When you spot an attractive man or woman, your eyes don’t fly out of your head like they always do in cartoons. However, there are really specific, physical cues that reveal your desire, even if the other person doesn’t realize it.

The brain is to blame for most of these reactions, but instead of panicking about masking your lust, use this knowledge to identify lust in others. Here are some of the top physiological signs of lustful desire.

Dilated pupils

The eyes might be a window to the soul, but they’re also a window to your lustful desires. Don’t put on your bug-eyed sunglasses just yet. Most people don’t know these cues, and hey, now you can figure out who’s into you just by studying their eyes, which you’re conveniently supposed to look at anyway!

Your pupils dilate when it’s dark and when you’re looking at something you like. That’s why this physical reaction is linked to sexual attraction, but it’s not limited to just sexual longing. So if your significant other’s pupils are larger when they’re staring at a cake, I wouldn’t get too alarmed.

Fun fact: Because it’s easier to identify pupil dilation when you have lighter-colored eyes, that might be why people generally find blue and green eyes the most attractive. If you have blue or green eyes, you’re more obvious about your feelings of attraction. You can decide if that’s a good or bad thing.

Heart racing/pounding

This has to be the most cliché indication of love:

“Boy, you got my heartbeat running away…” – Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”

“Do I make your heart beat like an 808 drum?” – Ke$ha’s “Your Love Is My Drug”

“If I said my heart was beating loud…” – Britney Spears’s “Hold It Against Me”

And that’s just with bad pop songs on the radio. Don’t even get us started on movies, TV shows, books, and every song every made before 2010. The beating heart is the ultimate representation of lust, love, and longing. But why? Other than the fact that it deals with the heart, what about lust makes this tiny organ beat so rapidly?

When you find someone attractive, your brain sends a message to your adrenal glands to start producing chemicals like adrenaline — you know, the same stuff that surges through you when you’re freaking out and able to lift a car off someone. It totally amps you. No wonder your heart beats faster.

Sweating

Unlike a racing heart and dilated eyes, sweaty palms are a little more noticeable and a little more embarrassing. Sweating is one of the most obvious outward signs of attraction. That doesn’t mean you can shove your crush into a sauna to get the desired attraction results, though.

To tell if someone’s attracted to you, just pay attention to when they sweat (if they do). If you’re in a super well air-conditioned room eating frozen yogurt and watching Ice Age, and the person is sweating, that’s probably a good sign for you!

Adrenaline causes sweating just like it causes your heart to pound when you’re attracted to someone. Your brain signals the release of other chemicals when you’re feeling attraction, too, and the mix of all these chemicals produces the excitement (and the sweating). Two examples are dopamine and norepinephrine (which is similar to adrenaline). Basically, the brain has a field day.

Different breathing patterns

This chemical craziness doesn’t stop there. Dopamine, one of the major players in creating infatuation, is partly responsible for making you feel like you can’t breathe. Because that’s what you need — the panic of having quicker breaths, a faster heart rate, and sweat dripping out of every pore.

Then you bring in phenylethylamine (which is found in chocolate), another brain-released stimulate that plays a part and also might prompt the further release of the previously mentioned chemicals. All of these stimulants mixed together makes for a slew of physical reactions.

Once this natural brain rave is going on throughout your body, your breathing might quicken. You can also identify this quality in someone you think might be attracted to you. As long as you’re not running a marathon, this is a pretty accurate sign. Keep in mind, though, that not everyone is super obviously about their shorter breaths, so don’t get too discouraged if you don’t see the cues.

Conclusion

Our brain triggers the release of a lot of chemicals when we’re feeling attraction, which causes a variety of physical responses. The main signs are listed above, but there are others as well, like energy boosts, increased focus, and that fun “love” feeling, which usually tags along, unless you’re looking for a one-night stand.

Sources
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-12/health/love.heart.brain_1_heart-rate-stress-hormone-romantic-love?_s=PM:HEALTH
http://www.healthberth.com/2011/09/what-happens-in-your-body-when-you-fall.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200706/ten-politically-incorrect-truths-about-human-nature
http://www.bbwmagazine.com/love_3_0016.htm
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/sexual-health/womens-sexual-health/your-body-on-lust
http://people.howstuffworks.com/love6.htm
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200909/the-plunge-pleasure
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-phenylethylamine.htm
http://www.alovingspace.com/pages/pract8.php

Dating is a constant dance, both between two potential lovers and between what was normal and what is today. Every generation can look back condescendingly on their parents and forward disgusted at their children. There may not be any ironclad rules or unfairness in love and dating, but this generation definitely has its own social mores.

Technology definitely plays a role, and the open and fast-paced nature of modern life makes changes quick and people honest. The old rules just don’t apply like they used to. Let’s discuss some of the more common practices that have become normal over the past few years.

Clothes Still Make the Man

No matter what the modern world may say about gender equality, men are still judged on their status symbols. No matter what a woman may say about how appearances don’t matter, a man who shows up looking slovenly is going home by himself. Even sideburns, a good haircut and clothes that look lived in but not homeless are the basics a man needs to live up to.

If you want to look above average, you need to spend a little more and get very creative. Perception is reality, and if you dress “average” that’s exactly how you’ll be treated.

Online Dating is Huge

One in five singles has gone online looking for dates. China leads the world with 140 million online daters, and Japan was the first country to release a smart phone app to help singles meet each other out and about. The world is full of people sitting in front of computers, and if not for online dating our species might not be able to breed anymore.

When you consider that the average length of courtship is 42 months when a couple meets offline and less than 19 months when they meet online, the raw efficiency of meeting your mate online becomes clear.

