Supposedly, when that much blood flows to a man’s nether regions, it leaves less to transport oxygen to his brain. On the other hand, I’ve never experienced that level of stupidity and I know plenty other men who haven’t either.

Maybe it depends on how big his “nether regions” are…..

Interesting questions.

One theory I find useful is that males are hardwired in such a way that, given enough stimulation, they will respond sexually to practically anybody(thing). (note: this “stimulation” could be other than sexual, see a Broke Straight Boy vid.)

AFAIC, though, it’s still an issue of power and dominance (quite a stimulation!) which is still so intrinsic in our world society that males consider it a “right.” Even when shown the proverbial mirror, when they have to duck and cover, it’s because they were caught, not necessarily because they were doing anything wrong, in their mind.

(sigh……)

My experience is that men who do things like that routinely make very bad decisions in general.

Edwards seems to have become unhinged by the bad things in his life, and he seemed to believe that he had no option of retiring into private life to deal with them, then come back. That’s not “little brain” so much as an extended grieving process.

The other issue here I think is privilege — men are taught constantly that their sexualities are defined by conquest and total commitment, when in real life, of course sex is a big deal but there are other important things, too.

Biologically, men are built to have sex as often as possible. On the other hand, there’s no reason not to expect them to behave like adults — contrary to popular belief, the sex urge is not going to overwhelm your rationality unless you don’t have a lot of rationality to begin with. People like Zachary Ramirez are just morons.

And don’t forget that men are just as variable as any other population — some have very strong sex drives, some not so much. The stereotype of the sex-obsessed male is just that — a stereotype (except for maybe Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber) — and just as damaging when substituted for individual differences as any other. Oh, and the next time someone tries the “women are hormonally driven” trope on you, I have a one-word response — “testosterone.” It can make men moody and volatile, and we do have lunar cycles, just like most other life-forms.

But there’s no reason that testosterone has to be in control unless you don’t have a lot of self-control to begin with.

Q: I mean come on — can’t a porno rag and your hand do for “those special moments” to get by?

A: One in the bush is worth two in the hand.

Ultimately, ejaculation in men is a spinal cord reflex. Way down in the sacral region of the spinal cord. And the spinal cord, while part of the central nervous system, is not known for deep thinking.

This is what my dad used to call “letting his di** do the thinking.” Sadly, I’ve seen a lot of guys do it.

Interesting discussion.

Have a friend who’s a therapist and who has worked with various males, who have “issues” bc they cannot seem to “control” their screwing around, which has led to broken relationships and even problems on their jobs.

Her take (friend is female) is that our society has endorsed the notion very strongly that men “need it” and has made it more “acceptable” for men to use their sexual urges as an all-purpose “excuse” for bad behavior, ala Bill Clinton, John Edwards, John Ensign, David Vitter, the Secret Service or the dude driving too fast.

Yes, men DO get busted, but there’s still that sort of nod and a wink that, you know: boys will be boys; just can’t help it.

My friend also says that her observation is that the sexual urge for *some* men is very strong when they have other stressors in their lives that they’re not able or willing to connect with, feel and deal with. This would substantiate what Punditas Maximus said @4 about Edwards not really dealing with his grieving, loss, whatever and subsuming his emotional needs into a very unsuitable (at the time, at least) affair with Rielle Hunter while on the campaign trail.

It does seem that if you are unable to really feel your feelings, deal with your issues on a deeper level, it becomes easier to “handle” your frustrations/fears/etc by the easy “relief” of a sex, esp for men, who tend have an easier ability to separate sex from other emotions.

Just some random thoughts.

It is interesting bc in the case of Bill Clinton, for ex, he HAD to have known that conservatives would’ve been really watching and waiting for him to slip up sexually, which is exactly what happened. Clinton, though, appeared to be unable to avoid the temptations of “forbidden” sex… and it seems as if, perhaps, the dangerousness of the situation was probably also addictively (??) enticing to Clinton, which no doubt occurs in other similar situations.

