I love that last sentence, 1islandboy. Awesome.
Also, I know exactly what you mean, Gettingthere, now that you've explained it better. In my case, I'm pretty sure the reason I don't tend to see women as sex objects, is because I grew up hearing my mother say again and again that men were "disgusting" which she said with intense hatred (my father wasn't the best guy). So I grew up thinking that my mother would hate me if I looked at women in a sexual way. This can really be a bummer for me. When I see a woman the sexual reaction isn't absent, but it's immediately and severely supressed. I think it would do me and my girlfriend a world of good if I made a point of allowing myself to react to women sexually, but the sad irony is that now that I'm all grown up and away from my mother, my girlfriend would kill me! --sigh--