Shaping Identities: How Do Standards Define Men And Women (Part Three)

 Women must ensure the survival of their offspring, so they must pick a mate who will invest time and resources into the infant. 


Unlike male organisms that can theoretically pass their genes down in minutes, women have to wait nine months and ensure the infant survives. Bigger males may signal health and strength, but they also signal elevated levels of testosterone. Past research suggests that elevated testosterone levels aids men in efforts to attract mates by increasing their confidence and aggressiveness towards competing men.


One study found that men perceived other men as more threatening when they ranked higher in status and resources, while women found other women more threatening when they ranked higher in attractiveness.


Even looking at infidelity, we see behavior that supports the evolutionary perspective. In a study that looked at over 60,000 people, participants were asked to imagine different scenarios and classify which one would be most upsetting and distressing to them:


1. You found out your partner is having a sexual relationship with someone else but has not fallen in love with this person.

2. You found out that your partner has fallen in love with someone else but is not having a sexual relationship with this person.


Across the board, heterosexual men were found to be more upset by sexual infidelity than women. Heterosexual women were found to be most upset by the emotional infidelity.


Keeping in mind the evolutionary perspective, a man's partner sleeping with someone else decreases the likelihood that his genes will be passed down, while his partner falling in love with someone else obviously hurts, but theoretically would not hurt his chances of reproducing. The opposite is true for women; her partner sleeping with someone else is emotionally painful as well, but she'd still be able to pass down her genes. However, if he were to fall in love with someone else, this may redirect his resources to his mistress, leaving her and her child to fend for themselves.


In hindsight, not only do females produce fewer of their gametes, but they’re responsible for, you know, fully baking everything. So, females are incentivized to choose a mate with good enough genes to do this with. 


Several pieces of other data may support this notion in humans. According to the CDC, on average, men typically have more sex partners than women, although that number might be inflated due to societal roles. When comparing heterosexual couples to same-sex couples, we see differences in how much each engages in sexual activity. Male-male couples reported the highest number of sexual activities, followed by male-female, and then female-female reporting the least.

Okay, to sum that all up: innate biological differences between the sexes may motivate the difference in sexual behavior. 

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