Or, if you are a human female, consider the question amended to “Would you find a male gorilla attractive?” (“Of course! Why else would I get married?” will not be considered an answer.)
Yes, by “attractive” I mean attractive in that way. If your answer to this question is a shocked or a somewhat bemused “No”, let me remind you that I am not asking you “Do you find her attractive” My question is would you find her attractive if you were brought up in a different culture. Suppose that you were a feral child brought up by gorillas, or if you were brought up by some sort of cult which considered gorillas distant cousins of humans, and hence accepted sexual relations with them as normal. Would you ever be attracted to a gorilla?
I suspect that your answer would be “No” and science would back up your answer. Human sexual attraction towards other humans of the opposite sex (and occasionally, of the same sex) has a strong genetic component built into it and cannot be easily altered. Chances are, it cannot be altered at all.
What then, about milder preferences that we display? I am talking of little things like the preference for a curly-haired girl over a straight haired one (or vice versa), or a woman with black hair over a blonde (or vice versa), or a woman’s preference for a tall man over a short one (or vice versa). Are these preferences genetically influenced?
If I simply assert that if you hold the first belief, you must also hold the second, one could legitimately call such an assertion fallacious. (I can’t think which one. Ask Madhu or something) But I am not simply asserting. But I have thought through the argument and I think the conclusion is inescapable. If you a) believe in the theory of evolution and b) believe that the human preference for other humans over gorillas is a genetic trait, then there is no way to escape the conclusion that atleast some of the preferences I described must be genetically influenced. The proof of this flows almost with mathematical inevitability and is left as an exercise to the reader. Can you think why this must be so?
(Note: The standard disclaimers while talking of genetics apply. Saying that you have a “preference” for curly hair does not mean that you will be irresistably attracted to every curly haired girl you see. Saying that you have a “preference” one way doesn’t mean that it can’t be overcome by your more cerebral preferences. Genes do not determine morality. Saying that you have a genetic preference one way doesn’t make it right to behave that way. It just means that it takes a little more work than if you didn’t have that preference. )
I find your “ruling out” of the gorilla option not logically complete.
I am still not convinced why I should not find it/her attractive. And in case you are looking for some research which documents what kind of women, men get attracted to – that has already been done.
Ravi, firstly you’re stating the obvious. Secondly, you don’t need to go down the gorilla/logical route to assert that many of our preferences are hardwired, there is enough evidence to back that up. (And the standard disclaimers you helpfully articulated apply to this statement of mine as well.)
And despite genes, some people may like gorillas. Or horses, for that matter.
I’m a male, and though I am not personally sexually attracted to female gorillas – I can honsestly understand those that do – and I do know a staggering number of women – who actually do find gorilla males attractive (yes, in that way) despite the fact that male gorillas sexual organs are quite small compared to the rest of their physical anatomy. As a writer (and sometimes of erotic fantasy) I recieve many requests from women who want to read fantasy stories about strongly physical and even sexual relationships between gorilla males and human females. (On the same note, I have never recieved a request for female gorillas and human males)
WHAT THE FUCK?
This is really interesting. I will not pose questions, and will merely state opinions.
I think I might enjoy watching a woman being ravished/dominated by a male gorilla. Though I can’t imagine performing oral sex on her, I could also imagine having sex with a female gorilla, so long as she was willing.
As males are so small sexually, would the female appreciate a human male more?