Posted by Tamar on August 2, 2005, at 21:57:23
In reply to Re: Lott: Q on getting attracted to older, wiser men » Tamar, posted by Jakeman on August 2, 2005, at 19:51:11
> I find the evolutionary psychology material quite interesting. There are some very old innate drives deep within us about attraction and mating. It seems though that everyone feels it but no one talks about it.
When I hear women talk about Brad Pitt I think there might be something innate going on. He doesn't do it for me, but maybe I'm not a proper woman.
I find evolutionary psychology very interesting to read, but ultimately I’m not thoroughly convinced. It doesn’t always adequately reflect reality. An example might be the suggestion that men are more likely to play the field because they need to pass on their genes as often as possible, while women are more likely to be faithful because they need to protect their genetic progeny by standing by their man. That’s all very interesting, but sadly doesn’t reflect the reality about women and affairs! Women seem to be just as likely to play away as men are. Well, most statistics show women a few percentage points behind men, but then most researchers will admit that women are a little less likely to admit to infidelity. And who do people think all the unfaithful men are doing it with?
> Many of us in the US have learned to downplay or even repress aspects of our inborn masculinity or femininity in response to conforming to outside notions of social or political correctness.
Possibly. On the other hand, it may be that our masculinity and femininity aren't actually inborn or innate. Unfortunately we don't know for sure: does biology precede social behaviour? Or can social categories influence biology?
The main difficulty, I think, is that many people cannot be easily categorised as male or female. Some people are born with ambiguous genitalia, and others are born with chromosonal arrangements that are not simply XX or XY. In social situations we can never be sure just by looking whether someone is a man or a woman. There’s always a possibility that the categorisation isn’t straightforward.
Since biology is fickle, I'm not sure we can trust it entirely to provide the answers... But it poses some intriguing questions!
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:535438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050801/msgs/536891.html