In non-human animals, it is typically the males that engage in intrasexual competition and females that exercise intersexual choice. This is apparent in the morphological and behavioural differences between the sexes. Trivers (1972) argues that this is so due to differential investment in offspring between the sexes, which makes access to females a limiting resource in males' reproductive success. In other words, males compete, females choose. In this essay I shall critically discuss the evidence that this pattern exists in humans. In terms of competition between males, I will consider aspects of the male body, such as size and strength, in addition to psychological characteristics such as aggression, and the drive to seek status. In regards …show more content…
Ultimately I will contend that there is good evidence that the patterns of morphological and behavioural differences that exist between the sexes exist in humans.
Parental investment helps us make sense of the differences between the sexes, and offers an explanation for the evolution of particular traits. In the majority of animal species, it is the females that make a greater investment in offspring. This is true of mammals, including Homo sapiens, given that the female gestates the offspring inside her body for nine months, and nurses the offspring after giving birth, both of which are highly costly to the mother (TBAOON 40). Whereas, for males, the cost of sperm production and donation is relatively small. Unlike females, males can increase their number of offspring by mating with as many females as possible (NOTS 63).Thus, for a female, it is much more costly to replace a child than it is for a male to do
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From childhood, there are clear differences between males and females due to sex hormones and the divergence of brain development that starts during foetal development (TBS 347). Boys are far more likely to engage is rough-and-tumble play, including chasing and fighting, which is seen as practising for violent conflict (TBS 344), and this pattern continues into adulthood, with the majority of all violence in human societies being committed by males aged fifteen to thirty years of age (** TBAOON 125). Across all cultures, males are more aggressive and are more disposed to violence, even lethal violence (TBS346), and are much more likely to use violence in order to obtain status (TBS 345). In non-state societies, males who are more dominant tend to have more girlfriends and wives, as well as having more affairs with the wives of other men (TBAOON 624). In addition to utilising violence, it is also males who more often fantasise about violence, consume and enjoy violent entertainment, and, take great pleasure in retribution and revenge. Moreover, men are typically more likely to vote for hawkish politicians and support militaristic policy, not to mention, it is predominantly males who have historically planned and engaged in wars and genocides (TBAOON 827)(PUTS 6). Consequently, it is clear that males, in general, are more prone to aggression and violence, and
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
This also leads into the fact that people interpret male violence and aggression as natural. They’ll pin it as something hardwired from ‘the hunter-gatherer days’. Often times they’ll also blame it on media violence, such as graphic video games, movies and TV shows. This is something much broader than that.
The two books examined in this paper, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson's Homicide and David M. Buss's The Evolution of Desire, suggest that human mating strategies have an evolutionary basis. The book written by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson supplies the theoretical groundwork and the book written by David M. Buss gives validity and empirical support for the theory. The two books make a strong scientific argument for evolutionary adaptations as the most crucial element to understanding human sexuality and desire. According to this argument, the key to understanding human sexuality lies in the evolutionary origin of our species.
Pietrzak, R.H., Laird, J.D., Stevens, D.A., & Thompson, N.S. (2002). Sex differences in human jealousy: A coordinated study of forced-choice, continuous rating-scale, and physiological responses on the same subjects. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 83-94.
The structure of this essay is based on animals and humans mate choice strategies and gender differences and similarities. These factors are intertwined with males and females reproduction success for choosing the right mate and bearing the parental cost involved in the offspring upbringing. (Trivers, 1972, 1985).Animal males from the evolutionary perspectives seek fertile, strong, females as a security for their offspring reproduction. These males’ strategize for their mate choice by advertising their masculinity as men ready for a mate. (Buss & Barnes, 1986; Buss, 1987).The female animals chooses mate base on their sense of security so they prefer males capable to protect and bear the cost of parenting with them.(Trivers,1972).In humans, females prefer wealthy men with high status as mate (Bjorklund & shackleford, 1999; Buss, 1992) whereas males prefer to date young attractive females who considers as fertile with the ability for genes reproduction.
