun to find evidence of human pheromones and we do not fully understand what they are and what role they may play, much less understand how how to synthesize them and use them to control others' behaviors. There is no doubt we communicate to each other through smells and chemicals at a primal (often subconscious) level, but humans do not go into heat and there is no evidence that pheromones overpower one's higher reasoning and force one to act on every attraction. Pheromones may effect the length of human ovulation (http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9803/11/pheromones/) but that by itself doesn't back all the claims of the people selling pheromone products (besides, other researchers have questions the methodology of the U of C study). There are pages and pages of people selling things and popular science magazines pushing a sexy headline to sell articles, but "no pheromone substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study.[14][16][15]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheromone#Humans). To claim a product has human pheromones or that animal and plant pheromones wills sexually attract humans is at best puffery and speculation.
There is nothing overly manipulative about being attractive, however, nor in smelling nice, or doing things to turn on your lover or intended lover, assuming the other person is a healthy, competent and single adult and there is a level playing field. Whether or not the other person should act on your invitations and enticements is another matter. Whatever you use, the smell, the cleavage, or the chocolate offered may well be attractive, but it doesn't completely overpower the other's free will nor present any undo influence or coercions as I see it. Just consider other people before sending the sexy signals--both because often people you don't want to attract get the signal and because the choices you make have emotional and social consequences for you and your lover and those who care about the two of you.
My final concern when it comes to buying pheromone products is a sort of "be careful what you wish for" caution. Plenty of people want to have sex, but you really wouldn't want to send out and invitation to all of them at the same time. Remember that you will be attracting real, average to below-average looking people and not the hot guys in the ads. Personally, I don't see why a straight woman would need pheromone products, unless the man she wanted were particularly desirable and there was lots of competition for his attentions (in which case all the women around him are probably naturally producing whatever chemical signals may exists for human mating and the bottled product won't give you more than a psychological edge). On the average, however, attracting men isn't difficult, and you don't need to do all that crap women keep doing. I imagine it's even easier for pretty women. I don't think it's really worth spending lots of money on. I swear, some men will hit on you if you are in sweats and rolled out of bed to run to the Quickymart without even combing your hair properly. Sure, these men are usually not the men a woman is trying to attract, but the people selling products to make you more attractive never claim their products will target only the men you are attracted to and make the rest treat you like a sister or respected aunt. If those products worked we would also need a "men be gone" spray to get rid of the ones we don't want.
PS You don't have to give me an example of an ad, my spam folder is full of them.

Irina
16 years ago
16 years ago
Ah, yes, what we need is a pheromone to make all those gentle, thoughtful men come out of wherever it is they are hiding...
prob123
16 years ago
16 years ago
Last study I saw, that tested what men found to be the most sexy scent turned out to be cooking vanilla. I guess the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I would skip the pheromones and whip up some cookies. lol.

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