I'd like to know very specifically why Carmel has this preference. Has she consciously determined that this is preferable for some reasons?Carmel wrote:I would prefer that this hypothetical man didn't drool, stammer and speak in a high pitched voice.
For instance, she also prefers that a man smell faintly of pine, which sounds rather romantic to me. It doesn't sound like a preference that has been chosen for good reason. What if the man works in an industrial port that ships out pine chips to Japan for paper mills, and the pinechip mountain is harbouring a human-lethal fungi that will eventually kill him - and her? (Real scenario from where I live). What if he's a commercial forester in old-growth native forests? What if he is a Huon-carver (Huon pine is very slow-growing)? What if.....
I mean, eventually romance, if it is to be sustained, has to cut away from reality and documentation, into dreaminess.
Once the romance has captured the attention of the target, then it is abandoned for a spate of low-brow double-entendres, sexual allusions, and subtle invitations. And, once the target is aroused, matters become serious. The wife steps in, with a scientific-ethical facade, dry instructions, appeals to rationality, etc. etc. etc.