A in the peacock, large tails make them more prone to being attacked and require a lot of energy to grow. In humans, a strong jaw is produced by large amounts of testosterone which lowers immune system. Therefore, they must have strong genes to adapt to this development without becoming ill. P&E further support by Bruce and Young who found men and women preferred symmetrical faces. A this characteristic is the product of no/little disease in the womb, also suggesting strong genes. C Langlois’ research shows that babies under 12 months will spend more time looking at attractive faces.
Trivers defined parental investment as “any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s change of surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring”. Maternal investment is much larger than paternal investment. Females make a greater biological investment than males because they produce far fewer egg cells than males produces sperm, and egg cells are far more costly to produce. This means that females require a greater initial investment because they can only have a limited number of offspring, whereas a male can potentially have an infinite number of children. As a result of this inequity, females are choosier in who they mate with.
Discuss the influence of culture on romantic relationships Across the world culture is found to play a large part in romantic relationships, but it varies both across and between cultures. In western cultures such as the U.K, USA, and Europe , we are given free will over who we form our relationships with, whereas in non western collectivist cultures such as Asia, India and Africa a majority of relationships are pre-determined by arranged marriages where the parents select the best partner. According to research this is due to the parents thinking their child will choose their partner based on attractiveness and not success. So the parents choose the most successful partner knowing their children and grandchildren will be well looked after. In western cultures divorce is more common and it’s acceptable for people to get married multiple times.
Buss studied 10000 people from 37 cultures, finding that 44% of males said that physical attractiveness was more important, whilst only 22% of females said this. This would support the theory that males look for physical attractiveness in order to start passing on their genes whilst women are in search of someone to provide for a family. This also has good cultural reliability, meaning that it can be assumed that men and women from all around the world have the same opinion. Men have a greater desire for polygamy, due to there being more chance of spreading their genes, whilst
This may be economic. In terms of short term mating preferences, Buss found that men would seek sex a lot earlier in a relationship, this is because over a period of one year, a man could spread his genes to countless numbers of women, yet a woman would only be able to have one child in the same time, so women become a lot more ‘picky’ in selecting their men. Buss and Schmitt found that short-term men tend to lower their standards and show a decrease in attraction to the woman after sex because they’d rather find someone else to spread their genes to. Buss found that in the long term, sexual selection should favour high levels of choosiness in both sexes. Women look for investment and protection, whereas males are attracted to women who show good signs of fertility.
Traditionally, a male’s role in society is defined by security, such as being a sole provider, but today men feel the need to display their strength through their physical appearance. “Research in recent years has shown that the body image displeasure among females was centered on weight loss. Research has also shown the same displeasure among males; however, it would appear that there are as many men wanting to increase their weight (with muscle mass) as those who want to lose it” (Gregor). “We have found that a very large percentage of men, as many as 85 per cent, are dissatisfied in terms of weight; around half want to lose weight and half want to gain weight. They are looking for the “ideal” – minimal body fat and a large amount of muscle”, says Ms. Fawkner (qtd.
These four were the; reproductive, sexual, educational, and economical functions. Firstly they look at reproduction from the aspect of producing the next generation for society. This ensures survival of the community which can’t be done without children and these new members also benefit society in regard to taking up jobs which will be more effective to society. The second one to look at would be the sexual function of a family; this does not just serve the society in a positive way but is beneficial for the individuals themselves. Unapproved sexual behaviour can cause many problems in society, so this means of a family lets married adults enjoy a healthy sex life.
This theory suggests that women who mimicked estrus benefited from more protection, meat, and other resources. If this occurred enough times and with frequency, women would have adapted a hidden estrus and signaling to ovulation would have diminished. There are, however, many indications that maybe the ovulatory cycle isn’t as hidden as previously thought. In many recent studies, a new perception of the female ovulatory cycle can be observed. In a Miller at el study on tip earnings by lap dancers, it was discovered that depending on what stage a lap dancer was on in her ovulatory cycle, depended on the amount of tips she received.
These differences occur due to anisogamy, differences between the nature and amount of gametes (sperm and eggs) produced. In females the egg is large and appears less frequently than males’ sperm, and so they have to be highly selective in mate choice to ensure that her offspring are of the highest quality. Therefore it follows that females must be more selective about whom they mate with as each mating involves a relatively sizeable part of reproduction potential compared to males; so they have a much higher parental investment than males. Natural selection therefore favours female behaviour maximising the chances of successful reproduction through various strategies, such as monogamy and high parental investment. Females seek males displaying genetic fitness, like strength, status and resources.
Although this has changed in the past few years with more people becoming accepting of masculine women and feminine men. Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to the ways we embrace gender and sex in diversity? Definitely. My concept personally is that men should be masculine and women should be feminine. Know role so to speak.