Peer Group Blog Review

Peer Blog Reviews

Deirdre- I really liked reading your blogs. You offer significant information and make valid points throughout your reading. I like how you mentioned if women and men could come together as far as their differences are concerned they could have a better relationship. Your writing is simple and easy to follow. I look forward to reading your essay next week. Hopefully I will have more suggestions for you!!!!

Nicole- I liked that you had a lot to say this week. You have good technique and allow your reader to really understand where you are coming from. I really liked your ideas on monogamous relationships and found your insights on population surplus to be completely accurate. Good job Nicole!!! Can’t wait to read your essay!!!

Pg 310 #1

In her essay “Can’t Do without Love: What Science says about those tender feelings” Shannon Brownlee expresses the scientific notion that a man and women’s instinct to love “is written into our biochemistry”. Her article explains that humans were not only designed to procreate but to actually fall in love. And as such the loss of love can have devastating results to the human body. Brownlee notes that the emotion of love started with motherhood with a chemical called oxytocin. This same chemical, researchers believe “helps fuel romantic love as well”. Brownlee continues by saying that it is not unlikely that two people who enjoy being around each other will produce endorphins and when they are separated they will in effect miss that feeling.




Helen Fisher’s article “After All Maybe It’s…..Biology” follows in sync with the idea that love is based more on biology and chemistry than most people acknowledge. She takes a different angle by discussing the mating rituals of men and women. She compares the tactics used by human beings to that of similar mammals. She writes “Then there is the swagger with which young men often move to and fro. Male baboons on the grasslands of East Africa also swagger when they foresee a potential sexual encounter”.



As I read these articles I began to question my own reasoning behind the concepts of love, attraction and courtship. If these are the affects of biology, people’s beliefs regarding such things would be changed dramatically. For instance if two people were to meet, instead of looking for “chemistry” such as attraction, commonality or humor they would actually base their feelings off of a biological reaction. Love would not be considered an emotion but a chemical balance between you and another. This in turn could very well change our behaviors and cultural expectations. If people looked at love as a biological element they would seek different mating rituals or possibly not try to mate at all.