APRIL 28, 1999

The ultimate function of courtship is for the optimization of the reproductive success of individuals. Now this may seem like a very dull and drab statement to describe such a wonderful and yet mysterious thing, but it was interesting for me to find out that a lot of how we choose our mates-is based on our evolutionary history.

Now when a certain individual catches our eye we think, "wow, what an attractive person", or whatever else one might say, but we rarely ever consider the evolutionary factors in our decision. Mate selection is based on the secondary characteristics one possesses as a symbol of health, fertility, or strength. If you think about it, most of the women men think are attractive (i.e.-Pamela Anderson, Cindy Crawford, Carmen Electra), all have similar things in common. They all have a hip to waist ratio of 70%, red full lips, and estrogenized faces. Along with that most of the men that women find attractive(i.e.-Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson), all have androgenized faces(high cheek bones, distinctive chins), and they all have well built bodies as a symbol of strength.

A lot of extravagant secondary sexual characteristics will and have already evolved through this complicated mate selection process. Such as the tail of a peacock, the song of a bird, or the distinctive croak of a frog. All of these things have become commonplace through years of evolutionary mate selection. So why then, are we as humans, not all perfect by now??

Clinical Psychologist, Dr. A Feingold says, "According to the matching hypothesis males and females who are similar in attractiveness are likely to be drawn together. This type of matching may also influence the formation of friendships". By this statement, he means that it is not likely for a highly attractive person to choose a mate who is not somewhat close to the level of attractiveness that they are at. For this reason it is not foreseeable that we will ever all be perfect, or will all possess extravagantly beautiful traits.

Intrasexual competition accentuates the need for "advertisement". By this I mean developing characteristics that stand out from the others. You would think that by now all of the animal kingdom would be extravagantly colored and primped to the maximum, but the fear of being detected by predators keeps these displays at a competitive optimum. Many humans, although we don’t realize it, do advertising as well. We fix our hair in a certain way to attract the opposite sex’s eye, or we wear name brand clothes to look our best when pursuing an individual, many of these things are things we do everyday and do not realize it. On the contrary, we are not afraid of being detected by predators, but the social norms of society are what keep us all at a competitive optimum-although there are still those of us who are a little over the top at times.

To prove both mine and the hypothesis of many behaviorists, I took my research to the heart of Kentuckiana to see if this whole evolutionary thing was all it was cracked up to be. The first project was a female to female comparison, where we took two females-both alike in attractiveness one with estrogenized traits, and another without and we compared how many times each one was approached by someone from the opposite sex, whether it be for their phone number or just to ask." If they knew them from somewhere". We performed this project in a local club in Louisville and it turned out that the hypothesis was right. The subject with the more estrogenized traits was picked up the most times in each twenty minute period and overall.

The second project was a male to male comparison and the males that were used were famous males both similar in attractiveness. I then surveyed ten females a day for five days in a row. The women varied in age and race as to avoid a generational bias. Some of the women that were surveyed were from Bellarmine and some of the women worked out at the fitness center that I work at. I decided to use famous males as to avoid any bias from a female that was surveyed who might know one of the subjects. Each female was shown a picture of Brad Pitt- a very handsome man with an androgenized face and broad shoulders as a symbol of strength. The second picture was of Leonardo DiCaprio-who is also considered handsome but possesses more estrogenized traits, such as a very thin frame and a more softer looking "baby-face". I made two columns-one for Brad and the other for Leo and recorded the results each day for a week. The more androgenized male- Brad Pitt came out ahead in the end as well.

Just the mere success of the beauty industry is a reflection of the immense strength of our psychological adaptations and mate preferences. If you ever look in a book on cosmetics the instructions tell women how to accentuate the more estrogenized features such as the high cheek bones, small chin and symmetrical faces. Plastic surgery is another outlet both women and men use to get their faces and bodies to symbolize health, strength, and/or fertility.

I often wondered about the common double standard that males could sleep with a dozen of females and be labeled a "stud", or whatever, but if a female were to display this type of behavior, she would be labeled with other choice words. I believe this all dates back to the simple fact that males have always had to compete for a females attention and females have always been the more choosy gender. The reason for this being is because males produce millions of sperm, while females eggs are few and far between- which in turn would mean that she would have more invested in each copulation. Males are judged by their potential for protecting and providing, while females are judged by the potential for cuckoldry or being unfaithful to the other partner.
Although a lot of females blame this obsession with beauty to be caused from male chauvinism, it can be proven that our obsession is no different from that of any other organism. Considering that our DNA is 99% similar to that of apes it is not likely that our preferences will change that much in the future. Instead of constantly trying to make both the sexes become equal, which will never happen due to a lengthy evolutionary history, what we can do is make attempts to create societies that emphasize both the strengths and weaknesses of each of the genders.