Virtual Intimacy Is the Norm

People today are more comfortable in front of their web cams than any generation has ever been before. People will post nearly nude pictures of themselves for the entire world to see, and text pictures to their friends of them doing lascivious things without any inhibition at all. But that isn’t the only way intimacy has soaked into the virtual world.

Often a woman will become close to what a man through e-mailing and chatting with him online. This virtual intimacy will cause her to sleep with him, even unprotected, very early in their relationship. Unfortunately, this connection is often an illusion with nothing to back it up in real life.

Dating Ages Are Based on Gender Perceptions

Often, a girl will date men five to ten years older than she is because females are perceived to be more mature than males. However, they will turn around and criticize a man who dates women substantially younger than he is. Men have to either take this criticism on the chin and ignore it or seriously limit their dating prospects by age range.

Chivalry Is Alive and Well

Women are used to men who consider them equals in everything. Women have good jobs, start great businesses and buy homes without any man’s help. However, a lot of women still hold out the fantasy that a man will open the door for them, walk them home without expecting to be let in, and pay for the majority of their dates. Call it sexist or old-fashioned, but men are expected to get out of the frat boy mentality at some point.

There Is Required Reading for Dates

These days there are some things you need to know to seem like you haven’t been studying the underside of a rock. First off, you need to get the culture. If a celebrity did something especially interesting last week, you should have at least heard about it. You don’t have to tweet or follow Twitter, but you need to know how it works.

In most cities, being a dater means having some knowledge of the local indie band scene. Not knowing things like that means you’re too mainstream or that you just don’t get the culture. Rather like knowing what looks good in clothing and hair, understanding the current events and celebrity landscape means you pass the test of paying attention to and being part of the world at large. There’s only one acceptable answer to, “Are you on Facebook?”

Taking Home the Point

If you want to date nowadays, some rules are perennial. You need to take good care of yourself, you need to be connected to the rest of the world, and you need to understand that chivalry is great. Be strong, don’t be afraid to date women of any age group that interests you — as long as they’re legal — and you’ll be fine.

Images
http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/best-dressed-intro-0908-lg.jpg
http://www.linain.com/wp-content/uploads/online-dating-women.jpg
http://www.exgirlfriendguruexposed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/online_dating_tips_for_women.jpg
http://asset-server.libsyn.com/item/812312/assets/older-man-younger-woman.jpg
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Sources
http://www.funhold.com/2010/12/13-dating-rules-for-men-2011.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship
http://ask.metafilter.com/72471/The-Lowdown-Online-Dating-Etiquette
http://hipsterjew.com/2011/08/10/social-dating-norms-for-18-23-year-olds/
http://onlinedatingservicestatistics.blogspot.com/

Proposing marriage is a risky business. For starters, she might just say no, especially if you go overboard and forget to make this a private moment or try to get too fancy with it. For another thing, making your proposal too complicated can actually hurt your potential bride, such as if you try to put the ring into something she’s going to eat.

If she chokes, your chances of getting a yes diminish. Of course, sometimes even a crazy proposal ends in a yes. The following are some times when it’s better to be lucky than good.

Zero G, You and Me

A lot of people know that a special 727 has been converted into “The Vomit Comet,” so named because it repeatedly dives down between 35,000 and 24,000 feet to simulate the feeling of microgravity. While many people have heard of it and a few have been on it, one man decided this would be the perfect opportunity to propose to his girlfriend.

Floating freely for a few moments, he pulled out the ring and popped the question. They haven’t drifted apart since. No word on whether they were both able to keep down their lunches.

Tell the Whole Camp… or Get Them All to Help You

Some guys get other people involved in their proposals, and this can put on a lot of extra pressure. However, when one camp counselor decided to get his campers to help his proposal, his girlfriend didn’t know what to make of it.

Luckily for him, she thought the gesture was adorable and loved how he got the campers to work together for a common goal. Yes, they ended up taking the plunge.

Having Mario Help

Nerds are powerful people. One geeky fellow used a Super Mario Bros. hack to let his girlfriend know he wanted to do more than just play co-operatively with her. In a move that was almost subtle, he programmed a part of the game so that her name and his proposal appeared spelled out in the game’s life-giving coins. Obviously it made cents to her.

Stoically dedicated to his duty, Mario gave the couple a private moment while the newly-minted fiancée went through the standard engagement ritual of throwing a fit.

A Teammate for Life

Another nerdy guy decided that his girlfriend was good enough to have on his team permanently. So he modded out a Halo map to include a little area where he asked her to go during a two-on-two match to retrieve a weapon.

He’d actually set up a bunch of weapons spelling out his proposal, and asked if she’d be his teammate for life. When someone you love has your back, you always feel like a winner. Then they both got fragged, but they didn’t notice or even care.

Hurting Trees for Love

There’s nothing as romantic as carving one’s initials in a tree. One man brutalized some foliage out of love for his girl, and took her back to that very spot a year later to propose. While the setup was extremely simple, the fact that he planned it out to be so simple made it incredibly special. When asked for comment on whether it minded being cut in the name of love, even the tree was speechless.

All Over Creation, to the Top of the World

These days the number one sentence of smart phone owners is, “I’ve got an app for that.” When one particularly enterprising nerd decided that his girlfriend should become his wife, he created an iPhone app just to lead her on a scavenger hunt all over San Francisco—then to the top of a hill where he waited with a ring and no shortage of nervousness.

Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love

When a man says things like, “You make me hot,” he’s usually drunk and destined to go home by himself. However, if he just lit himself on fire and leapt into a pool as a 4th of July stunt, he gets a free pass to say things like that.

When he then drops to one knee and proposes to his girlfriend, he can pretty much say anything he wants for a few minutes after that. A man actually did this, and his fiancée was too happy to make any jokes about him being a flamer.

