I think we all know her: the woman who is loved more by the mosquitoes of this world than any other person. I met her again recently. It was a beautiful late summer evening, we were sitting outside at a table as a group, a pastel-colored sunset, and I asked if it might be a good time to use mosquito spray.
“You don’t need any mosquito spray,” said Mücke’s favorite woman (always present at tables with more than three women) boldly: “Because I’m here.” And when she’s there, no one gets bitten, only her. She threw back her silky straight hair. She smiled with radiant satisfaction. Of course the woman was attractive – Mücke’s favorite always is. Now that she had revealed that she was bitten a lot, she was sure to get the attention. Everyone laughed, she herself the loudest, and she repeated: It’s true! Mosquitoes loved her! So the best protection against mosquitoes was when she was nearby. (Unfortunately, some of us less popular ones were bitten anyway.)
Freud and the sexual metaphor
You don’t know what to say. I’m sorry? Poor you? Pity doesn’t seem to fit, because these women seem too proud, too happy. So what’s the point?
An animal with a boldly pointed stinger that “flies” at you, that “penetrates” your skin, if you will: I don’t think we even need to dig Freud out of the grave to conclude that this is a sexual metaphor. The woman says something that seems pitiful (“I keep getting stung!”), but she wants to say that she is incredibly attractive. So “Congratulations!” would be the right response.
All that remains to be clarified is whether Helena of the mosquitoes, the woman with the “sweet blood”, the beautiful vampire victim, even exists.
To this day, strange myths circulate about what attracts mosquitoes. It starts with light: mosquitoes actually don’t care whether the light is on or off. They only follow the scent of CO₂. The same applies to “sweet blood” that women like to use to explain their attractiveness to mosquitoes. But mosquitoes cannot measure the sugar content in the blood. What interests them is body heat. And since the skin of children and women is thinner than that of men and therefore gives off a little more heat, they are bitten more often.
But this applies to all women and not just those who perceive every mosquito bite as a “like”.
