It’s Feb. 14 on a university campus, and that means one thing — love and lust are in the air.
Whether someone caught your eye on the Tiger Trails bus this morning, or someone has held your attention for a while, there’s a very good chance you’ve found yourself attracted to someone based on appearances, or basic knowledge of their personality.
And while some may consider this quick judgement a shallow move, there are several studies that aim to prove this instant sexual attraction is natural.
Like it or not, your parents have a lot to do with who you find attractive. According to a study done by the University of St. Andrews, children who were born to parents age 30 and older reported being attracted to older partners more often than those who had youthful features.
Going further, St. Andrews researching psychologists found people are more likely to find themselves sexually attracted to partners who resembled their parents of the opposite gender.
But those resemblances were limited to hair and eye color, along with height. So no need to worry about Oedipus and Electra complexes, guys and gals.
It’s difficult to define what beauty is, though the scientific community has come to a general consensus. Symmetrical faces are more likely to be considered beautiful than those with slightly off-center features.
As far as nature is concerned, sex is for reproduction. And even though humans are among two species who mate recreationally, we haven’t been able to shake nature entirely. In fact, nature is insisting that we only mate with those who we feel would produce strong offspring with.
The desire to pass on our genes is expressed differently between sexes. Females tend to mate with only those strongest candidates for producing offspring, whereas males of the same species will mate with as many females as they can, in hopes that some of the offspring will survive.
This is very interesting when we think about the double standard in western society, in which a female is shamed for sleeping around, while males are celebrated for it.
Of course, this occurring in animal species is not an excuse for that double standard. We are different from animals in that we have a conscious and free will.
Several species engage in some sort of mating ritual. Peahens, the female peafowl, will mate only with the peacock who has the most elaborate display of colorful feathers, also taking a mating dance into consideration.
Similarly, female LSU students will mate only with the male LSU student who has the most colorful collection of Chubbies pastel shorts during the spring mating season in Tigerland.
These, and other aspects of human sexuality, are entirely natural and important parts of the human experience. While sexuality and attraction can be frustrating and, at times, painful to deal with, it’s what keeps our species alive.
Now with all this talk about physical attraction and mating, it might prompt many of you to grab a ruler and run straight to a mirror to figure out your chances of getting a date before the day is over.
Please remember that while there is little we can do about how we look or who we are attracted to, we have a lot of say in who we are as human beings and the people we choose to spend our time with.
Jana King is a 19-year-old communication studies sophomore from Ponchatoula, LA.