Friday, January 05, 2018

Bonobos prefer socially dominant jerks

With all the talk about MeTooism, is there anyone who dares to say what baloney it all is?

Men and women have fundamentally different natures. They have to get together, or the human race dies out.

Men are the aggressors. Women passively enhance their beauty in the hopes of attracting a mate. Men have to prove themselves, and make the moves. Women act like prizes to be won, and just want to accept or reject the masculine advances.

Not always, of course. In some societies, the parents arrange marriages to cousins at an early age, and there is no dating.

New research shows that bonobos prefer the socially-dominant jerks, just like human female instincts, as NPR Radio reports:
NPR Radio reports today:
This bias toward helpfulness seems almost hardwired in humans. Back in 2007, for example, researchers reported that 6- and 10-month-old infants could evaluate social interactions that they saw in puppet shows. ...

Humans might not want to interact with someone who is not nice, but it looks like bonobos interpret the meanie's behavior as a sign of dominance. "Dominance is really important for apes because it determines access to resources, access to food and mating opportunities and things like that," says Krupenye. "They're attracted to an individual who might be a powerful friend or ally, as opposed to someone who is just generally helpful or pleasant."

The researchers did this experiment in bonobos because these apes are known for being particularly friendly and social.
See also SciAm article.

The researchers suggest that humans are different, but that is based on research on babies as young as 3 months. A 3-month-old human baby can barely focus her eyes on a shiny object. I do not believe that such a baby can make the complex social judgments described here.

Whether you agree with this or not, millions of women dress up and put on make up in order to attract socially dominant jerks making sexual advances.

The MeTooism crowd say that it is wrong for a man to make unwanted sexual advances. Maybe so, but why is it any more wrong than for a woman to dress like a slut?

The situations seem symmetrical to me. In both cases, the men and woman are following customary mating rituals. The woman who dresses like a slut is potentially creating discomfort for most of the men around her sexual advertising.

But men like to look at attractive women, you might say. This is like saying women like to attract male attention. Yes, they do, but there is a time and a place for it. Men usually do not like being distracted by cockteasers in the office, when they are trying to get some work done.

You might say that this burden on men is trivial. Maybe so, but is it any more trivial than the burdens on women that make up most of the MeTooism complaints?

Any honest discussion of MeTooism should address these issues: (1) Women instinctively desire socially dominant jerks. (2) Women only complain about sexual harassment if the man is not high-status enough. (3) Women who dress like sluts are just as obnoxious as the men who sexually harass.

My guess is that no one wants to address these issues because no one wants to deal with a bunch of irrational feminists anyway.

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