Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!unc!wfi From: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: Why men are attracted to the shape of women's bodies. Message-ID: <289@unc.UUCP> Date: Sat, 25-May-85 18:28:41 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.289 Posted: Sat May 25 18:28:41 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 27-May-85 02:52:40 EDT References: Reply-To: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill Lines: 38 Summary: > Why do female sticklebacks go for males with bright red spots? Why are > peahens attracted to males with large (biologically costly) tails? Why > do men prefer women with large ******, firm ***** and long *****? > > In the case of the lower animals its hard to see how this instinctive > behavior starts but easy to understand why it perpetuates. It would be > logical for a man's prewiring (genetically controlled behavior) to seek > a mate whose physique maximized her chance of successfully bearing and > raising young. I don't believe that this is the case however. Homo sapiens has certain physical characteristics which possibly evolved because they were sexually attractive to our ancestors; for example, the male beard, armpit hair (to hold pheremones?), and the pubic tuft. These characteristics are by no means species-wide, however; might the Kalahari bushwoman's genital apron and the bushman's state of permanent semierection also have evolved as sexual attractants? And how about human populations whose males are beardless? It's very dangerous to generalize about the human species and say all men prefer women with large mammary glands, firm buttocks, and long legs (I presume those are the ****s you're referring to?). A superficial examination of mate preferences in different cultures shows astounding differences. Highly obese women are a status symbol in certain cultures, for example, because they reflect positively on the male's wealth. And if you want to see decidedly unfirm buttocks, check out the Venus of Wittenberg; Cro-Magnon man had a decidedly un-American idea of feminine beauty! Popularizations of hypotheses for the origins of human behavior were common a decade ago, but many of them assumed too much about the existence of human behavior 'genes.' Certain human behavior certainly has instinctive origins (e.g., the smile), but noone has isolated a single gene governing behavior in human beings, and cultures can almost always be found that provide the exception to most any behavioral rule you can come up with. Most of the speculations on these matters are on shaky grounds indeed. -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly