Scientists Find Tears Are the Anti-Viagra 207
An anonymous reader writes "The male test subjects didn't know what they were smelling, they were just given little vials of clear liquid and told to sniff. But when those vials contained a woman's tears (collected while she watched a sad movie), the men rated pictures of women's faces as less sexually attractive, and their saliva contained less testosterone. Is this proof that humans make and respond to pheromones? The researcher behind the study doesn't use that controversial word, but he says his findings do prove that tears contain meaningful chemical messages."
Tell it to the Japanese (Score:4, Funny)
90% of their porn involves women crying.
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Spanky: So was he any good, Mr. Nagasaki?[referring to Ling-Ling]
Ling-Ling: He cry a lot.
Spanky: Sorry about that. He's new.
Ling-Ling: Oh No! I like it! Tears are best lubricant.
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That is exactly what I thought of when first hearing about this.
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"90% of their porn involves women crying."
Those tentacle and eel insertions DO look painful.
Squid, not so much...
Personally... (Score:2)
I can only get it up if she's crying.
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There is a whole genre of such pr0n, so what deters some clearly arouses others.
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At least one other study, conducted on a Mr JT Kirk of Iowa, has reported results consistent with your experience:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaan_of_Troyius [wikipedia.org]
The level of discourse (Score:5, Insightful)
Geez, guys. Mental age should be at least 16, mental altitude should be at least a foot above the gutter.
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Yeah but the editors at /. would know with a story like this the #commentlisting was going to be overly populated with such discourse.
Its not like /. attracts people with healthy sexual appetites, quite the opposite, considering most of them are buying plastic vagina molds of their favorite pornstar and calling it "their" girl.
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Geez, guys. Mental age should be at least 16, mental altitude should be at least a foot above the gutter.
Why? Being old sucks. And the gutter is nice and warm. ;-)
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Geez, guys. Mental age should be at least 16, mental altitude should be at least a foot above the gutter.
On Slashdot?
The discourse is usually at basement level, not upstairs with mom.
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Who let the geek speak up? You're gonna get it at lunch break!
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So how do we explain make-up sex? (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember lots of tears and well, it still happened every time.
Perhaps not all generated tears are the same (maybe this explains why guys avoid chick flicks?)
Re:So how do we explain make-up sex? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the man doesn't usually control when a sexual encounter happens, the woman does. Make up sex is when the woman is either trying to induce you to stay in the relationship or is turned on because of how you responded to the argument.
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In the animal kingdom, in primates, and in primitive tribes this is still true. Note I said "usually".
Women get the short end of the stick (Score:5, Informative)
Throughout most of human history, the man has been the gatekeeper to sexual activity, not the woman. In fact, it was only until very recently that a man could be legally prosecuted for raping his wife.
In the United States [wikipedia.org], South Dakota was the first state to criminalize "spousal rape." This did not happen until 1975. The last state to criminalize "spousal rape" was 1993.
In even earlier (bust still recent) history, say prior to the 1900's, women were not allowed to vote or own property in a marriage, and they were usually not able to live on their own due to the fact that few people would hire them for any job, and without anti-discrimination laws in place employers were free to systematically deny women employment, or even to pay them a lower wage just because they were female.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, and still today in many cultures around the world, marriages are arranged by the parents and children, especially daughters, may have little say in when they get married or to whom. Combine that with a society in which a woman can't have a political voice, can't refuse to have sex with her husband, can't divorce him, and may be legally beaten by her husband, and you'll find that historically, women have had VERY little say in when a sexual encounter happens, or even with whom it happens with.
Things have began to change recently, which is good, but 1316311 makes an excellent point. It would be a shame if you missed the point, which is why I took the time to compose this message and provide at least one reference. "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it," blah blah blah, and all that rubbish.
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Re:Women get the short end of the stick (Score:4, Funny)
Throughout most of human history, the man has been the gatekeeper to sexual activity, not the woman.
Having the man be the gatekeeper to sexual activity is about as good an idea as having the woman be the gatekeeper for the credit cards.
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Actually studies of primitive tribes and/or of primates reveal that rape isn't the majority of the matings. The reason is that primates, like humans, live in tribes. It is thought that a typical human tribe's natural size is on the order of 100 individuals. In such a tribe, there are consequences for rape. In those times, there was no privacy, so it would be obvious if a rape happened and the male family members of the woman might potentially take action.
These ideas come from a field of science known as
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You had me until the "lower wage for the same work" rant.
If that rant was true, why would anyone
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If that rant was true, why would anyone hire a male? If females have the same productivity, yet 25-50% less labor cost...
LOL.
Because in the same society in which women were presumed so inferior as to not be fit to own property, naturally no employer considered them to be equally productive even if it was demonstrably the case. Of course in this same society, the supply of women trying to enter the job pool was drastically lower as a woman's place was in the home. It wasn't until the 1940s that women enter
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The plural of anecdote is not data. Secondly, for most forms of physical labor the average man is more productive than the average woman. Until the post war period most jobs were far too physical to allow women to compete equally(obv. exceptions being education and nursing). However, if you want to join the wo
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Women did just fine in factories during WWII.
But the observation was women were restricted in opportunities and pay in nearly all fields until recently -- education and nursing being counterexamples, yet hardly the only non-physically-intensive professions. I am not and need not blame everything entirely on oppression, however said oppression did demonstrably exist and restrict women. How sadly binary your thinking is, where there's either this acknowledging historical fact and being a "womynist", or craf
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Why propose that tears caused by a fight might have significant chemical differences from tears caused by a sad movie instead of considering a hugely different state of mind for the male?
Occam's razor: maybe men who are having a tiff with a lover and see a tear will react differently than men sitting in an experimenter's room, smelling unlabeled vials.
Think deeper (Score:2)
If the tears have a chemical message that is aversive to us, we will perhaps take action to remove the unpleasant stimulus, IE comfort the crying person so they stop producing tears. Also don't neglect that the chemical message contained by the tears is only part of what's going on psychologically when you're fighting with your significant other; the empathetic emotional pain you feel when you see them upset is likely a much stronger driving force.
In short, every crying girl needs a good hot dicking. That i
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If the tears have a chemical message that is aversive to us, we will perhaps take action to remove the unpleasant stimulus, IE comfort the crying person so they stop producing tears. Also don't neglect that the chemical message contained by the tears is only part of what's going on psychologically when you're fighting with your significant other; the empathetic emotional pain you feel when you see them upset is likely a much stronger driving force.
In short, every crying girl needs a good hot dicking. That is, unless she keeps crying during the dicking, in which case you might be raping her and you should probably stop. Unless, you know, you're both kinky and happen to be into that kind of thing.
Maybe the chemical message in the tears that reduces arousal is part of some defense mechanism against rape?
So much wrong with your statement...
First of all not all sex is about love and emotional empathy. People have sex without caring about each other. People stay together when they no longer care too. Not saying it's right but we're not in a perfect world and this is certainly common enough unfortunately.
Secondly, your assessment of what "every crying girl needs" undoes every positive thing you've said in your other message reminding us of female rights. Personally I think you're over-compensating and are a my
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What about tears produced by an irritant?
I'm sure one of my ex-girlfriends could drum up some crying for the study.
Pheremones? (Score:2)
Is this proof that humans make and respond to pheromones?
Anyone can find this out very easily: Just don't shower or apply deodorant for a couple of days, and you will notice everyone around you respond (assuming you leave your parent's basement on a regular basis).
Re:Pheremones? (Score:5, Funny)
Pheremones don't have a noticable scent/odor... someone not showering AND failing to apply deodorant is gonna smell pretty awful, especially if it's for days.
Re:Pheremones? (Score:4, Insightful)
Pheremones from other species dont have noticeable scent to you. You are not rigged to recognize and response to them. To each species, their pheromones has a distincive smell that provoke a specific emotional impuse to act in some way. eg: It smell attractive.
