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0 pointsaalleavitch6y ago0 comments

What is attractive in society is always aligned to the values of that society. Contrary to what evopscyh would have you believe, there is massive cultural variation in the standards of attractiveness. Wealth inequality itself is the most massive driver of inequality in partner selection; the entire reason a mandate to monogamy exists is because there is a huge incentive for all partners to flock to the richest person. If we lacked wealth inequality, we would have far less inequality in the factors of attractiveness, and less sensitivity to those factors which still existed. Being attractive in modern society is an incredibly time and resource intensive activity, and is composed of far more than raw genetics. And even then, those genetic traits are weighted in value by society. The reason all of this takes on so much importance for us is explicitly because we are constantly awash in the act of competition to climb the socioeconomic hierarchy.

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adventskalender6y ago· 2 in thread

I don't think that is true at all. If wealth was taken away, physical attributes would simply become more important.

It's true that culture has effects on what is considered attractive. That doesn't mean it is arbitrary, though. And I don't think any culture managed to make unhealthy people attractive, for example.

int_19h6y ago

It's pretty common for societies to do exactly that. For example, if you look at the descriptions of beautiful women in the Victorian society, it overlaps pretty well with the symptoms of tuberculosis - obsession with unhealthy levels of thinness, or pale translucent skin.

And whenever you look at what underpins it, it almost always has to do with class and wealth - basically, physical traits that correlate with lack of need to perform hard menial work become a mark of belonging to the upper class. Better yet when it's physical traits that make it impossible to perform such work from birth, or close to it. When they didn't exist, they would sometimes be invented, such as foot binding.

adventskalender6y ago

All explained by signalling theory - signalling status, which is useful for survival of offspring. That's what I mean by it isn't arbitrary. And it isn't all about wealth, either. Walking in high heels proves a certain level of fitness, for example.

And most things that are seen as attractive in women are simply signals of youth, as young women can have more children than old women. You can't remove that with socialism.

As for descriptions of women in Victorian society, they may just be caricatures, or something like modern fashion photography might be going on - the women displayed in fashion photography (artificially thinned) are not actually the ones men find the most attractive. It might be more of an intersexual competition between women. And again status - in our world thinness proves status, because it is difficult to be thin. In scarcity worlds, some fatness proves you are rich and can afford to eat.

(Peacocks signal with their tails that they are healthy and strong, even though they have no society they live in, so no inequality and class struggles).

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