At least, it seems so according to this article in Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. The article contains excerpts from a forthcoming book called, “Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.” It seems like quite a few points in this book focus on the fact that practically everything humans do boils down to the male’s need to reproduce as frequently as possible. How I hate being reminded that we are nothing but walking bags of chemicals! I don’t think I’m entirely in agreement with a couple of the authors’ conclusions but hey, they’re the experts.
Anyway, so you can share in their dismal conclusions about human nature, with a heaving sigh of despair I offer some examples from the article:
1. Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them) - In many young girls, blond hair will change to brown as they age. Thus, blond hair is a signal of youth, and therefore reproductive fitness. Of course, nowadays, men can be easily fooled. Er, is that new?
2 & 3. Humans are naturally polygamous – polygyny supposedly works out great for women, who all end up sharing wealthy men, who in turn reproduce many times. Unfortunately, the less desirable men must go without wives entirely, which drives them completely insane. (Talk to the hand…whisper sweetly to it, even, cause that’s all you’re gonna get, you penniless, ugly guys.) In a monogamous society, however, there’s “someone for everyone” resulting in fewer frustrated males, not to mention less blindness and hairy palms, but poorer females.
4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim – polygynous societies suffer from more violence due to frustrations noted above, but in a polygynous society if you’re not a desirable guy and your religion says there are 72 virgins waiting for you in the next world, you’ll be in a hurry to get there. (Hmmm, I always wondered why terrorists are consistently hideous.) Actually, this point is simplistic when you look at a complicated death cult like the Palestinian culture, wherein suicide bombing has a variety of cultural motivations and Islam is a handy excuse. Additionally, Palestinians are not generally polygynous as far as I know…
8. The (male) midlife crisis is a myth—sort of - it’s actually that the wife has entered midlife, signaling loss of reproductive status, so the man is biologically driven into overdrive and ends up trolling the streets in his new red sports car looking for a young replacement. Oh you men, I’m sad that you are just walking bags of chemicals with no free will. It’s after all your wife’s fault that you just spent the family savings on that red Porsche.
9. It’s natural for politicians to risk everything for an affair (but only if they’re male) - men are biologically driven to populate the earth with as many copies of their genes as possible, but powerful men have more chances to do it. Which reminds me of how I once went to a rather fancy place for dinner in D.C. (with a guy who was apparently capable of picking on women his own age) and I was revolted by how many seriously old men were there with women who looked to be in their 20’s. Yuck! Must have been a bunch of congressmen in there.
10. Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist - in fact, according to the authors, men abuse and disrespect each other constantly in the workplace because they are driven to be competitive, to be the alpha male. Got a jerk in the workplace? It’s not personal, ladies, he’s just naturally an asshole.
Filed under: daily life, islam, psychology, science