Deodorant are not natural and are merely masking the human odor. If you think natural odor smell awful, it is only because you are not use to it. Just like puritain are scandalized over the sight of a naked body. Hygiene is important, and restraining too strong odor is also important, but demanding that everyone has the same standardized "aqua fresh" scent is wrong.
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Deodorant isn't just "masking" odor with another scent -- it's not perfume. (Notice that there are unscented deodorants.) What it does is kill the bacteria which are causing that odor, which seems like a reasonable thing to do.
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Deodorant isn't just "masking" odor with another scent -- it's not perfume. (Notice that there are unscented deodorants.) What it does is kill the bacteria which are causing that odor, which seems like a reasonable thing to do.
What it actually does is trap dead skin cells and bacteria under your armpits where they rot and smell like death, so you have to use even more to cover it up. No amount of deodorant or antiperspirant keeps me from smelling like sweat after hard physical exertion, but I smell better after hard physical exertion since I gave up antiperspirant and deodorant. I find that taking a shower and putting on clean clothes every day is all the cleanliness I need. Instead of spraying toxics under my arms, I shower. May
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Most deodorants include triclosan, alcohol, and other anti-bacterials, Mr. Stinky-poo.
That's nice. That does nothing to prevent the rotting of the skin you're trapping beneath it. It kills off the surface stuff only. Then it makes it harder to get clean afterwards to the point where most people never do.
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The problem is that if you use antiperspirant (or even most deodorants) it is nearly impossible to wash it all off, and it's trapping stuff beneath it, so it actually makes the problem worse.
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Re:Pheremones? (Score:5, Funny)
(assuming you leave your parent's basement on a regular basis)
But it's scary up there. Full of judgment, people that expect you to pay for things yourself, and an alarming shortage of freely available Hot Pockets.
Rapists. (Score:5, Interesting)
An interesting test would be to do a similar study on violent rapists.
(excluding those in pre-existing relationships with the victim).
Are they less affected, or even aroused, by the same signals?
Re:Rapists. (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe that's the secret. Rapists have nasal congestion problems!
I wonder how much of it is learned too... sure our brains can 'smell' tears, but the response could still be a result of conditioning rather than anything hardwired.
Re:Rapists. (Score:4, Informative)
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That also doesn't make it a crime: the changes in child-rape laws, the changes in spousal rape laws, the changes in sexual abuse laws in the workplace (especially in third world countries), and the policies in different countries of what constitutes drug-aided rape involving alcohol or light intoxicant, or even the relationships between therapist and client or priest and worshipper involving sexuality all have had different standards at different times. Throw in rape as a legal punishment or as treatment of
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Sex, can also very much about power. Power can be highly arousing, and the feeling of being out of control can likewise be arousing. My personal experience is that when a woman trusts you completely, the feeling of a man controlling his partner can be very much a turn-on for both parties.
So while saying rape is about violence is true, it ignores that violence is often about passion and desire for the people who commit rape. Personally, I think forced castration would probably solve the problem, even if it's
Re:Rapists. (Score:4, Interesting)
The motivation behind rape usually is not sexual in nature; it's about power.
Seriously, what does that even mean? My view is that sex and power (for either sex) aren't something you can easily split up.
The confusion gets even worse when all coercive sex is categorized as rape. A boyfriend or husband whining that they aren't getting enough sex is not what I view as an exercise of power.
OTOH, why do people pursue power over others? I think that urge is closely related to sex. This leads not only to rape, but also males in leadership roles maintaining lovers (of either sex) on the side and on the female side a strong pursuit of powerful males. It also explains how some people can enjoy killing other people.
Anyway, as a result, I don't support the claim that rape is about power not sex, because I don't think the two behaviors/goals are separable (especially given that the rapist is having forced sex with the victim, that doesn't seem an "either/or" choice to me). There also seems to me to be plenty of evidence that sex and power-seeking behaviors are commonly intertwined in many human activities.
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Do you really not know what that means? It means that rape has little to do with sex and more with the desire to dominate, violate, and humiliate.