All Questions Answered

When two people really love each other, anything can happen. A loving relationship is a community where only two people live, and where no one else could ever be truly welcome. So when you consider different ways to propose, remember that the world you and your future wife are building together is unique to you two. Just be sure you don’t do anything too dangerous or that you’re not insured against.

Images
http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/09/zerogxp.jpg
http://godigico.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/summer-camp.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1jLJI3Y7rFQ/S-w9uztnoUI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/do0DqrIcrA8/s1600/mario.jpg
http://beertainment.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/halo_3_mythic_map_pack.jpg
http://cruststation.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/carved-tree.jpg
http://www2.orlandoweekly.com/blog/images/D4208ManOnFire2.jpg

Sources
http://www.oddee.com/item_96708.aspx
http://www.wetpaint.com/greys-anatomy/articles/a-shocking-proposal-recap-of-greys-anatomy–season-7-episode-10-adrift-and-at-peace
http://ringsidereport.com/?p=13442
http://www.romancestuck.com/wedding/proposals/marriage-proposals-around-the-web.htm
http://mashable.com/2010/07/03/geekiest-marriage-proposals/
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-10-cutest-marriage-proposals-ever/

Throughout history, men and women have faced the traditional need to find love and fill their homes with the children and wealth that can best be produced by a great marriage. At the very least the marriage should look great in public.

Needless to say, deciding who you should marry is a major choice and should never be entered into lightly or while drinking alcohol. So the process of courtship has always been a big deal, even though it has changed dramatically over the years. This article is going to be primarily concerned with how dating and courtship take place today.

Attire

Modern attire is mixed. Your imagination can define your wardrobe these days, and some people take this to its outermost limits. While the general rule for women is “less is more,” a man progresses out of nakedness to define his social status. However, the fact that more and more men and women are meeting one another online means that fashion can actually take a back seat to comfortable, neat clothing.

Pickup artists tend to wear flashier, shinier clothes in an attempt to appeal to women’s eyes, but even this is not really necessary. The clothes only make the man to a certain point. Personality is becoming more and more important, even when making a first impression.

Getting Ready

The process of getting ready in the modern age is a lot more complicated than it used to be. In this day and age, just looking and smelling good aren’t enough. The tiny touches like where you put your cologne—walk into two spritzes and then distribute it on your wrists—are important. As well, keeping strategic parts of your anatomy shaven can indicate to a woman that you’re a refined and modern man, and invites her to touch you and feel how your muscles respond to her.

The process of getting ready for men has led to a term known as metro-sexual, referring to a man who dates women but takes exceptionally good care of himself. Metro-sexuals tend to their own grooming as carefully as women traditionally have, and are sometimes called pretty boys. Nonetheless, even the most traditional men take care of their hair, nails and skin like never before.

Settings for Dates

In a world full of interesting architecture, the number of possible places to take a date is almost unlimited. Just going for a walk and talking can lead to all sorts of interesting conversations. As well, going to markets and shops where there are unusual objects to talk about is another great way to impress your date with your wit and charm. If you’re a guy and you date, this world is your mating ground.

However, a whole new type of dating has emerged in recent years—the online date. When you want to interact with a woman but can’t be near her or feel socially awkward, you can meet online and talk for hours that way. With the even more recent addition of texting, you can communicate with the object of your affections all the time, even while you’re doing other things.

Key Players

In the modern world, the man and woman are the major players. However, their friends also interact a lot during the courtship phase of a relationship. The friends are a necessary filter, and they help a love struck person to see beyond their feelings and figure out if the person they’re so into is really worth all the effort. In some cases friends are the difference between getting into a terrible relationship and just going out to have fun.

Other major players are the online friends people make through social networking platforms nowadays. For all you know, the friend of one of your friends may know someone really cute who shares a lot of things with you. In the old days you never would’ve even met, but today you can be texting in minutes. Also pivotal are online dating sites, which make the connections for those who move frequently, want to meet someone new, or like to keep their private lives separate from friends and work.

The Steps of the Process

The first step can happen in real life or online. Often approaches are very direct online, or through one social network online. From there, courtship can take only a few hours in the case of a hookup or several months if the woman you’re after is more traditionally minded. Personal choice dictates every step of today’s relationships.

Marriage tends to be a very large, overblown occasion that drives young couples into debt and only lasts a few years. Such significant numbers of couples divorce within a few years that the cost of a marriage can exceed the cost of attending a public university.

Many young people who begin dating early will marry and divorce three or four times throughout their lives.

Putting it to Bed

Human beings will always look for love, and the main differences between today and the past involve technology. Condoms are no longer made of wood or roughly sewn sheep intestines, and computers have made the face to face meeting totally optional. However, the one constant of courtship is that when two people really connect, it’s something magical. And anything goes as long as they’re at least 18 and not too drunk to consent.

Images

http://www.1stchristiandatingservices.com/images/1st-christian-dating-logo.jpg
http://images.radcity.net/5120/4709048.jpg
http://singlemindedwomen.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/Getting-ready-for-a-date-430×286.jpg
http://static-l3.blogcritics.org/11/05/03/158697/online-dating.jpg?t=20110503092019
http://www.onlinedatinganxiety.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/online-dating-profiles-online-personals-what-guys-like-about-online-profiles-finding-love-online2.jpg

Sources

http://sugardaddydating.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/how-dating-has-changed-over-the-years/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-10-dating_x.htm
http://www.ehow.com/about_4604945_how-has-dating-changed-past.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship

Throughout history, men and women have faced the traditional need to find love and fill their homes with the children and wealth that can best be produced by a great marriage. At the very least the marriage should look great in public.

