Babes, Bikes, and Battles

BBB. What is BBB? In Brazil, BBB is the acronym for the much loved Big Brother Brazil program now in its 11^th season. As a prime-time hit in almost 70 countries, Big Brother has held a steady domination in the reality tv market, garnering support from drama seekers and closet peeping toms. The show has a simple premise. Stick a bunch of misfits into a large house, lock the door for three months, and record every social interaction that takes place. To keep things compelling, the shows producers throw in a cash prize of a million dollars for the last contestant standing, who through savviness or charm or political know-how somehow comes out alive.

From a sociological and demographic perspective, the success of the show may have something to do with the joy of watching a clash of cultures (or what happens to people in close confinement who come from different social backgrounds). It’s a bit like taking a Martha Stewart, a meth baking hillbilly, three nuns, and a monkey, and throwing them into a jail cell for three long and dicey months. The ultimate drama manifests in who allies with who and why.

In my own reality tv show of life, BBB has an entirely different meaning. While I was out drinking a lovely whip cream frappuccino last night, I started thinking about the things that excite me, you know, the things that make me go all happy powdered sugar donut on the inside. It may just have been the caffeine going to my head, but I realized that you can tell a lot about a person by how they answer the question: What makes you happy?

Keep in mind I’m not asking the question: What makes you ultimately happy? This will produce an entirely different set of answers, because what ultimately makes us happy is harder to define and a bit more philosophical in nature (I’m going to devote my next blog post to answering this one). With the former question however, I’m more interested in superficial moments of glee—the rope swing process of emotional ecstasy where we feel happiness at the height of the arc, and then quickly fall back to normalcy as we swing back down.

So to answer this mark of self-identification, I must return to BBB.

Babes

Yes, call me cliché, but I am a fan of attractive women. Who isn’t really? Research has demonstrated time and again that there are tremendous social and economic benefits to being attractive. Attractive people are paid more, are judged more intelligent and will receive more attention in most facets of life. Studies suggest that even infants prefer pretty faces, which is funny because who really wants to be judged by an infant!? This phenomenon of pre-judging a person (without consciously realizing it) through the perception of physical traits is called the halo effect, and it is a powerful force in most if not all societies. I got to thinking about my own cognitive bias in regards to attractive people the other day, and that led me to the glorious wiki page on physical attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attraction

What an interesting reading! Wiki tells us that there appears to be universal standards regarding attractiveness both within and across cultures and ethnic groups (although I would argue there are often cultural filters at work which produce beauty standards in opposition to this universal norm). Some interesting tidbits that I read:

• Women, on average, tend to be more attracted to men who display a high-degree of facial symmetry, masculine facial dimorphism, are taller than them and who have a relatively narrow waist, a V-shaped torso, and broad shoulders.

• Men, overall, tend to be attracted by women who are shorter than them, have a youthful appearance and exhibit features such as a symmetrical face, full breasts, full lips, and a low waist-hip ratio.

• Studies have shown that ovulating heterosexual women and homosexual men prefer faces with masculine traits associated with increased exposure to testosterone (during key developmental stages), such as heavy brows, prominent chins, chiseled jaw lines, and broad cheekbones. The masculinity of male faces (and the femininity of female faces) is described as a sexual dimorphism. Female respondents in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle (n = 55) were significantly more likely to choose a masculine face than those in menses and luteal phases (n = 84), (or in those taking hormonal contraception) It is suggested that the masculinity of facial features is a reliable indication of good health, or, alternatively, that dominant and masculine-looking males are more likely to achieve high status. Also, females tend to prefer masculine facial traits more for short-term partners, than for long-term partners.

• A number of double-blind studies have found that women prefer the scent of men who are rated as facially attractive. For example, a study by Anja Rikowski and Karl Grammerdid had individuals rate the scent of t-shirts slept in by test subjects. The photographs of those subjects were independently rated, and Rikowski and Grammar found that both males and females were more attracted to the natural scent of individuals who had been rated by consensus as facially attractive. It has also been shown that women have a preference for the scent of men with more symmetrical faces, and that womens' preference for the scent of more symmetrical men is strongest during the most fertile period of their menstrual cycle. Within the set of normally cycling women, individual women's preference for male facial symmetry correlated with their probability of conception.^[29]

….Anyway, I find these details to be remarkably interesting, not so much because of my own fixture on physical attraction, but rather as a fulfillment of curiosity on what makes the social system move—i.e. why we act the way we act in the presence of an attractive person. Knowing the why ultimately give us power to refuse these natural forces, to not ascribe positive traits to people that don’t necessarily deserve them (in job interviews, dating, political candidates, etc.).

Bikes

Let’s get something straight. My personal affinity for babes does not make me a social whore. Quite the contrary. While I will admit to a natural biological predisposition towards babeness, I don’t necessarily condone sexual promiscuity or cheating. People often use these ‘biological arguments’ to condone malevolent social behavior, especially guys. In today’s modern age, having multiple babes (guys or girls) can lead to any number of misfortunate circumstances, things like STD’s, cervical cancer, violence, children with unwanted partners, and an inability to cultivate profound relationships with other people.

In my opinion, we need to find healthy ways to deal with repressed sexual desire. Some people play pool, other people drink beer. I ride motorcycles. ;- )

I’m not sure exactly what it is that makes a motorcycle so sexual. Perhaps it’s the visceral nature of the experience, the way you feel all of your senses – the wind in your hair – and live in the moment. Perhaps it’s the rather startling sensation of 1000cc’s of power vibrating between your legs. Whatever it is, motorcycles seem to be an effective way (though not always safe) to deal with ones testosterone.

My first babe was an old 1981 Yamaha cruiser. Not too sexy but practical. Then I moved on to the first love of my life, Josephine. Riding her through the windy back roads of the Colorado Rockies was a truly liberating experience. Now I have my sites set on a new “girl”, a 2010 BMW 1000 RR sport bike. I scheme of getting crafty, removing the fairing and painting her with Polynesian tribal decals. A boy can dream right?

Battles

The last area of my BBB is stuck somewhere between romantic notions of the past and healthy living. It is my decade’s long fixation with battles, with grabbing antiquated equipment and facing off with an oppositional force. On the delicate continuum of social status, I definitely scream nerd with this one. But I’m ok with that. Swords are my medium for physical happiness, the reason I go to the gym, run, and cross train other martial arts. I find that there is no better metaphor for conquering personal fear than with a direct conflict with another human being (which inevitably becomes a face off with yourself).

Here is one of my fights with my Kenjutsu group at the end of the year. I am the guy on the right, living very happy and in the moment.

So that’s it. These are my BBB’s, my momentary artificially flavored mediums of happiness. What are yours?