This post is commenting on the effects of sexual selection on the human psyche, especially in the post modern era. With the onset of totalitarian agriculture (see the previous posts on religion), we've essentially never had to worry about natural selection. That doesnt mean that it's not happening, but its just not very high on our collective to-do-list. Sexual selection however, is still very much in play, and the extent to which humans will try to alter their traits is amazing.
The first i'll discuss is very common knowledge due to being highly publicized. Women are involved in two things i've noticed: body-form maintenance and efforts to alter their superficial features.
Body form maintenance means excessive dieting, frequent trips to the gym, bulimia, anorexia, self-starvation, etc. In an effort to make themselves appear more sexually attractive women exhibit behaviors that would, under different circumstances, directly damage their chances at survival and winning the natural selection game. No organism with bulimia or anorexia would survive on the African savanna. The desire to win in sexual selection has grown in the female psyche to the point that it's become a physiological disorder. This has also frequently been featured in the news, where young girls are being socialized into a culture that demands physical perfection.
Make up application is another interesting aspect of female sexual selection competition, in which the use of artificial chemicals are used to try and alter the appearance in a way that appears more sexually attractive. Hair is supposed to be made prettier, eyelashes/cheekbones/whatever accentuated, etc. This has grown to the point that cosmetics is a huge domestic industry. Whats interesting about this aspect of the female psyche, is that some people become embarrassed to be seen without make up. It's so deeply ingrained into their identity that theyre embarrassed of who they are without it.
The degree to which males participate in sexual selection is less publicly discussed, because it just so happens that the ways they participate are somewhat healthier. Body image is still a huge influence on the male psyche. How many jillions of hours do jillions of males spend working out in the gym? Supplements to muscle growth are now a big industry too. Its gotten to the point where some will knowingly ingest supplements that may chemically and forcibly alter their sexual identity. Of course, im talking about steroids. Personally, I've found it kind of amusing to see jacked-up guys out running. I'm somewhat of a running-style connoisseur, and i can tell you that they run with all the grace of a hippo trying to tap dance.
In an evolutionary context, a jacked-up physique is counterproductive. It'd be useful in fighting off other males or predators, but in terms of hunting and gathering it's useless. It'd be more useful to have a physique balanced between light and agile, and heavy and strong.
Both sexes have become obsessed with status symbols, which encompasses a wide variety of things. Both try to dress in fashionable ways with certain name-brand labels to subtly advertise how much they can afford on clothing. And if not in clothing, then in sunglasses, jewelry, handbags, cars, essentially any type of "accessory". Even other people are seen as status symbols: the male with the most sexually attractive female companion is given a high status by other males, and vice versa. This can even happen heterosexually between people of the same sex. The not-attractive male is still given a high status if he is included into a group of high status males.
I'd like to clarify that competing in these things is not intrinsically bad. Every organism has a right to compete to the best of it's ability in every type of evolution. I'm merely commenting on the extent to which it has become dominant in our collective psyche.
I wish I could close with a schpeel on how it'd be better for all of us to stop focusing on things related to sexual selection and focus on things that really matter, like poverty, aids, stopping genocides, etc, but that'll never happen. We've evolved to care about sexual selection to a degree second only to natural selection.
While I think this is a great post, I guess the more interesting question I'd like to see some speculation about is "Why?". As in: Why has sexual selection gone as far as it has in terms of its effects on us? This would be a highly speculative but perhaps also very intriguing discussion topic.
ReplyDeleteyeah i agree. Id say that the psychological tendency towards these neurotic behaviors has always been somewhere in our heads, its just that our current existence has enabled them to be manifested in ways greater then before. What i mean by this, is that women wouldnt be so worried about applying makeup in the morning if there was a chance theyd be eaten that morning by a lion. I dont mean to pick on women there, its just an example. Likewise, current levels of economic production and specialization have given us an outlet for our tendencies. Men wouldnt be taking steroids if there wasnt a supply of them, and that supply is enabled by our economic production. The demand was always there, I think.
