One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot.

[babylonsister]

OK, so I stole this from FB, didn't read it, but I love the idea that we are special! :party:

One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot.

By Jesse Bering


There must be something in the water here in Lanesboro, Minnesota, because last night I dreamt of an encounter with a very muscular African-American centaur, an orgiastic experience with – gasp – drunken members of the opposite sex and (as if that weren’t enough) then being asked by my hostess to wear a white wedding dress while giving a scientific keynote presentation. “Does it make me look too feminine?” “Not at all,” she assured me, “it’s a man’s dress.”

Now Freud might raise his eyebrows at such a lurid dreamscape, but if these images represent my repressed sexual yearnings, then there’s a side of me that I apparently have yet to discover. But I doubt that this is the case. Dreams with erotic undertones are like most other dreams during REM sleep—runaway trains with a conductor who is helpless to do anything about the surrealistic directions they take. Rather, if you really want to know about a person’s hidden sexual desires, then find out what’s on his or her mind’s eye during the deepest throes of masturbation.

This conjuring ability to create fantasy scenes in our heads that literally bring us to orgasm when conveniently paired with our dextrous appendages is an evolutionary magic trick that I suspect is uniquely human. It requires a cognitive capacity called mental representation (an internal “re-presentation” of a previously experienced image or some other sensory input) that many evolutionary theorists believe is a relatively recent hominid innovation.

When it comes to sex, we put this capacity to very good—or at least, very frequent—use. In a now-classic, pre-Internet-porn (I’ll get to that later on) study by British evolutionary biologists Robin Baker and Mark Bellis, male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about every 72 hours, and “on the majority of occasions, their last masturbation is within 48 hours of their next in-pair copulation.” If they’re not having intercourse every day, that is to say, men tend to pleasure themselves to completion no more than two days prior to having actual sex.

more...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22

[dbonds]

1. Its just the concept of opposable thumbs that makes the difference there.

[babylonsister]

2. Thumbs? Do tell! nt

[villager]

3. oh come on, unrec'd? Are there that many bluenoses here now?

Sheesh...

[babylonsister]

4. Maybe not noses...

:rofl:

[villager]

5. heh -- your post caught 'em red-handed!

:rofl:

[teknomanzer]

16. Rec against the unrec...

Now I got to find some Kleenex...

[Gman]

6. The article is an interesting anthropological read

Well, what do you want me to say??!

[babylonsister]

7. Ha! Damn, and I was hoping you had some insight! nt

[Soylent Brice]

20. i fell for it too.

lol

[Gman]

24. Well actually, I get scared when I have sex at night

it's dark and I'm all by myself! <Rimshot!>

[cliffordu]

8. Oddly enough I was just thinking of......

Wait a minute.....

If DU makes me think of that I need some fucking help.

[babylonsister]

9. Well, being in a similar boat, I posted this for people like...

errr...anyone in need of that tender, lonely, loving, intimate and most important, independent touch.

And PS, I still haven't read this!

[cliffordu]

10. You are truly an angel.

:hug:



You should read it!

[TygrBright]

11. meh. Bonobos whack off plenty. So do other primates, though not as much as bonobos. n/t

[Bonobo]

22. Hey. Isn't that a violation!? And from a mod too!

;)

[Kali]

12. somebody must be too *ahem* busy (yeah that's it) to have a look around

plenty of animals masturbate

[obxhead]

18. My first thought, this person has obviously not spent much time

around any dogs.

[marmar]

13. I have nothing significant to add......I just had to get in on this thread.

:P

[dgibby]

14. I worked in a primate sanctuary.

Beleive me when I tell you, we are NOT special.

[marmar]

15. That brings all new meaning to 'spanking the monkey'

:P

[yurbud]

23. VIDEO: a chimp in a zoo did something as nasty as any human can think of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ

sometimes it doesn't pay to have a big mouth.

[BridgeTheGap]

17. "Masturbation is sex with someone I love." Woody Allen //// n.t

[bemildred]

19. That's not a lot. nt

[Bonobo]

21. Well you know why dogs lick their balls, don't you. Two reasons.

1. Because they can't make their paws into a fist.

2. Because they can.