I posted yesterday on a Psychology Today article, "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature". My pal Anna at Dakota Women responds:
I really get annoyed when people defend their prejudices by saying they're biological. Speaking as a blonde bombshell myself, I really have to question "biological fact" number one [Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them)]. Obviously! Most societies on this Earth do not have people with naturally blonde hair in them. How does the article address the difference in standards of beauty across different societies and across time?
I am not annoyed at all, but altogether amused, when "people" assume that it's the other side that is defending their prejudices. Anna's side, no doubt, has no prejudices. Yes, as Carl Denham says when looking at the natives of Skull Island in the 1933 King Kong, "blonds are scarce around here." The question is whether there is a biologically reinforced male preference for blond women in those populations that do have them, and have had them for a long time. That such a preference exists is manifest. The article presents a plausible biological explanation: blond hair indicates youth and therefore fertility. That is the kind of thing that natural selection can work on.
What about those "different standards of beauty across different societies and across time"? Anna presents a nice anecdote about this:
A friend of mine told me about his sister's time in Samoa (she was an anthropologist, I believe). The sister was in her twenties, Native American, and weighed about 300 pounds. She was totally taken by surprise upon arrival in Samoa by the fact that she was the local object of lust. She could not keep the men off her. They didn't care a thing for the American-conventionally-attractive women who were there with her. What is the author's explanation for this?
Sorry, but anecdotes do not weigh much against vast collections of data. David Buss has surveyed thousands of people on every continent and a big bunch of islands. What he found is that the ideal female body shape is pretty much the same in every culture. And that shape turns out to be closely related to fecundity. Women who show signs of fertility are attractive in every culture, at every point in history. It probably can't be otherwise. Men and women whose inherited inclinations tend to result in lots of offspring, will have lots of offspring who inherit their inclinations. Other inclinations will gradually be selected out of the gene pool. Is this prejudice? I suggest that it is biology.
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