ReplyDeleteHowever like you said this is totally speculative, so i could be completely wrong haha
Okay, kind of going out on a (random) limb here, but... I'd venture to say that sexual selection is fairly reasonable in its own right. For example, take the fact that smooth (in terms of color and texture) and (more importantly) symmetrical faces are found to be most attractive. Why is this? Well, apparently we humans reason (not consciously, mind you) that facial symmetry signals that a person is healthy, which can then translate into not only fertility but also better chances of survival (since the healthy are less likely to go and die unexpectedly or just croak when in rough straits). Thus, something that's seen as sexually attractive also has its benefits in terms of survival.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'd hypothesize that things we undertake in the name of sexual attractiveness and sexual selection (i.e. the make-up and body alteration for women; the steroids for men, as you mentioned) are actually things that are arguably in our best interests in terms of survival. I suppose my basic point is that through these physical practices (that enhance our sexual attractiveness and add force to sexual selection) we're boosting our chances of survival. I think the main and most important difference though is what it takes for one to 'survive' in modern times. (That is, if we take 'survival' to mean something like attaining some 'X' level of prosperity and ability to ensure our own safety and comfort as well as that of our offspring.) I speculate that sexual selection has come to dominate (and thus normal 'natural selection' has kind of been sidelined) precisely because the things it takes to 'survive' in the world have changed so dramatically since... oh, say, 10000 years ago. Since we no longer actually need to hunt down our own food or traverse large (and often perilous) distances for life's resources, traditional traits that would have ensured early humans' survival (in the wild/nature) and been naturally selected (e.g. endurance, agility, lightness, etc) have little relevance for the survival of the modern human. In that respect, I think sexual selection is reasonable because it seems to be a result of our species adapting to the society and general way of life that we've created for ourselves. In general, if you're a female and you want to have a large enough pool of males to choose from for a potential mate (in order to hopefully secure one that would most likely be beneficial in terms of healthiness of offspring and personal safety and comfort), it's at least theoretically worth the effort to undertake these otherwise useless practices (appearance alteration) to try to make yourself as attractive as possible to the opposite sex.
(As for males... well, I can't really speak for males since I'm not part of that group, but maybe you can fill in this part yourself, which would be interesting to read.)
Coherency is probably severely lacking in several parts of this long spiel, but hopefully enough of it makes some sort of sense...
Haha i think i get your gist. I certainly agree, as would many actual scientists, that there are sound evolutionary reasons for why people are attracted to certain things in the opposite sex like facial symmetry. Upon a thorough re-reading of your comment above, i agree with basically everything you've said. (sorry for the lack of an interesting discussion!) The point of the main blog post was just to remark on how competition in sexual selection has come to dominate our minds to the point of ridiculousness, even to the point where its counter productive to our sexual selection competition. For example, and i hope im not offending too many people by saying this, but i dont really find ultra skinny girls that attractive (which would include anorexic and bulimic girls too). I think its really okay to have some substance to your body, there just needs to be a healthy balance. Likewise, i doubt that many females would fine a jacked up 300 pound guy with man boobs that attractive either.
ReplyDeleteYour right in saying that its worthwhile in participating in the competition for sexual mating, like with makeup and whatnot. Absolutely. As i said every organism has a right to compete in every time of evolutionary selection to the best of its ability, and that includes things like superficial alterations.
For males it is supremely beneficial to work out at the gym to build musculature, both for respect from other males, for better performance in forms of competition, to attract women, for health, etc. Just maybe people's lives shouldnt revolve around how much they can bench.
"I wish I could close with a schpeel on how it'd be better for all of us to stop focusing on things related to sexual selection and focus on things that really matter, like poverty, aids, stopping genocides, etc, but that'll never happen. We've evolved to care about sexual selection to a degree second only to natural selection."
ReplyDeleteWe are animals. We are hard wired to fight for a mate. I totally agree that we should fight for all of those causes you mentioned and the many others in the world worth fighting for. I also have to say that our only goal is to survive and replicate. We are not adapted to having 6 billion other motherfuckers to share a planet with. Until we evolve, we simply won't, as a species, care about every single other human being. That is all.
Yup
ReplyDeleteLove that last response. I'm a girl and I was finding offense to your stereotyping women to all be anorexic and not being comfortable without makeup... but then I realized I would never leave my house without my foundation on... how depressing.
ReplyDeletehaha thats not really depressing, maybe you're just actively competing in sexual selection. And I didnt mean to come across as stereotyping either men or women. I was more commenting on the fringes of both genders, and to a degree on those in the middles.
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