From: tlode@nyx.cs.du.edu (trygve lode)
Subject: Re: Sexual Selectivity and Barbary Macaques
Keywords: selectivity, sociobiology, complexity
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 05:38:47 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.020418.1275@cbnewsd.cb.att.com> jfb200@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (joseph.f.baugher) writes:
>People who follow the occasional debates in these  news  groups  about
>the  tendency  for  women to be sexually attracted toward dominant men
>might be interested in a news article which appeared in  the  July  17
>issue  of  *Science*  magazine.  This article describes some work by a
>group of Cornell University researchers who studied a group of Barbary
>macaques living in southern France.  These studies cast doubts on some
>old received notions about female sexual selectivity.

[stuff deleted]

>   By  allowing  only  "superior"  males  to  be  able to become
>fathers, female choice acts as a powerful  selective  agent,  allowing
>these  traits  to  be  passed  on  to  succeeding  generations.   This
>biological driving force may extend to primates and  perhaps  even  to
>human beings--re, the constant complaints we hear from men about women
>who want only guys with money and power, and the complaints from women
>that all that men want is a quick roll in the hay.

Or rather, the constant complaints from men who lack money and power
that women only want guys with money and power--not unlike the complaints
from nice guys that women want only jerks, the complaints from 
non-athletes that women want want only athletes, or the complaints
from average or below looking men that women want only drop-dead
gorgeous hunks.  

Personally, I've noticed a distinct tendency (in my experience) for
women to prefer skinny, inconsiderate sorts who can't pick up even
a relatively small household appliance and don't have two cents to
their name.  (Seriously--a few months ago I realized that, of all 
the women I knew who were involved with men, not a single one of 
those men had jobs and cars.)  In my observations of the mating
selection process, I've never noticed any particular tendency 
favoring the selection of "high-status" males. 

>The Barbary  macaque  study  seems  to  indicate  that  female  sexual
>behavior  among  these  primates  may  be much more complicated than a
>simple sociobiological model might indicate.  When the females were in
>estrus,  they  would mate with just about any male who happened along.
>Sometimes they would choose a high- status mate,  but  sometimes  they
>wouldn't.    Sometimes  they  would  mate with a known male, sometimes
>they would mate with a complete stranger.  The mating  process  seemed
>to  be  completely  random,  certainly  much  more  so  than  a simple
>deterministic model of female sexual selectivity might suggest.

A friend of mine proposed her theory to me a while ago that people
don't look for Mr. or Ms. Right so much as they just wait for the
right time and then just grab the next available MOTAS.  I don't
think that's a universal rule by any means, but I suspect that it
is often a greater factor than any characteristic of the other 
person in question.

Trygve
Newsgroups: soc.singles