

The Masculine Mystique - rmk
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704100604575145810050665030.html

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CapitalistCartr
There are some considerable weaknesses in concluding causation here. Their
theory is a sound proposal, but countries with higher levels of health, also
are wealthier, more socialist, and other factors. All of which might be
relevant.

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mlinsey
One possible confounding variable that immediately lept to my mind was a study
published sometime in the past couple years indicated that women's preferences
change depending on whether they are currently taking hormonal birth control.
I believe it did say that more "feminine" characteristics were more attractive
when taking such birth control - and these birth control methods are probably
more common in countries with better medical systems in general.

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rmk
Yes, I remember reading about this as well... Perhaps it does play a role
whose 'share' hasn't been taken into account.

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dmix
I'd be interested to know what effect the womens rating on masculinity had to
do with what position they where in their own life, sexually and socially.

From what I've read of evolutionary pyschology, when women are younger and
adventurous, or when their friends are single, they are looking for alpha
males. But when they want to settle down they often lean towards less
masculine beta males.

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nazgulnarsil
dominant strategy is sleeping with alphas and keeping a beta for
resources/security. cuckholdry rates being far higher than is generally
assumed seems to support this. avoided topic because it makes people
uncomfortable.

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lsc
"In 1970, women represented only 43.3% of women of the labor force, compared
to 55.8% today. "

Uhm...

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krf
I think the article meant to say that 43.3% of women were in the labor force
in 1970, and 55.8% of women today are in the labor force.

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lsc
clearly. the error was... amusing, though.

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lionhearted
Author misses an important point. Evolution by sexual selection only applies
to a woman's choices 3-5 days out of the month, when she is able to conceive
and become pregnant. Any study that doesn't take this into account is going to
get some misleading data - a woman's preference in men the non-conceiving 25
to 28 days out of a month has a lot less bearing on evolution and sexual
selection than the other 3 to 5 days.

