13 Comments
Sep 17, 2023Liked by Michael Woudenberg

You're certainly spot-on about biology being the origin of all this, but I wouldn't mind a follow-up piece where you pick up the torch and talk about how society has morphed the biological evolutionary "desires" to whatever it's turning into today, and why.

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We could do a collaboration because, while this was written before yours on the Uterine Lottery, it is a strong counterpoint for that. Maybe a two voice debate on each side with a summary that covers what you recommended here?

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Sep 17, 2023Liked by Michael Woudenberg

Interesting piece and comment! Especially the societal component and how it may impact what is programmed from nature.

I just posted on a similar issue regarding how statistical discrimination (in this case in the real estate market) can perpetuate discrimination and inequality. In this case, it is the beliefs of real estate agents, that might come from experience, result in them not actually listening to the specific requests of buyers/renters but rather assuming what would be better for them. - https://www.nominalnews.com/p/housing-rental-discrimination

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Nov 4Liked by Michael Woudenberg

So, a couple of questions for this article:

1) Have you seen the suggestion that women will deliberately try to convince other women to dress in ways that they know aren't attractive to men?

and

2) Would not another interpretation of male on male 'beauty' selection be not beauty but competence?

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Great questions.

1. I've seen that suggestion but I haven't pulled that thread. I see it in the 'mean girls' trope among others.

2. Male on male beauty is competence and competence also has expression in physical capability. Typically competent men will often also have a poise about them. Even Elon, when he get's his shit together and focuses, strikes a pretty good figure.

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Dec 21, 2023Liked by Michael Woudenberg

Sadly, this entire article is mired by the premise of sexual fitness and the usual heteronormativity that accompanies it. There are more creative ways of approaching this issue that don't depend on white supremacist, patriarchical assumptions and biases endemic in Western thoughts around beauty and biology. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154620300383

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Dec 21, 2023·edited Dec 21, 2023Author

Hi Jo, a person I recently met suggested that a conversation involves asking questions, not making assertions. Your comment was dismissively assertive causing you to appear like you're just having a conversation with yourself to defend your own position. If you were interested in understanding a different perspective, you would exhibit curiosity. But I'll bite. What is a more creative way of approaching this issue?

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Nov 4Liked by Michael Woudenberg

I'm interested in the word 'creative'. It doesn't seem to fit here. Are you claiming that these other ways of 'approaching the issue' (also not very helpful words) produce more accurate results?

I mean, if you discuss 'heteronormativity' then you basically dismiss all evolutionary processes. Now, I don't believe in evolution myself, but I'm pretty sure that you would reject my ideas even more soundly... but what do you propose as an alternative? If things such as beauty signalling don't produce more successful lines of offspring, what do they produce? How did they originate??

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I'm pretty sure she was the same person who engaged with this on LinkedIn and then dropped this comment here. Clearly she hasn't re-engaged here. But her comments were so... incredible, that I actually used it as the seed for a character in my second novel, Integration.

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Jan 7·edited Mar 15Author

Since you liked this essay, I figured you'd also appreciate my follow on about clothing and sexual signalling. (FYI, I loved your comment so much I integrated it into my forthcoming novel.)

https://www.polymathicbeing.com/p/clothing-and-sex

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Sep 17, 2023Liked by Michael Woudenberg

Well, THAT was a wasted 5 minutes of my life. Everyone with more than 2 functioning brain cells knows that men are guided more by their little brain (aka the one in the dangly bits) than the brain between their ears.

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And similarly women have a similar coding. Did you know that they subconciously change their clothing styles during their ovultion to look 'sexier'?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18719219/

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RemovedNov 12, 2023Liked by Michael Woudenberg
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Decoupling this narrow view is certainly the challenge as it is baked deep into our low brain functions and predates Homo Sapien. It's almost akin to saying we should ditch our narrow view of our fight or flight reflex. It's interesting to think about but much more difficult to do.

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