Well, let's talk about sex for a bit. I've been doing a lot of navel-gazing and theorising lately, and I feel the need to share some of my insights with you, my audience.

The topic for today concerns physical attraction. Do people "need" physically attractive people in their lives? It seems that they do, especially if we consider its role in sexuality in general. If sex is considered a genuine, intrinsic need (as Abraham Maslow did, and as do I), then it must be satisfied. It can be satisfied in numerous ways, including sexual activity, masturbation, or flirting. It can also be fulfilled indirectly—such as by having an attractive friend whom you fantasise about regularly or whom you flirt with purely in fun.

In my experiences and those of others, it seems that when sexual needs cannot be met directly, people are driven to meet them vicariously and for the moment seem almost obsessed with getting the need met. Finding an attractive person consumes them (much like water consumes the thirsty person). Thus although reality may not give us what we want, the need for an attractive person/people in our lives is there and the frustration of this need can be very distressing. I have seen that when people finally have an attractive person in their lives, suddenly they are free to make friends with and relate to people who are not as attractive; they are free, in essence, to pursue the next need: which is to befriend people for what they are purely on the inside.

All of this raises an interesting question about whether people can be friends with one another when they are physically attracted to each other. If physical attraction is a way that people can get their sexual needs met without actually having sexual intercourse, then I think it is possible that people can be friends if they are physically attracted to each other. There is a certain flirtiness and playfulness that two friends can have with each other without actually moving towards having sex with each other. This can be an "ideal" relationship where one person needs to have sexual needs met vicariously—by being in close proximity to an attractive person—without jeopardising the friendship with the other person, or somehow interfering with the other person's life or making them feel uncomfortable (which might be the case if the attractive person in question is married, not physically attracted to the other person, or is of the opposite sexual orientation).

Any thoughts?