World-class cynic Scott Adams of Dilbert.com Blog turns science news into dating tips for the pointy-haired-boss “seduction community.”
I always need to eat something before I attempt writing or else nothing comes out. ... I always assumed this was just a combination of ordinary hunger plus a habit that borders on OCD. ...
Recently a reader sent me a link about a writer who has the same experience but better research to explain why. The bottom line is that writing requires will power to avoid distraction, and will power is correlated with your glucose levels. In other words, your free will is actually sugar.
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/practicing_selfcontrol_consume.php
This makes me wonder if there is an optimal food strategy for seduction. Apparently bringing a woman chocolate will only increase her glucose levels and with that her ability to resist you. In fact, a guy should want his woman to be good and hungry, preferably on a diet. It turns out that resisting one sort of temptation makes it harder to resist a different sort at the same time.
If that is not enough, I just did a Google search to confirm that alcohol lowers your glucose levels. That fits the theory. Everyone knows they have less will power after a few drinks.
Of course the whole shebang is predicated on the “no-sex” class assumption that a woman who’s willing to go on a date with a man isn’t interested in sex… or at least sex with him… or at least sex with him right then. And it’s further predicated on the “no-sex” class assumption that because women just aren’t naturally interested in sex… or at least sex with you... and therefore it’s ok for you to use leverage to “break down” her will to say no. (Which belief makes you, um, a rapist?)
It’s also predicated on the destructive-to-men (not to mention dangerous to women) circular assumption that a man’s worth is equated with his “score” on the one hand, and that his ability to score equates with his worthiness on the other… and of course on the corresponding assumption that women’s worth is equated with the degree of her reluctance to have sex when she (being a human being and all) wants to… in favor of “holding out” till she can bestow sex (her “favors”) as an acknowledgment of male worthiness.
All of which makes possible knuckleheaded scenarios like… looking for women on diets, just before dinner, who’ve had a drink, and (if you read the rest of Adam’s post) have been led into further temptation by resisting going into a store the man steers her past on the way to dinner.
Instead of just, I don’t know, assuming that a woman is human, and therefor interested in sex, and looking for ways to make her comfortable with saying yes — or even initiating it herself! — instead of assuming she’d rather not have anything to do with it.
Small wonder Adams is drawn to stuff like this. The bitter, almost misanthropic jokes practically write themselves.
Submitted by 2593 (not verified) on Sun, 2009-01-04 23:02.
The bitter, almost misanthropic jokes practically write themselves.
No kidding.
The research study on will power and blood glucose levels would have made some readers reflect on how much will power is needed to look enthusiastic at a job interview when you are hungry, not by choice but because you had to choose between gas for the car or groceries. Or to be a kid trying to concentrate in school without breakfast because his family's food stamp dollars always run out before the end of the month.
I'm surprised that Adams did not make the astute observation that comic strips are rarely produced in countries which repeatedly experience famine.
Adams ends his post with this gem:
If he would replace the word science with Dilbert.com Blog, Adams and I would be in complete agreement.
[Yup. Since I tend to read him as slightly Asperger's I can't tell how seriously he takes these things. But if it's intentional humor, it's pretty dark. Thanks, Kochanie. --fl]