Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
that article is plainly false. we all know blondes are dumber than people with other hair color.
There's no such thing as hair colour, except in the minds of hairists. It's all socially constructed.
that article is plainly false. we all know blondes are dumber than people with other hair color.
There's no such thing as hair colour, except in the minds of hairists. It's all socially constructed.
No, it was a literal statement of fact.
only 2%? didn't know that. perhaps some kind of economic law of rarity is somehow applicable in explaining the trait's desireability?
and above statement does not apply to my GF. who is a blonde redhead anyway.
Some scientists explain the appeal of blond hair as a form of paedomorphosis.
Men like blonde women because blonde women look more like children. It conveys youth and apparently pliability. Women show no preference for blonde men.
No joke.
There's no such thing as hair colour, except in the minds of hairists. It's all socially constructed.
if that is the case, and i don't believe it is, the statement is false.
I really love Latour's machinic metaphor for truth instead of the generic ocular one.
What do we mean by "children" here? A preference for young women is easily explained by evolutionary adaptation, but an attraction to pre-pubescents is clearly a non-starter in this respect.
I think making statements like "Men like blonde women because [reason]..." are a bit suspect because there's just so much cultural baggage to wade through before you even get close to a genetic/evolutionary explanation.
Articles regarding what evolutionary psychologists have found are nearly always infuriating. Plus stuff like this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/10/men-sexual-tastes-broaden-stressed
"People are usually attracted to partners with similar facial features to their own..."
I find that difficult to believe based on personal experience. But then I could be unknowingly noticing similarities subconsciously I suppose.
Hmm... seems I go for people that look 'unsimilar' to me and usually prefer to 'date out of my own race'. Maybe it's because subconsciously I find my background very 'white bread' and dull and am practicing some sort of orientalism.
I think it's just a rejection of this mainstream tendency or mechanism. But as I'm pretty much homosexual (tho I could make exceptions in times of 'stress' or maybe when drunk I think I could 'do the business' with a woman). So I doubt I'm selecting in order to have healthier offspring. Although it might be somehow useful on the level of 'group selection', rather than 'individual selection'.
Seems like it would be disturbing for most people to think about studies like this and about their own 'selections'. I think most people think they're choosing their sexual partner like it's some conscious aesthetic deliberation, like when they're assessing a painting or something. Or they think they're choosing for some 'rational reasons' like bank account, car & ability to be a 'provider'. Or then they might think they're not shallow and it's all about personality.
But most of these decisions are made anterior to any conscious thoughts we've had (this is why I believe in 'love at first sight'). Then any thoughts we do have are probably just justifying the choice we've already made. This might be why it's so hard to 'extricate' yourself from someone once you've realized it's all a big mistake. It's hard to accept that most of the agency here is exercised by something operating on a much bigger scale than us as individuals, something we can't even see.
Of course we're also fairly 'plastic' so evolution's not always the main driver of attraction, I mean - why is like this woman: http://media.apnonline.com.au/img/news/2007/09/10/nicole-bott-main_t325.jpg -- why is she the universal standard for beauty? We're still 'spoken by the Other' here.
"People are usually attracted to partners with similar facial features to their own..."
[Guardian article:] Men have a tendency to approach dissimilar mates and to rate these to be more pleasant when they are acutely stressed