Needless to say, deciding who you should marry is a major choice and should never be entered into lightly or while drinking alcohol. So the process of courtship has always been a big deal, even though it has changed dramatically over the years. This article is going to be primarily concerned with how dating and courtship took place during the 20th century.

Attire

The rules for attire in the 20th century changed rapidly. In 1901 the Victorian era basically ended with Her Majesty’s death. Thereafter, informality grew and waned based on the economy and social norms of four generations. From the flappers of the 1920s to the flower children of the 1960s, personal expression began to replace formality in men and women’s clothing.

As the 1980s song goes, women do tend to prefer a sharply-dressed man. However, dating customs increasingly favored a man who had a simpler style and was able to be both handsome and casual. At the same time, plenty of women have always been attracted to men in uniform, which only added to a man’s clothing options on a date.

Getting Ready

Getting ready for a date in the 20th century sometimes consisted of putting on makeup and styling one’s hair—in the 80s this also applied to guys—and sometimes consisted of little more than getting up and throwing on clothing. Widespread access to deodorant, tooth brushes and clean water meant that a new level of cleanliness was standard.

Of course, the hippie era and the grunge fashion trends of the 90s proved that with certain levels of social status, a person could get away with a lot of things one wouldn’t necessarily expect. One could literally fall asleep in spilled beer or mud, and be attractive enough to date without any preparation whatsoever.

Settings for Dates

As more of the population moved into cities and began to own cars, mobility became unprecedented. With the advent of movies, young couples had a new place to make out unobtrusively. Cars provided a great place for random sex, as well as for finding additional out-of-the-way places for rendering the clergy’s role in courtship invalid and unnecessary.

Dates took on a far more casual feeling as the century moved along, going from needing a chaperone to needing only the couple themselves. Often a date would merely consist of meeting for long enough to get high, have sex and then drift their separate ways. These kinds of dates could literally take place anywhere.

Key Players

By the middle of the 20th century, a man’s involvement with parents evolved from asking their permission to date their daughter to occasionally noticing them lurking in the background as he picked up the object of his affections.

In the 20th century, a gentleman only needed to attract and captivate the woman of his choice instead of trying to please her family. When the man and woman are interested in one another, nobody else’s opinion needs to matter very much to them.

The Steps of the Process

Men and women went into the work force at roughly equal levels during the 20th century, opening up a whole new avenue by which they could meet one another. Other than through their workplaces, men and women tended to meet at social gatherings like parties and through mutual friends. The blind date was invented during the 20th century, and it consisted of a friend playing amateur matchmaker.

In Western society, the matchmaking concept was fairly rare until this time. It became highly popular because free time receded during the century. People became so busy that it was often hard to meet anyone outside of bars. In many cases, courtship was of an extremely variable length during the 20th century.

Casual dating came to the fore during the 20th century. With less need to marry young, lots of people stayed single and dated around into their 30s. This led to people being far more selective about when, whom and even if they married.

Often a couple would have little interest in marriage, and long-term romantic relationships known as “shacking up” became increasingly common. Since the divorce rate climbed to as high as 67% during the century, marriage seemed to many people to be a needless step. As well, the increasing freedom of both genders meant that casual sex became a convenient method of satisfying a need without undue stress.

According the to the Kinsey Report in the 1950s, more than half the women surveyed reported that they were not virgins when they married. While social mores opened toward sexuality more and more over the century, practices behind closed doors opened up far more quickly.

Putting it to Bed

The 20th century saw some rapid changes in the way people dated one another. A man wanting to court a woman could have hardly hoped to live in a better time. Courtship could lead to marriage or not, and often sex preceded it.

Images
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EE_8WZK1okE/SXnRpJHVGxI/AAAAAAAADzo/80li5tvfzoM/s320/dating.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_K620XUd-FUU/TYJYWsCgPoI/AAAAAAAAC8s/XIffihMjCUg/4525435201_2e78b14c90.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-swaBpS0VreU/TYJYLTR0SII/AAAAAAAAC8Q/yrU1mCYMjus/397667.1020.A.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VAhiPvNCYdQ/TIM2unDXAYI/AAAAAAAABKc/2bbFfNX9Xjg/s1600/vintage-wedding-veil.jpg
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Sources
http://sugardaddydating.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/how-dating-has-changed-over-the-years/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-10-dating_x.htm
http://www.ehow.com/about_4604945_how-has-dating-changed-past.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship

Throughout history, men and women have faced the traditional need to find love and fill their homes with the children and wealth that can best be produced by a great marriage. At the very least the marriage should look great in public.

Needless to say, deciding who you should marry is a major choice and should never be entered into lightly or while drinking alcohol. So the process of courtship has always been a big deal, even though it has changed dramatically over the years. This article is going to be primarily concerned with how dating and courtship took place during the Victorian era.

Attire

By this era, men’s clothing had evolved into its more or less modern style, so getting ready no longer involved combining hosiery with swords—which may be the only method of walking around like that without being mocked. Women, on the other hand, had it even worse than they did during the Renaissance period.

For a man, shaving was optional. As any American Civil War general could tell you, having a powerful set of mutton chops or a massive beard was a symbol that you were a man’s man. Shaving was masculine in its sophistication and mockery of the dangers of a straight razor, but it wasn’t really necessary.

Women’s fashions revolved around maximizing the size of their derrieres, including the wearing of bustles. This fashion accessory caused a shape that would impress any rapper. Also en vogue was the corset, which rearranged one’s internal organs and contributed to an hourglass figure. Beauty hurts, sometimes.

Getting Ready

The Victorian era shared the process of using lemon juice to lighten skin with the Renaissance. In addition to this, the first perfumes were released commercially. The first deodorants came out, as well. However, one thing to note about early deodorants was that they were usually acidic enough to eat through a layer or two of clothing. They were even more hardcore than Mitchum.