By the way, the film Ides of March deals with this topic somewhat and is interesting for it’s take on this issue.

I’ve worked as a professor of psychology and sex researcher–and served as a family therapist for many years. In my experience in substance abuse and treatment, I would suggest both males and females get caught in what I think of as a “loop of altered states of consciousness.” This often leads to very illogical decision making.

First of all, if one looks at the history of psychology, there’s the concept of something called a “fugue state.” One of the characteristics is amnesia. Secondly, one needs to understand how humans process information. Negation exists only as a linguistic concept. This is why if I tell you: “DON’T THINK OF THE COLOR BLUE!” What do you think of?
Just so, if you tell yourself “I’m not going to drink/I’m not going to have sex…” you are actually directing yourself to actually drink or have sex. We know from studies of clinical hypnosis there are a number of different ways of inducing an altered state. From spiritual traditions, we know intoning/chanting can achieve altered states. From the standpoint of a therapist, there is little concrete difference between saying a “hail Mary,” a prayer in sanskrit, or telling yourself “I’m not going to drink/have sex…”—over and over again. The outcome can be the same, leading to an altered state of consciousness, where the individual then acts out the behavior while in a fugue state, and may have no memory of the event, and will be shamed and horrified to discover what he or she has done while in the altered state.

This then leads us to a “loop” of altered states I mentioned initially. One begins with the “word induction” (“I’m not going to____”), which then leads to an altered state/amnesia, and that leads to acting out the behavior, which then leads to a state of shame when the individual returns to his/her standard state of consciousness. What frequently happens is that while experiencing the shame of the acting out, the individual will intensify the “word induction”—he/she will “chant” the word induction more frequently or more intensely. Just so, the length of time between acting out events will be shortened and the acting out events will occur more often. It’s at this point media/society/police/therapist become involved as the individual crashes and burns.

To a certain extent, the whole “Big brain/little brain” bit is a red herring, and simply offers a cultural framework to justify/rationalize this “loop” process. Many people are unaware of the fact human beings make both estrogen as well as testosterone. The effect of testosterone can be much more powerful than that of estrogen, which means the “T” will often “mask” the “E.” After menopause (or in Pam’s case, where there was a surgical intervention) a woman will not be producing the level of estrogen she had at a younger age, but her body is still producing testosterone. This is why more mature women may experience a deeper voice and show signs of facial hair (e.g., chin whiskers)—resembling the process a boy goes through as he hits puberty. We see also how many grandmothers (or more properly, women of that generation) can become much more assertive, including an interest in sexuality.

For men, we’ve only recently looked more deeply into the concept of “Andropause,” which mirrors Menopause—although not precisely. The testosterone level of men tends to drop off at a slight, but steady level, rather than a steep drop the way estrogen production will fall off in women when they hit a specific age. This is one theory as to why grandfathers are often more nurturing and gentle with grandchildren than they were as fathers with their children. As they age, their testosterone drops off enough to allow the estrogen to express itself—taking the “edge” off aggression and dominance. In this way, it’s not unusual for those of us who work as family therapists to see an older heterosexual couple “switch roles,” where the woman becomes more dominant and the male becomes more submissive. My point on this is that if testosterone was the only element here, one might expect to see older women making a lot of unfortunate decisions after menopause. You’d also see a lot more acting out among transmen when they first start hormone therapy. When they talk about this process, they report greater feelings of aggression and sexual urges—but most don’t enter into a “loop” of altered states and act out in harmful ways—they way we might anticipate if testosterone was the central factor.

I’m NOT a biologist, psychologist or sex therapist. I’ve just been observing life for 50 years. My decision is: testosterone is poison.

As a transwoman, I strongly agree that testosterone is a poison… mentally and physically. When it left my body, I no longer had the constant “buzz”. My mind was clearer, more focused, and less distracted. Men are driven in a very self destructive way of which they have no consciousness.