Sunday, March 8, 2009

Music As Sexual Fitness

I was really interested in the arguement in TIYBOM that music plays a role in sexual fitness. Levitin argues that, at one point, if a person was a musician, it meant that they had enough food and shelter that they could focus on other things- things that aren't necessary to survival but are just done for fun, such as singing or dancing. While this was probably once true, it definitely isn't anymore. Many musicians are STRUGGLING musicians; only a select few actually get rich from making music. I find this interesting. At one point in human history, humans would only make music if they had stable living and food conditions. Now, people sacrifice their economic stability in order to make music. Music is such a huge passion for some people that they put it before other things that are actually necessary for survival. So, in contemporary society, a female might associate a musician with someone who is not financially stable- unless he is one of the few that made a decent living out of music-making. Maybe in fifty thousand years females will have adapted to this, and they will avoid having sex with musicians because a struggling musician wouldn't be able to support a child. Chapter 9 of Levitin shed a lot of light on things that had always confused me. I was never sure why so many women were attracted to men who played instruments, but I did have some theories. I think that women see musicians as people who are more in touch with their emotions. The sterotypical "rockstar" guy might be attractive to females because he is aggressive yet sensitive enough to write emotional songs. But what about musicians that aren't the stereotypical rockstar guy? Levitin points out that rockstars such as Mick Jagger and Robert Plant have slept with more women than the average man, but what about men who play the violin? Or the flute? Or sing in the church choir? Why aren't these men having sex with as many women as rockstars do? I don't think that women see music ability as sexual fitness. They may see it as a positve trait that they would like to be passed on to their offspring, but they aren't going to be attracted to any man that can make music. I think women are more attracted to a certain image that is associated with music ability.
Question: Do males see music ability as sexual fitness in females? Or is it just females that see this quality as sexual fitness in males?

No comments:

Post a Comment