Since women didn’t shave during this era, the process of removing unwanted body hair was a very painful one that often involved plucking and waxing. Once again, beauty can be quite painful.

Settings for Dates

The Victorian era was a time of great social changes. While dates were often still chaperoned to guard the chastity of the young and for safety’s sake, one of the major changes was that young people were less often seen as just their parents’ property and more often seen as being able to choose their mate. This led to dates that were more for fun than for immediate decision making, because the pressure was lower.

Some great places to take dates in this era were the cities. Improvements in infrastructure meant that cities had lots of great things to do on a date. While a walk in nature is a timeless classic, taking in a play and strolling along the boardwalk were things previous generations only wished they could do.

Key Players

Some of the key players in the dating game were still the parents, but their role was a smaller one than in generations past. The couples themselves were more important because the newer and more open forms of government promoted a culture where individuals were freer to move about and choose how they would spend their time. The entire notion of “free time” came about during the 19th century, as people began pursuing leisure time activities.

The Steps of the Process

During the Victorian Era, the process usually began with a man and a woman seeing one another. With more freedom of movement came more opportunities to meet, whether at parties or at less formal social gatherings. From there, a formal introduction was common but not always necessary.

Once a couple was introduced, the man would call on the woman. Many families would set out a courting candle, which allowed the man and woman to talk until it burned below a certain level. If the parents approved of a particular man, the candle could be set to be taller, or it could be made shorter if he didn’t make a good impression. This might have been the origin of the term “burning the wick from both ends.”

Victorian courtships could last months or even years in some cases. Wedding ceremonies were the inspiration of today’s weddings: highly extravagant and dedicated to showing the bride and groom at their best. This was the era when a bride’s dress was traditionally white to show her purity. No one knows how many women actually had the right to wear that color on their wedding day.

Putting it to Bed

Courtship has always been a crazy affair, but the Victorian age was one in which modern sensibilities clashed with a prudish uber-patron to make a very bizarre period. While the ancient chivalrous code wasn’t being practiced, there was still the old-fashioned separation of couples that made marriage a scary prospect of interpersonal discovery. In short, some people really were virgins on their wedding days.
Images
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/victorian-clothing/images/victorian-dresses.jpg
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-clothing-1.jpg
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-wedding-2.jpg
Sources
http://sugardaddydating.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/how-dating-has-changed-over-the-years/
http://www.usatoday.om/news/health/2003-02-10-dating_x.htm
http://www.ehow.com/about_4604945_how-has-dating-changed-past.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship

Throughout history, men and women have faced the traditional need to find love and fill their homes with the children and wealth that can best be produced by a great marriage. At the very least the marriage should look great in public.

Needless to say, deciding who you should marry is a major choice and should never be entered into lightly or while drinking alcohol. So the process of courtship has always been a big deal, even though it has changed dramatically over the years. This article concerns dating and courting during the Renaissance era.

Attire

The clothing of the day was a mixture of one’s normal wear and one’s nicer dress clothes. Obviously, everybody wants to put his or her best face forward, so men would wear their manliest tights and women would wear their largest dresses.

The early precursors to the walking around dresses of the Victorian era began during the Renaissance, and while these weren’t up to snuff for a formal evening they would do when greeting a gentleman caller.

Getting Ready

Getting ready for a date is never a fast or easy process. During the Renaissance, men and women first began to fuss over their looks in front of the mirror. During this era, women first began to retard the natural process of tanning by using lemon juice to lighten their skin. This era introduced some of the first modern types of makeup, as well.

Men had the unenviable task of becoming clean-shaven for their dates. This process was complicated somewhat by the expense of a proper shave, or by how challenging it is not to slit one’s own throat with a straight razor.

Since restroom facilities weren’t of the quality level we know today and chamber pots were still the primary means of relieving oneself, toilet water was employed to ease one’s smell for the object of one’s affections. By way of subtle scents, one’s natural aroma could be preserved without smelling like a stable.

Settings for Dates

Typically, the first date during the Renaissance would be in a meeting between the man and the woman’s parents in their sitting room or study. Once he had parental approval, the first couple of dates would happen in the home and under supervision of a matchmaker or parents. After a few dates—when the relationship began to take on some seriousness—the couple would be allowed to walk around outdoors and go to church together.

Dates were only somewhat formalized, but quickly got down to brass tacks. Are they getting ready to marry or are they just spending time idly?

Key Players

The key players were the parents to start with. They made the ultimate decisions as to whether the young couple could marry or not. In wealthy households marriages were often arranged, often making the couple themselves the least important parts of the union itself.

The beginning of such an arrangement was often with the parents contacting a matchmaker. After meeting with the young person, generally the daughter, the matchmaker would begin to review potential suitors and arrange meetings based upon the personalities of different young people.

Since arranged marriages were often made at an early age, the governesses of both the future bride and future groom would often contribute to identifying people who might work out well together. Since arranged marriages rarely involved meeting before the wedding day, the governess was key in determining who would be suited to whom.

However, one important group that is often ignored is the barristers who drafted up the contracts regarding dowry settlement. Dowries based on a family’s wealth were traditionally given for the bride, and both partners brought a trouseau consisting of household items.

The Steps of the Process

In most of the Renaissance era, dating was either for love or based on mutually beneficial business relationships between two families. Except for the wealthiest families, a young man would generally approach a woman’s father and ask to meet his daughter formally. From that point, it would become a matter of being interested or not.

As time would pass, a couple would talk more and be allowed more freedom to be nearly alone with one another. A chaperone would be necessary, of course, but sometimes a couple would be allowed to go to church together after a few months of courtship. During this time the man would often write the woman love letters if he were not near her to prove that she was still on his mind. This is the period which gave birth to serenading, not to be confused with catcalling.