Sex in a relationship is not the same as sex as part of a rape.
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Rape *is* a relationship. A nasty one, but like slavery, a relationship none the less.
Never assume otherwise, or you will be very confused by the slippery slope between normal human tensions and abuse.
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Do you really not know what that means? It means that rape has little to do with sex and more with the desire to dominate, violate, and humiliate.
And why do the desires to "dominate, violate, and humiliate" not have much to do with sex, especially since there are similar behaviors where they do?
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Where is the evidence to support this assertion?
I here this all the time, that rape is all about control. But i have not found any scientific evidence to support this. Maybe rape is...a desperate way to get sex?
What? (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone who has ever dated a manipulative crier (Score:5, Interesting)
should already know this. A woman who cries to win an argument, then you lose all interest in romance, then she cries because you don't want to touch her, then you are even less interested. It's a vicious cycle that ends up in either broken or sexless relationships. I know.
LK
Re:Anyone who has ever dated a manipulative crier (Score:5, Insightful)
all relationships end up sexless!!
Yes, because we all die in the end. If it happens sooner then you're doing it wrong.
Re:Anyone who has ever dated a manipulative crier (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, because we all die in the end. If it happens sooner then you're doing it wrong.
And if it happens later, then you're doing it even wronger.
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all relationships end up sexless!!
If the goal of the manipulation is to avoid sex. If women want sex (note to Slashdotters: they do) the crying thing would be negative feedback and would be conditioned out of their behavior.
Re:Anyone who has ever dated a manipulative crier (Score:5, Insightful)
If the goal of the manipulation is to avoid sex. If women want sex (note to Slashdotters: they do) the crying thing would be negative feedback and would be conditioned out of their behavior.
Only if they want sex more than they want to win arguments.
LK
Meaningless. (Score:4, Funny)
This has nothing to do with whether a woman crying is a turn-off (yes, white-knights, we all know crying girls make you so so so so sad). This has to do with a vial of tear-juice impacting your judgement in how attractive women are. I guess this will be completely relevant when women start literally crying buckets. Until then, when do you actually come in contact with enough tears at one time that it could possibly effect you? I'm sure a vial full of ear-wax shoved right under my nose would repulse me, too, and the last thing I'd be thinking about is sex.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but . . . (Score:2)
I'm sure a vial full of ear-wax shoved right under my nose would repulse me, too, and the last thing I'd be thinking about is sex.
. . . I think that's a valid point for a different reason; I think it's pretty well-settled that a person likes-, and is not offended, by the smells of their lover(-s).
If that's true then perhaps these guys were not turned on b/c they did not "recognize" the smell and they interpreted the tears as just stinky fluid.
Re:Meaningless. (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously (Score:5, Interesting)
If something is there concentrate or synthesize it and test it one by one.
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Winning recipe!
If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( see above post - you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer.
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Then you can disperse rioters
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Mod up! This was the only really worthwhile comment in the thread.
Re:Seriously (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean, you want to analyze each chemical in the tears (or at least each one that is in an abnormal concentration in sad women's tears) to see if it does, what? Oh, I know, to see if it makes men less horny. But how did you know it should make them less horny? By doing a research such as the one in TFA.
Science has many steps and levels of research. Usually you start by researching a general phenomenon and deriving a basic idea of "what the heck is happening" (i.e. sad women's tears cause men to be less sexually aroused). After that you go into smaller details and try to find what is causing said phenomenon (i.e. chemical X and/or Y cause men to be less sexually aroused). And the last step is using the sum of all the small details to make a theory that can be put to practical use (e.g. let's make product MakeWomenSafe(TM) to chemically castrate too-sexually violent men).
Not always do we have all of those steps, but it's hard to start at the gas chromatography stage before finishing the first, general step - which is also actual science.
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It depends (Score:2)
Bloodhound Gange disagrees! (Score:2)
It figures (Score:2, Funny)
Uh (Score:2)
pheromones are controversial? (Score:2)
we need more studies (Score:2)
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Proven? I don't think so. (Score:2)
I am not a statistician, though; maybe this case is different. I'm still skeptical, however.
