11:04L 01 June 2004

Apologies to my numerous reader (sic) for the absence of posts over the weekend. Sunday was a grey rainy day divided by coughing fits and grumbling. Monday was better but I was still pretty beat down. Feeling better today.

As promised in the coming soon post, today I'll touch on a subject I have significant experience with - watching women in the airport:

abstract
pre-visual indicators
scanning
initial sighting/collaboration
immediate assessment
time management/prioritization
further assessment

Abstract:
The following intends to discuss the experience of watching women generally but with emphasis on airport environments. This information is intended to allow others to contrast with their experiences, give women an insight into male intentions and behavior in hopes of allowing observation and a woman's recognition of observation become a starting point for verbal communication. While the descriptions are solely the perspective of the author, it is likely, based on first had experiences with collaboration, that elements of these ideas are common.

"ya stop looking, ya stop livin..."

Pre-visual indicators:
Prior to seeing a woman for the first time there are often other sensory indicators that tell a man that the likelihood of this woman being desirable are high and he should therefore look. Examples include distinctive the sound of high heel shoes on hard flooring, the smell of perfume, the sound of an attractive voice talking into a cell phone or the presence of an affluent man waiting for someone.

Often these pre-visual indicators start to link likeliness of getting laid with the definition of desirable. A component of desirability is the probability of sex. Beauty can be admired passively, in fact that is the most likely outcome, however the desire is not limited at looking. The probability that some kind of sexual encounter will occur is estimated for each and every woman.

For example, in the case of hearing high heels, the observer immediately knows that this woman is willing to wear or has conditioned herself to wear impractical footwear for a sexual or image related reason. At best she is wearing high heels to signal her love for sex, midrange would be that she has a positive self image, believes all/most of society finds this footwear appropriate for the outfit/setting and attaches no special meaning to these necessary shoes or at worst has some level of discomfort/resentment for the shoes but is wearing them for a particular male or other outside influence, despite her self definition in something more comfortable. The observer is prompted to look in all of these cases because hopefully she's willing to give him sex since she's an enthusiast, or since she's down to earth and probably comfortable with sex or since she's vulnerable and willing to do things despite viewing herself differently, she might be manipulated into sex.

Each of the pre-visual indicators either associates with physical attractiveness or behavior linked to sexual willingness. With the presence of any of the pre-visual indicators, the observer begins the scanning process.

Scanning
Scanning involves visual sweeps of an area or frequent looks toward the place that new females are likely to emerge from. Virtually all time where the eyes are not engaged in specific activities is devoted to scanning especially in airports. Any idle man in public is scanning, so the airport, where you're often waiting while seated is an ideal place. Scanning is simply data gathering. View as many women as possible to miss as few desirable ones as possible. Scanning is momentarily interrupted by the initial sighting.

Initial Sighting
Bright or feminine colors, sexual fetish clothing - i.e. heels, leather, etc., tight and/or revealing clothing, big hair, nice legs, nice ass, nice tits, slit skirt, seamed stockings, erect nipples, large breasts, make-up, an anklet or a great smile all tend to differentiate a woman from the crowd during an initial sighting. Despite the differentiation, scanning seeks to commodify (and to a lesser extent objectify) so that no stone is unturned. Men often work together to point out women of note. "...Brunette, blue suit, left to right.." "last stew(ardess)in the pack of 3, the one with legs..."

Immediate Assessment
Once a woman has been identified (and the vast majority of women make it this far) the do-ability filter is run. This is a binary filter, which may have some conditional inputs like "only after 3 Jack & Sprites", but it's generally pretty simple. Would I have sex with her? Yes/no. Here men in general seem to have a wide range of minimum thresholds and specific exclusions. The author seems to find many different types of women beautiful and do-able. This assessment takes place very quickly and begins the sorting process. Extremely provocative or beautiful women are also flagged at this point.

Prioritization
While the process has moved very quickly and naturally to this stage, there is not infinite time for sexual fantasy so a sorting process begins. Unless the observed image of a particular woman inspires sufficient compassion or humor, those that don't pass the do-ability meter are dropped from further consideration. A comparison is made between the flagged hot ones to establish a rank.

At this point the definition of desirable becomes much more important and the observer has to decide what level of reality will be considered inside his fantasy. It's possible some men at this point abandon all reality and simply fixate on the most physically attractive woman without any intention of ever speaking to her, therefore eliminating virtually all likelihood of realizing the subsequent fantasy. I call this the shallow guy paradox.

Let's assume that a real encounter is the primary goal. All remaining women (hot flagged or just do-able) would be acceptable sex partners, but differentiating amongst them becomes necessary for two reasons. First, real interaction (the primary goal) with more than one woman is unlikely so pick the right one and second, even fantasies with more than two or three women start to become tough to maintain so stick with just one. The observer now trys to determine without any real interaction which woman is likely to likely to be willing to play. Herein lies the rub. The observer now tries to assess things like, a woman's self image, comfort with her sexuality, morality, likeliness to be attracted the observer, etc without saying anything. Invariably these assessments will be partially wrong but by beginning to guess the observer is moving into the next stage.

Further Assessment
Do high heels indicate higher likelihood for sex? Tattoo in the small of the back allude to doggy style? Is she licking her lips just because of the steamed milk? Is she pulling at her wedding ring as a sign of unhappiness at home or does she have an itch? Is she a housewife who's bored and looking? Do blondes have more fun? Certainly all tough questions. Often these further assessment questions become springboards for fantasies. Unfortunately none of these questions are generally accepted as opening greetings. On rare occasion a woman notices she's being noticed and might make an overt jesture, wink or some other indication that it's ok to come say hello. The practical often collides with fantasy...she's walking by and I'm boarding in 5 minutes...


Currently stuck in my head - Bomb's Away by the Police from Message in a Bottle (their boxed set)