If the couple really hit it off, they would go through a betrothal ceremony in which they promised to marry one another. While the wedding ceremony itself remains today, often a couple could skip that entirely just by becoming betrothed and then becoming sexually involved. Long courtships weren’t the way in those days.

Putting it to Bed

The Renaissance era was a neat time to attempt to court a woman. While men of that era had a difficult time with regard to wearing hosiery and their penmanship, the courtship process was often a fairly swift one. Families knew that striking the iron made it hot, and they often allowed courtships of only a few months. Since many of those unions lasted for life, they may have been onto something, as opposed to on something.

Images
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/renaissance-clothing/images/renaissance-clothing-1.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/renaissance-costumes/images/renaissance-costumes-2.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/renaissance-dresses/images/renaissance-dresses-3.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/renaissance-clothing/images/renaissance-clothing-5.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/renaissance-dresses/images/renaissance-dresses-5.jpg

Sources
http://sugardaddydating.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/how-dating-has-changed-over-the-years/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-02-10-dating_x.htm
http://www.ehow.com/about_4604945_how-has-dating-changed-past.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship
http://lorribrown.suite101.com/renaissance-courtship-and-marriage-a19689.html

Sex, dating and romance are funny things. For most of us, they carry a lot of mystery, as we struggle with why the opposite sex does what they do, and how great the differences are between men and women.

While we’ll probably never know anywhere near everything about these sweet mysteries of life, the following are some interesting, and in some cases jaw dropping, tidbits that you might have never even thought about before.

Dating

1. Speed dating was invented by a Rabbi in 1999.

2. A woman on a personals site who posts a picture receives double the messages of a picture-less woman.

3. 10% or more of free dating site accounts are made by scam artists.

4. Studies have actually shown that women tend to be attracted to men who wear blue.

5. Overwhelmingly, single parents prefer dating other single parents.

6. There is an almost perfect split between the online daters who get into a relationship, those who don’t and those who simply quit trying.

7. In the USA, September’s third week is known as National Singles Week.

8. Online dating websites in the USA take in $1.8 billion each year.

9. You’ve got double the chances of finding a date through being set up by friends and family as through meeting at a bar.

10. Most people can tell if they’re attracted to you within three seconds of meeting you.

11. Men tend to fear meeting a woman who’s too fat.

12. Roughly 40% of men feel insecure when they meet a woman from online.

13. Fresh breath matters to a lot of people on a first date.

14. If you’re considering cooking a meal for your date, wait until at least the third date.

15. People are most open to meeting someone in schools, malls and coffee houses.

16. More than 80% of a man’s first impression is whether her posture is strong and confident.

17. The best way to keep your date interested is to be happy.

18. The best way to repel your date is to be negative.

19. Men find it difficult to approach loud groups of women.

20. A great way to show someone you’re interested in them is to mirror what they do.

Sex

21. Having sex gets people to lose weight.

22. People who want to cover up something wear pubic wigs, called merkins.

23. Sex causes your body to release endorphins, which lessen headache pain.

24. Pubic hair is genetically limited to a shorter length than the hair on your head.

25. Bonobo chimps, Cohan gorillas and dolphins have sex for pleasure, and not just for reproduction.

26. Female penguins will initiate mating rituals with single males in exchange for a stone to build their nests.

27. The least popular flavor of edible underwear is chocolate.

28. The most popular edible underwear flavor is cherry, though that still looks rather disgusting.

29. In Fairbanks, Alaska, moose are prohibited by law from having sex on public sidewalks. Officials withheld comment about whether that law also applies to humans.

30. When a woman has sex, she produces more estrogen, which makes her hair shinier and skin smoother.

31. A woman with a PhD. is twice as interested in having one-off sex as a woman with only a bachelor’s degree.

32. Women are more likely than men to engage in dirty talk during sex.

33. 14% of men and 60% of women do not enjoy sex their first time having it.

Romance

34. Couples usually wait for at least six dates, and even as many as eight, before they begin to see their relationship as exclusive.

35. The most normal amount of time for a couple to break up is after three to five months of being together.

36. One out of three teens has had a violent experience in a relationship.

37. 31% of men have dumped a partner because she was overweight.

38. 12% of women have dumped a partner because he was overweight.

39. There are roughly 95.9 million unmarried people in the USA, with the majority of them being women.

40. 40% of dating relationships that come from the workplace turn into marriages.

41. Matchmakers charge a high price, and they expect to be paid a bonus if you end up marrying.

42. 71% of British people have had at least one affair with one of their co-workers.

43. 40% of women believe that a man should be educated, above and beyond even his looks.

44. An overwhelming majority of people put a lot of emphasis on the first kiss, perceiving it to have high impact on the future relationship.

45. 11% of men admit outright that they are looking for a partner for the rest of their lives.

46. The average person will go out on at least 100 dates before they finally marry.

47. 6% of the single female population admits to being desperate to find a mate.

48. Men are more than twice as likely to admit to saying those three little words first than women are.

49. 29% of women will devote more time and effort to shoe shopping than mate seeking.

50. 34% of women perceive a man putting a down payment on his home to be more committed than an engagement ring.

51. Couples are known to fight the most about money.

52. The second largest cause of divorce is when one partner is infertile.

53. The largest cause of getting divorced is one partner being unfaithful to their spouse.

54. 40% of single people in the USA have at least signed up at an online dating site.

CONCLUSION

Love, sex and relationships will always have an element of mystery to them. It’s why they’re fun, right? Now you know some random bits of trivia you can use to fill the space when you’re trying to impress your latest potential partner with your wit and worldliness.

