Okay, hold on! After some thought I think I may have a... sort-of sexual answer? I think a large part of what I classify as sexual attraction for me-- which is probably far more important to me than to other sexual people-- is just awareness of where the other person is in physical space.
Like, I find that a good general model (on a very simple level) of how I move through physical space is that stuff classified as "me" (my body) interacts with stuff classified as "not me" (everything else, including other people.) And obviously not much conscious thought needs to go into figuring out exactly where all the not-me stuff is, so long as none of it is actually on a collision path with the me-stuff. So most of the background not-me stuff gets ignored in terms of knowing exactly where it is.
A person to whom I am somehow attracted separates slightly from the rest of the not-me stuff, so that even if I'm not really interacting with them, if they're in the vicinity I still keep a mental tab on where they are and where they're moving. And I would be paying more involuntary attention to the positioning of someone I'm attracted to walking towards me (how far are they? When are they going to stop walking and what will our physical positioning look like when they do?) than someone I'm not attracted to. Which doesn't have much to do with sex organs or emotions, but it's a physical thing which I think has something to do with attraction for me.
no subject
Like, I find that a good general model (on a very simple level) of how I move through physical space is that stuff classified as "me" (my body) interacts with stuff classified as "not me" (everything else, including other people.) And obviously not much conscious thought needs to go into figuring out exactly where all the not-me stuff is, so long as none of it is actually on a collision path with the me-stuff. So most of the background not-me stuff gets ignored in terms of knowing exactly where it is.
A person to whom I am somehow attracted separates slightly from the rest of the not-me stuff, so that even if I'm not really interacting with them, if they're in the vicinity I still keep a mental tab on where they are and where they're moving. And I would be paying more involuntary attention to the positioning of someone I'm attracted to walking towards me (how far are they? When are they going to stop walking and what will our physical positioning look like when they do?) than someone I'm not attracted to. Which doesn't have much to do with sex organs or emotions, but it's a physical thing which I think has something to do with attraction for me.