As I said in the comments to my LJ Idol entry this week, women are scaaaaaaary.
But women are scary because they believe -- and this is probably both nature and nurture -- that they are competing for a scarce resource: men.
Historically, this is a pretty accurate thing when you think about war. Very roughly, figure that American's have had a shortage of men present and available do to war about every other generation for at least 100 years. That means every woman who could afford to do something other than whatever was necessary to get a man was raised by a woman who didn't have those luxuries.
Similarly, if you resd Regency novels. One had to have a good season and land a good catch because there were so few catches available.
Today, men continue to be unavailable because life patterns have changed. Or, in neighborhoods like mine (which has the highest rate of male incarceration in the city) because they are in prison or otherwise absent.
Women who feel they need or want men, who have been raised to believe they are not a success without one, are still competing for scarce resources.
And it's frightening. The problem is that it also makes perfect sense.
And if you factor in wanting a "good" man - i.e. one who didn't fool around too much and was a good provider and didn't beat you too often - it makes the pool even smaller, thus making women even more competitive for those top slots. And factoring in the historical restrictions on unmarried women making any living or owning property, and realizing that it was pretty much "get married or live with Mom forever if she lets you"... things get ugly and desperate and tragic.
Sadly, I don't seem to be able to prove the opposite, that losing about 15 IQ points makes you more attractive. Then again, there's the wheelchair, I think we'd need someone with a more pure IQ-only loss that didn't affect their physical stats for proof...
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Date: 2007-11-14 09:30 pm (UTC)But women are scary because they believe -- and this is probably both nature and nurture -- that they are competing for a scarce resource: men.
Historically, this is a pretty accurate thing when you think about war. Very roughly, figure that American's have had a shortage of men present and available do to war about every other generation for at least 100 years. That means every woman who could afford to do something other than whatever was necessary to get a man was raised by a woman who didn't have those luxuries.
Similarly, if you resd Regency novels. One had to have a good season and land a good catch because there were so few catches available.
Today, men continue to be unavailable because life patterns have changed. Or, in neighborhoods like mine (which has the highest rate of male incarceration in the city) because they are in prison or otherwise absent.
Women who feel they need or want men, who have been raised to believe they are not a success without one, are still competing for scarce resources.
And it's frightening. The problem is that it also makes perfect sense.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 09:54 pm (UTC)Sadly, I don't seem to be able to prove the opposite, that losing about 15 IQ points makes you more attractive. Then again, there's the wheelchair, I think we'd need someone with a more pure IQ-only loss that didn't affect their physical stats for proof...