Image Sources:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/2900694174_e11498e3f7.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/413385838_ff65a2b7a3.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/154017720_3926c7685e.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3081/2640776130_c34e6da62f.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/2417695936_84d305604e.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/2150224411_d7061114c7.jpg

Fact Sources:
http://facts.randomhistory.com/dating-and-relationship-facts.html
http://www.lovemusiclovedance.com/singles/facts-about-dating.htm
http://www.funfactsgirls.com/interesting-facts-about-dating-part1.html
http://www.dating-services.net/articles/love-stats.php
http://listverse.com/2009/06/25/top-10-fascinating-facts-about-sex/
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/10/21/surprising-sex-facts/

People look up to the stars (no, not those stars) for entertainment, inspiration and knowledge. Apart from being cultural and fashion trendsetters, celebrities provide the public with many valuable life lessons—including what to do, and what not to do. It can be assumed Oprah, for example, will have her very own book in the New Testament one day.

But celebrities really get people’s attention when they come in pairs, or rather, couples. Very few things on Earth can impart more insight than a celebrity couple that has had a roller coaster ride of a relationship which has been over analyzed by the media. So here are six things you can learn when two Hollywood stars align.

1. How to open your home to others

One act of kindness is to open the doors of your home to strangers. An even nicer act is to allow those strangers to take a room in the house and live there until around the age of eighteen. That’s what powerful celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have done with three adopted children.

Their adopted children come from far-flung places like Vietnam, Nambia and Cambodia, ranging in ages from six months to three years upon adoption. The couple also has three biological children. However, even with all the kids from different regions of the world, life is quite ordinary in the Pitt-Jolie household according to media interviews.

2. Avoid driving yourself and your significant other crazy

Being with someone day in and day out can be enough to drive anyone crazy. But, usually that’s just said as a metaphor in jest. Not so for celebrity couple Randy and Evi Quaid who have given the phrase a whole new, literal, meaning. The couple was arrested for burglary while living in a home they didn’t own.

While the Quaids claim otherwise, apparently the law had enough evidence to take both to the clank. It is one stranger incident involving the two, after they served jail time for skipping out on a $10,000 bill at a posh hotel. From their run-ins with the law, normal couples learn that it helps to separate every once in a while before life gets a little nuts.

3. A relationship is a work in progress

Maintaining a long-term relationship takes a lot of work. Just ask Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick. The reality-television stars have had more fights than a heavyweight boxer. Yet, in the end they always end up together happy, at least for the moment.

Having gone through the kid and marriage stage, all that’s left is actually falling in love. While their relationship drama has unfolded for all to see, it has served as a keen reminder that relationships aren’t always blissful.

4. Three’s a crowd?

While most people have found managing one relationship taxing, Charlie Sheen has had no trouble keeping up two—at the same time. In fact, he and his two girlfriends all live together in Sheen’s Los Angeles mansion.

The relationship seems to be working out so well that Sheen prefers to call them his “goddesses.” Each of them have even stated that it’s more a family affair than romance. Maybe three isn’t a crowd, but rather just a nice odd number.

5. Dating co-workers is OK

In a lot of workplaces, when two co-workers spark a relationship they must sign agreements stating that they’ll keep their private life from affecting their business life. In Hollywood, anything goes. An obvious example is Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie, who fell in love while making a movie together.

But another great example is rap/pop moguls Jay-Z and Beyonce. Before dating the pair was collaborating on chart-topping hits. Their success in the business world–both make about $80 million a year–just may be the secret to their successful relationship. So the next time the boss asks you out, it might be a good idea to say yes.

6. Age is just a number when it comes to love

In America, it used to be frowned upon for two people to date when they have a significant age difference. That way of thinking has changed; all thanks to celebrity couples. They have taught us that when it comes to love, age is but only a number. For example, Sean Penn, 50, is nearly twice the age of Scarlett Johansson, 26.

Meanwhile, Demi Moore made “cougars” fashionable by marrying Ashton Kutcher, fifteen years his senior. However, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, 84, has them all beat by getting engaged to a woman who is at the mature age of 24.

Conclusion

These six things, bestowed to the public by celebrity couples, can be applied to anyone’s life. Celebrities as individuals can teach you many things, but as a couple, they can teach you twice as much. While some people fawn over them because of their good looks and successful careers, others do it simply to learn a thing or two.

Image Sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjparnell/435465575/lightbox/
http://www.glamourvanity.com/images/brad-pitt-angelina-jolie-with-kids-arrive-in-japan.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38446022@N00/4008179587/lightbox/
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2010/news/100510/randy-quaid-320.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahayward/2322577484/lightbox/
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/pc/Kourtney+Kardashian+Scott+Disick+leave+Medical+yyK5wxSMhoUl.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/2378525120/lightbox/
http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/feb2011/6/7/charlie-sheen-boards-a-private-jet-with-his-2-girlfriends-and-ex-wife-brooke-mueller-pic-barcroft-41404011.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeyoshino/396374940/lightbox/
http://hiphopwired.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/beyonce-jay-z.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonlightbulb/4871316601/lightbox/
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/02/article-1362295-0D708CB0000005DC-231_634x465.jpg

Fact Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelina_Jolie
http://celebritybabyscoop.com/2011/03/23/the-jolie-pitts-one-big-happy-family
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b202292_seriously_wtf_wrong_with_quaids.html
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b207969_So_True__So_False__Did_Kourtney_and_Scott_Elope__.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20037864-504083.html
http://www.cupidspulse.com/celebrity-couples-who-have-stayed-together/#more-11449
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/05/sean-penn-scarlett-johannson-white-house-correspondents-dinner.html
http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/demimoore.htm
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20454258,00.html

Every man knows not to date a crazy woman (and vice-versa). While the chances of her doing something really entertaining are very high, there’s also too much of a chance she’ll end up doing something horrible.