Weaponize it! (Score:2)
If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer!
What isn't said (Score:2)
Sad (Score:2)
I'm glad you said that, I would have wondered how they got the women to cry otherwise.
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Women (and men) cry for many reasons. Sadness, joy, pain, anger, ...
I am interested in seeing the effects of 'happy tears' on the same group of men. And the effects of both happy and sad tears on other women.
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And if it were collected during sex? I guess that would be tricky.
Re:(collected while she watched a sad movie) (Score:5, Insightful)
Males found women less attractive when in contact with the tears - not even knowing what they were.
Therefore, something in the tears makes males less likely to see an attractive woman. It doesn't say that it makes the woman crying the ONLY one less attractive.
Therefore, perhaps it is a mechanism developed by nature to stop males just finding a "hottie" so to speak while another woman was crying and instead focus as a group on what was making the woman cry?
Problem is fixed, woman stops crying and the males then pair off with the females and further the species once more?
hmmmm, this is
*sips coffee*
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I would say that explanation is a lot more logical. Also, whenever I see a girl crying I feel naturally implored to attempt to comfort her in any way possible.
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Seriously doubtful, There's a much easier answer. (Score:2)
Seriously, the actual science here is that tears lower testosterone levels in men, which in addition to arousal also control anger and rage. The claim that tears make men less aroused, is rather pointless and a terrible explanation for anything. At best the response would nearly certainly be against uxoricide. So that when men beat their wives, they would at some point stop and not beat the potential future mother of their children to death. Also, in social situtuations where men tend to get out of control
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I find the opposite is true. Nothing is more attractive than holding and protecting a crying woman. It really pumps up testoterone and triggers deeper emotions, which often naturally leads to sex.
Naturally taking advantage of a woman when she is vulnerable leads to sex. It's ok if you're already involved, but she might regret it later.
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Who would have thought somebody who calls themselves "HelloKitty2" wouldn't get ironic use of internet grammar?
Re:Because (Score:4, Interesting)
an ex of mine had bipolar, and would often have an attack of intense depression during the night.
if you've ever woken up at 4am to a crying girl trying to hump you, you may find evidence to the contrary of TFA.
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careful what you wish for... wifey has a baby due in june.
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Hey, I've always thought it's better when she cries.
So true! [youtube.com].
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sex drive goes down when you yourself cries (Score:2)
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"12 y/o girls don't count."
I blame the education system!
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There's twenty of them...
And the lap dance is so much better when the stripper is cryin, Etc.
- Dan.
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You sure you're not Max Cannon? [lambiek.net]
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Ummm...where have you been?
What's your point?
Sex, among higher primates including homo sapiens, fosters cooperation and peace within groups. Read
Sex at Dawn [sexatdawn.com] for a good explanation of the differences between various species approaches toward mating. The bottom line is that there is little, if any, anthropological and physiological evidence for the sorts of competition that lower species and traditional cultural norms impose. So the need for some sort of pheromone that regulates sexual aggression or signals submission would seem to hav
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Do you parents know you're gay?
There is a reason for vaginal odor (Score:2, Interesting)
has to do with an environment that is especially conducive to strains of bacteria that produce smelly (sulfur?) compounds.
My ex-wife traded her friend for all his sex books. One of them was titled Guide to getting it on [google.com]. I flipped it open to a random page one day, and one aspect of the vaginal odor quandary was revealed to me: soap.
Most soaps are very basic, while a few are "pH balanced" to be slightly acidic. When a alkaline-pH soap is used, smelly bacteria thrive (because the skin is supposed to be slight
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It's certainly possible that in a species where rape is a viable reproductive strategy for males that females would evolve some mechanisms to retain the ability to select who they reproduce with. Mallard drakes are notorious rapists -- they don't even care if the victim is female, or even alive. Both sexes have corkscrew-shaped sex organs, but the females' turn in the opposite direction. As a result, research has shown that while the majority of copulations are involuntary on the part of the female, th