Okay, it took me some time to think and rethink this post. Mostly because it’s so unexpected, challenging and thought provoking.

I’ll say outright that it would never come to my mind to take the statistical approach here. But just because of that it’s even more interesting to see how differently we perceive things.

As I already said above, I think that in the matters of wit and sexuality the less it is mentioned outright the more it works, but what I found here even more interesting is what your choices were. Or rather I was reminded that Men are from Mars and Women from Venus.

So I started to think what things women would find sexually attractive, or what would they choose as a means of attraction. Here are some examples, but I’m not even sure I’m finished. Those are just the first ones that came to my mind:

Hair (just think of a woman on a date when she is tilting her head and playing with her hair),

Eyes instead of lips (esp. in Regency era when much more emphasis was put on eyes than on lips),

Figure (there is a reason why women are weight obsessed),

Walking (there is also one why women torture themselves with the heeled shoes),

Looks, stares and glances (that’s something that can make a woman blush),

Dancing (the way of moving, the proximity etc),

A kind of smugness in a man. I don’t know how to explain it. But when a man addresses a woman directly, saying something about her in the way Darcy approached Lizzy a couple of times a woman blushes, and in each case like that Lizzy avoided giving him an answer, or had a problem with composing one,

Mystery - men like to see, while women are attracted to what they cannot see,

Laughter of course – a laughing woman is open and inviting,

Tall men are considered handsome,

Petite women are considered sexy,

Power – well, yes, women are attracted to powerful men even when short (see Napoleon),

Danger or misfortune – people sharing dangerous situations get closer very fast, it’s like sharing a secret, but also it’s a moment when adrenaline goes up drastically and their mutual attraction rises. Additionally the support that the other person offers makes us open to them.

Sharing a secret of course,

Teasing – well, that’s exactly what foreplay is,

Sparrings – we have an old saying here, something like: those who are in love are sparring. Always works!

But on top of that what I always find interesting, is that Lizzy is practically obsessed with Darcy. He hardly exists in this book in person, but he is present in almost every chapter because he never disappears from her thoughts. She’s thinking about him all the time – what he would say, what he would do, how he would react, what he would think. She pushes Wickham out of her thoughts easily and without any disappointment. She forgets the Colonel all together because she can’t stop thinking of Darcy’s letter. It’s certainly not what a woman does when she dislikes someone. Well, she disliked Mr. Collins, and that is about it.

I agree that there is no nudity in P&P, but there is one transvestite (or at least a situation like that – Chamberlayne in Mrs. Phillip’s dress at Mrs. Forster’s), there is out-of-wedlock sex – one factual and one almost about to happen – Lydia and Georgiana, there is a suggestion of an illegitimate child – Lydia could be pregnant. There is Mr. Bennet, who fathered five daughters, and as much as Mrs. Bennet is insupportable, we also know that she was beautiful and had a sense of humour in her youth, even if she wasn’t witty. There are many women pursuing men. There is Lydia, about whom it was said she didn’t end as a prostitute although it was anticipated, nor did she became unfaithful to her husband even after both of them lost interest in one another. There is also Mr. Bennet, about whom it was said that he didn’t look for other venues after he became disappointed in his wife. There is his advice to his daughter that her reputation would be in danger if she couldn’t respect his husband. There are the Hursts, who probably have no sex life. There are the old Darcys, who had had sex during all their marriage. And there is of course Wickham, who womanized many girls. In other words, sex as a topic is there in abundance.

I’m sure that there are many similar things in other novels. After all one can easily find there illegitimate children, secret engagements, out-of-wedlock sex, dangerous situations, mysteries, etc. What makes P&P so sexy is the mixture of that. I.e. I’m sure that the Bertram sisters were thinking about sex a great deal, but they weren’t sexy themselves. The only sexy woman there is Miss Crawford. I can’t really imagine Edmund as a sexy man, even though he’s lured to Miss Crawford quite carnally. So, at least how I think about it, it’s not really important how many times they read the Vows, a quite inappropriate piece, only how they are portrayed. We don’t find Maria Bertram sexy even after she’s caught with Crawford, lol.

How about it?

Sylwia