It’s all fun and games when she’s taking up manhole covers and arranging them into smiley faces outside your front door, but when somebody loses an eye or a tooth to an “accident,” it isn’t so funny anymore. Crazy eyes has been noted on popular sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother (see image), because it is a growing phenomenon. Want to know why you should avoid that hottie with crazy eyes? Keep reading!

She Might Sacrifice Somebody you Know

Human sacrifice is a growing problem in the modern world. Rather like bed bugs, sacrificial victims have become en vogue over the past few years, as insane people have traveled the globe in search of enough souls to feed to their evil deities.
While freedom of religion is a vital component of a free society, there are times when freedom needs to take a back seat to security and sanity. Unfortunately, far too often a crazy woman is just the type to start sacrificing people, whether it’s an appropriate time or not. One of those inappropriate times is when the sacrificial victim is a cripple, or if they’re someone you know.
A crazy-eyed woman might not be able to identify the signs of an imperfect sacrifice. Worse still, she may even try to sacrifice your best friend, or a drinking buddy who owes you a round. Fortunately, you can save yourself and your social circle by just not dating her in the first place.

She Might Mistake you for a Hat

There have been occasions throughout history where husbands and wives have accidentally mistaken one another for articles of clothing designed to adorn one’s head. In a case like this, panicking can quickly turn deadly. A crazy woman who thinks you’re a hat might believe that you’re actually a possessed, evil hat if you start to protest her attempts to accessorize you into her wardrobe. If she believes you’re an evil hat, she may launch into a holy crusade to “cleanse” you of your unholy passenger.
The downside to all religious crusades, be they against possessed hats or people who may actually be possessed hats, is that ultimately they end up causing serious harm to the local peasantry. If the crazy-eyed woman ends up pulling a Don Quixote, even local windmills may not be safe from her unyielding wrath.
Before attempting to engage in a defensive strategy against your modern day Joan of Arc, consider that she may just be doing her civic duty. There is nothing intrinsically evil about mistaking a human being for a hat. We all make mistakes sometimes. How many times have you mistaken a friend for a punching bag, or mistaken a cat for a sponge? There is rarely anything to be enjoyed about being mistaken for a hat.

She Might Turn Your Life Into Hers

Do you want to have a woman dominate your life? If you enjoy being tied up, whipped and told how bad of a boy you’ve been while you lick her boots, this could actually end up being a blessing in disguise. Unfortunately, most types of domination are not so loving and kind.
As a matter of fact, dating a crazy woman tends to end up turning your life into nothing more than an extension of her own, as your schedule constantly surrenders to hers and your needs are met with blank-faced ignorance. There is no malice intended, in most cases. To a crazy woman, you don’t have a schedule beyond the service of hers.
If she’s late, it’s because she had a valid reason. Perhaps a little bird told her a local super villain was planning a major heist, and after she told the police she had to fight her way out of their custody. Things like this happen all the time to crazy women, so it should come as no surprise. But just you try being late even once, and see how understanding she turns out to be about the matter. When it comes right down to it, a crazy woman is going to take all of your time.

She Will Mess Up Your Existence

Have you ever been so thoroughly messed up that nothing you thought about would come out properly? Have you ever been so confused that it seems your entire world was made up of nothing but scattered thoughts and broken dreams? While this is usually only the purview of extremely emotional teenagers and drug addicts, the crazy women bring it out in everyone’s life.
Usually, a crazy woman has no idea what order really means. She might keep it together for a little while, but beware–if her car is a mess, and her eyes dart all over the place when she talks to you, there’s something fishy going on inside her head.
That fish might seem like a tasty treat at first, but ultimately you’ll live to regret the fact that comparing insanity to sea creatures almost makes sense when you’re exposed to it for a long enough time. Be warned: if you let a crazy woman into your life, she will turn it into her vision of order, which is anything but neat.

She Might Try to Take Over the World

As Tears for Fears would say, everybody wants to rule the world. Super villains hide in every abandoned warehouse, and rumor has it they occupy half of the unused rail cars in the country. When it comes to budget conscious ways of seizing power, however, the best super villains are women who have crazy eyes.
While you might not think that the woman you’re dating could blow up Australia or threaten the UN with another monster to terrorize Tokyo, you need to follow up on it if you start getting suspicious. After all, when do you want to know there’s a problem? Would you rather see the warning when she’s just spending a lot of time in her lair and ranting about the “old world order,” or do you really want to be surprised by the Justice League storming your home when she finally takes her plan live?
Just because you’re technically innocent doesn’t mean the Avengers will cut you any slack, either. Captain America may be a good guy, but he’s a very bad man when the security of his country falls under threat. So nip your involvement with any world-conquering activities in the bud by just not dating these crazy women.

CONCLUSION

Crazy women can be downright adorable, and may even be extremely loving. However, when you consider the potential for them to mistake you for a hat, sacrifice your friends and maybe even take over the world, the danger level just becomes too great. No matter how hard up for a date you may be or how long it’s been, resist the urge to go with a crazy woman. In the end, your life will be better for it.

Image Sources:
http://thoughtsappear.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/crazy-eyes.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2111/1803450903_5324063942.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/3023411757_a90185d203.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4041209231_48679c8081.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5081496890_de982a3c0a.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2499/3804619923_c908f019ca.jpg

Fact Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0875360/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarley
http://www.askmen.com/dating/curtsmith_60/97_dating_advice.html
http://www.abcsofattraction.com/blog/10-signs-youre-dating-a-hot-crazy-mess-of-a-model/
http://www.smosh.com/PC/smosh-pit/articles/signs-your-first-date-her-should-be-your-last