Pheromones, The Hypothalamus, and The Friend Zone

[unrealchamp]

I was recently reading in the book The Female Brain, and the author mentioned that when men saw a male and female interaction, the sexual areas of their brains lit up. But when females saw it, the the sexual areas did not light up, and they merely saw it as two people talking. When females see a man as just a friend and nothing more, is this the same brain response? I know women friend zone men for many more reasons besides sexual attraction, but I am purely talking about sex and not a relationship. More of a subconcious, ladder theory type of friend zone, where you have one ladder that is just friends never more, and another which is more of a sexual attraction based ladder.

Many studies have shown that certain pheromones(such as A1 and nols) activate the hypothalamus, an area related to sexual behavior and reproductive hormone control. Can’t they then, technically help break out of the friend zone? If trust and comfort with a man are established, but there is no hypothalamus activation other than the norm, can’t a more sexual undertone be created in the relationship with pheromones? Could this be the “crush” effect seen by A1? Im not saying this will create attraction, but could this then somewhat keep the door open for a more than just platonic relationship?

[SteveO]

Sure, I think you’re onto exactly what mones do. They create a social sexual environment and will push the hypothalamus to “light up,” but the key point to remember is that little thing called free will. Even though we might feel sexual towards something, especially women, that does not mean they will act on it. One of the greatest obstacles we have as individuals is the willingness to seek out comfort and stay in that scenario. It’s the fear of change that binds us to our current situations regardless if its failure or success.

There’s a lot at stake for a woman to change the relationship from friend zone to sex zone. In this day and age, where it is socially more acceptable to be a young single mother, there is still a great risk there financially, socially and the greatest risk of all, emotionally. A woman (and man) needs to be able to overcome all these perceived risks. So where as the mones will make her more sexualy charged, it does not “block” the other areas and therefore the guy wearing the mones still needs to perform additional magic to make the connection with the rest of the brain to be able to overcome the rest of these areas.

Good post