Parental care can be defined as parents’ investment in the offspring post egg laying or birth of the young ones. Hence, it does not count the initial investment involved in gamete production (Ridley, 1978; Wells, 2008). In many animals belonging to diverse taxa, neither male nor female offer parental care in which the offspring are left at the mercy of nature whereas, in others only one parent, either male or female, cares for the offspring. In still others both the parents jointly take the responsibility of caring their progeny (Reynolds et al., 2012). Evolution of this diversity in parental care can be explained with the help of cost/benefit ratio of providing the parental care. Lack (1954) proposed a principle to explain the evolution of parental care and the relative investment by the
Society influences the socioeconomic inequalities between people, which usually results in differing social and cultural norms surrounding violence. These norms might include male dominance over women, while certain cultural norms might support violence and claim it to be a reasonable method to resolve conflicts in neighborhoods. We see this shown in the film because they talk about how violence is a two step process. The first part is the thought that, ‘I have a grievance with someone’, and the second part is that the grievance justifies violence (James et al.,
The socio-biological theory suggests gender appropriate behaviour has evolved to allow humanity to survive. There is supporting evidence in the composition of the human body; men have a larger lung capacity and greater physical strength than women in order to better equip them for protecting their family. In contrast, women are born with child-bearing capacities and are therefore biologically predetermined to care for their children, thus ensuring the human race survives.
This is boosted by promiscuity when males and females have several partners. www1, www2, www4. Futuyma (1998) defines sexual selection as “selection that arises from differences in the mating success (number of mates that bear offspring)”. Sexual struggle can be divided into two categories. The first category is the struggle between individuals of the same sex (generally males) in order to be victorious against their rival by killing it or make it retreat.
Sexual selection theory suggests that participation in risky behavior should be observed mainly in those individuals who have experienced most intense reproductive competition (Wilson & Daly, 1985). We can see an individual is fighting for a living and even for mates. We have studied in our earlier class that females are soft-hearted and emotional whereas males are strong, bold, and hide their emotion. Seeing the basic characteristics of male as an emotional hider can make him competitive. In some traditional society, if males are not being strong enough to show courage and support his family is regarded as a useless fellow. We can see people who are the warrior are both males and females, but males are preferred. In earlier days, females were
Thus, in the case of the social construction of the body, the idea can be applied to be based on a conflict between two social classes, that of males and females. Rather than fully incorporating the merit of science to social meanings, most western cultures still portray males as more “superior” to females even in cases that are “scientifically” proven otherwise. For example, the authors discuss the process of human insemination and how has recent research found that women’s cells tend to be more active than those of men (Graves and Kwan 2013). Despite these new depictions, many medical textbooks will continue to portray the dominant sexual conquest that men are active and women are
A book named Bare Branches by Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer puts forth an argument that unregulated sex selection is dire and threatening. The book claims that a high male-to-female ratio promotes violence, crimes, and authoritarian leadership. The claim is based on the assumption that young unmarried males with no responsibilities are often the instigators of the most violent crimes. Moreover, the authors of the book claim that the increase of male to female ratio poses a global threat and domestic
What makes us different? Where is the line between genders beyond sex organs? What factors play a part in sex-linked behaviors? (In our modern society, the differences between sexes is a lightly touched on subject because evidence of one being less than the other could greatly rupture our disputed ideas of equality between the sexes.)
This is in response to ¨Teen programs combats violence by challenging macho stereotypes group aims to redefine manhood to teens¨ (Dec. 10). As a highschool student, I agree and I feel that violence is a very big problem in today's society. I believe that violence is something that no one should have to face or go through. I think that many kids, who grew up, or are growing up in violence were taught from an early age, that violence somehow solves everything. However, that is not the case at all, I also believe that violence solves nothing and it only causes trouble and it could result to someone being hurt or possibly even killed. In the article it states “Boys growing up in the U.S. are taught from the earliest ages the quickest way to gain
Sexual selection is the characteristics that are exaggerated beyond what is needed for survival or reproduction, due to combat, preference for the trait by the opposite sex or sperm competition (L. Meek, Personal Communication, February 10, 2016). The male and female choices must be important in the human evolution of exaggerated characteristics because we are visual animals; we tend to use our visual ability to influence our decisions in various aspects of our lives. Both sexes are choosy about physical appearance, males and females have different body traits shaped by sexual selection. As Miller (2000) noted, males are taller, heavier on average, higher metabolic rates, upper body strength, more hair, and deeper voices. Women have enlarged