Courtship - Take Two!

Courtship is about marriage - you court in order to see if there is any reason why you shouldn't get married.  However, this day and age, courtship is mostly absent, with the exception of some bowing and clapping of bills. 

Courtship isn't a time of experimentation but of exploration and is accompanied by ritualised displays including preening, bobbing and wing-flapping.

Courtship is usually done in public and with family approval.  Courtship is composed of two distinct stages, the aerial phase and the ground phase and is accompanied with bill clapping and fierce fighting.   Courtship, for display purposes, is done close to potential nesting sites and pairs sleep close by at night.

Courtship is feisty and splashy, often social, involving an energetic group that races along the surface at breakneck speeds, chopping the water up into turbulent knots of breaching and fin slapping.  In this case, courtship is a display of ‘genes’ carried by a particular organism looking with anticipation to mix with the genes of another organism to preserve themselves into the next generation.  (Their courtship is complicated and is not covered here).

A lengthy courtship is the price paid for increasing the chance that mating, if it occurs, will be a harmonious and happy match which will be mutually beneficial to both sexes. Speaking in general, the male initiates the courtship and the female chooses to either reject or mate with the male based on his "performance". The theory is that more babies should follow if the courtship is easy.

In such species, the courtship dances are coy, testing the male's willingness and stamina to persist and pursue or if he simply wants a momentary dalliance.  The coy look a woman gives a man is the start of an onging series of approach-withdraw tactics that will unfold over the course of their courtship.  A courtship flow-chart, a sample pre-nuptial agreement, self-analysis check lists, and candid advice on sexual physiology and sexual ethics can come in handy.

Romance in the courtship causes your heart to pound and make you have sweet dreams of a life together.  Commitment in courtship allows your heart to feel secure and let go of fear so you can enjoy the romance.  

The strategic problem the female faces is how to screen out ‘bad’ males who have a greater tendency to quit the courtship game early.  As time passes and the male has not quit it becomes more probable to the female that he is a ‘good’ male. 

With the average human  courtship before  marriage lasting about two and a half years, dating is an increasingly expensive venture.   Courtship does not have to mean Valentine’s cards with cheesy Valentine’s poems or love songs, nor a fortune spent on Valentine flowers or awkward activities that neither of you enjoy.

The definition of courtship is an act of seeking to gain love or affection with a view toward marriage. 

Regardless of the eventual outcome, it is felt that the courtship saga is far from over!

By:  Sessie http://ValentinesDay.ArticleReview.info