Jerame pointed me to a fascinating article yesterday that mostly deals with web design and usability. While I doubt that most of our readers would be interested in the web aspects of the piece, there is a part that *ahem* stood out to me...

Social scientists used "eyetracking" technology to study where users focused on a web page when asked to "read the news" or "read/learn" so they could assist designers in better site creation. But the study also showed an interesting tidbit that really makes me giggle.

It seems that when both men and women are asked to look at a picture (whether human or animal), the men tend to focus on what the article terms "areas of private anatomy." This is true with both heterosexual and homosexual men. Women, on the other hand, focused solely on the face.

Which just goes to prove that old adage that it's all about dick size with men. From the peeping at the urinals to porn, men simply have a fascination with penises - their own or someone else's. I've noticed this often when hanging out with friends: "Did you see the size of his package?!?" Well, being gifted with really poor eyesight, most of the time, no - I didn't. But I'm always surprised by how often it comes up - even with straight friends.

What do you think of this? Seems to me it helps to prove that sexuality is fluid as versus the strict homo vs hetero dichotomy. Humans are sexual beings - period. We look. We imagine. And we put too much stock in narrowly constructed theories of what it means to be male or female.

Click to enlarge the picture.