But this is what
Papa
was saying? It is not really for you but more of a strategic thing to boost your attractiveness.
Shh, don't tell him, because he's essentially making a case for Peterson without being aware of it. It's called
ornamentation and is an evolutionary pattern present in both animals and humans. Ornamentation is oftentimes linked to
female intrasexual competition:
Self-promotion tactics refers to the different strategies that women might use to make themselves look better compared to other competing women. For example, women are interested in luxury items that enhance their attractiveness. Luxury items can indicate attractiveness by emphasising a higher status, which is a factor that potential mates will take into consideration. When testing for female intrasexual competition, research has shown that women would purposely choose luxury items that boosts their level of attractiveness, and will disregard non-attractive items, even if they are luxury items. When consuming attractive luxury items, women are perceived to be more attractive, young, and flirty by other women. At the same time, such consumption portrays their willingness to engage in sexual activity.
Of course, males display the same behavioral patterns, but they
compete differently when compared to females:
The American evolutionary psychologist David Buss found in the eighties that intra-sexual competition takes two primary forms: self-promotion and competitor derogation. Men demonstrate and promote their physical abilities and social status (masculine traits favored by women). Women tend to promote their youth and physical attractiveness (feminine traits favored by men). Men try to derogate their rivals by disparaging their economic and physical strength, while women criticize the age, appearance and character of their opponents.
Ever wondered why so many men like cars and why lots of women like cosmetics? That's why, cars have become symbolic for social status while cosmetics are used to enhance youthful appearance. Also, this has not a whole lot to do with social cultivation, because these behaviors are
cultural universals. As another example, both males and females are interested in fitness-activities, but for different reasons. Males want to be 'stronger' than their competitors, and females want to enhance their physical attractiveness. Other reasons, such a health related aspects, favorably contribute to these behavioral patterns, it's called the
halo-effect.
Of course, these behavioral markers not only pertain to sexual attractiveness, but also to socio-economical competition. For example, women married to men who devoted more effort to status striving reported significantly more emotional manipulation, resource display, appearance enhancement, verbal signals of possession, and possessive ornamentation than women married to men who were low on status striving. But, it should be said, that it's quite hard to even differentiate between sexual and economical competitiveness since both
inherently influence each other.
From an evolutionary perspective, this also explains why
girls bully differently than boys, hence why their bullying tactics go oftentimes unnoticed. They are also
equally as likely to use misogynistic slurs such as 'slut' and 'whore' than boys. Coincidentally girls are more often the victims of bullying, but they are also
more often the perpetrators. The common preconception that females are more 'peaceful' than men and that the majority of online harassment is done by males,
is simply wrong:
From PCs to mobile phones, humans can now communicate in ways never before experienced during our history on Earth; moreover, sites like Facebook are providing a novel platform for engaging in female intrasexual competition. Through cyberbullying, selfies, and Facebook “stalking,” females are engaging in traditional strategies of intrasexual competition (i.e., self-promotion, rival derogation, mate manipulation, and competitor manipulation) in an evolutionarily novel social environment. This chapter examines what is new about social interactions that take place online and what is an artifact of our evolutionary heritage.
Such competition evolved to be adaptive in ancestral environments as the perceived competition consisted of real individuals. However, underlying psychological mechanisms for competition are excessively triggered and more continuously engaged in modern environments, because these psychological mechanisms for social comparison and competition, at a deep level, do not differentiate between real people and imagined intrasexual competition in the form of mass media images.
In other words, women compete with each other as much as males do, they just do it differently. But it goes to show that online harassment is not merely the result of '
toxic masculinity' as is so often
falsely perpetuated by the media. I'd like to reiterate that I'm not trying to paint men as '
innocent victims', on the contrary. I'm merely pointing out the fact, that the common preconceptions of these issues are heavily skewed due to a unilateral narrative that is being spun by journalists, politicians and far-left ideologues alike.
