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→Evolution of female neoteny
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Due to sex differences in [[Bateman's principle|parental investment]], women evolved to be coy and choosy, and men evolved to be taller and stronger than women in an evolutionary arms race among men competing for reproductive opportunities. As a result, women became dependent on men's resources.<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill_(Supplemental)#Women_were_historically_predominantly_involved_in_cooking_and_they_never_dominated_men</ref> | Due to sex differences in [[Bateman's principle|parental investment]], women evolved to be coy and choosy, and men evolved to be taller and stronger than women in an evolutionary arms race among men competing for reproductive opportunities. As a result, women became dependent on men's resources.<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill_(Supplemental)#Women_were_historically_predominantly_involved_in_cooking_and_they_never_dominated_men</ref> | ||
Due to women's resource-dependence, it is probable that they retain child-like features such that males are encouraged to invest into them.<ref name="vox2016">https://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11872688/ugly-babies-discrimination</ref> Men's attraction to neotenous females may hence be explained by higher survival rates of cute looking female offspring, with the female offspring being much more dependent on surviving by mere cuteness than the males. Neoteny serves the same purpose in other animals,<ref name="vox2016"></ref> and due to the relatedness of species, the signaling works across different species, leading e.g. humans to breed cute looking pets that they take pleasure in providing for. | Due to women's resource-dependence, it is probable that they retain child-like features such that males are encouraged to invest into them much like humans of either sex invest more in cute looking offspring.<ref name="vox2016">https://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11872688/ugly-babies-discrimination</ref> Men's attraction to neotenous females may hence be explained by higher survival rates of cute looking female offspring, with the female offspring being much more dependent on surviving by mere cuteness than the males. Neoteny serves the same purpose in other animals,<ref name="vox2016"></ref> and due to the relatedness of species, the signaling also works ''across'' different species, leading e.g. humans to breed cute looking pets that they take pleasure in providing for. | ||
Interestingly, women’s preferences for men’s facial neoteny (rather than masculinity) are strongest under disfavorable ecological conditions,<ref>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39350-8</ref> which may result from similar evolved mate preferences that ensure higher survival rates | Interestingly, women’s preferences for men’s facial neoteny (rather than masculinity) are strongest under disfavorable ecological conditions,<ref>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39350-8</ref> which may result from similar evolved mate preferences that ensure higher survival rates through cute looking offspring (which is related to [[wikipedia:Travis-Willard hypothesis|Travis-Willard hypothesis]], which states that the sex ratio at birth skews female under harsh conditions due to women having a higher survival rate). | ||
Another hypothesis for the evolution of female neoteny may be that it has been [[sexual selection|sexually selected]] for by males in efforts of [[paternity assurance|ensuring paternity]]. Different from men, women can always be certain their offspring is their own. As a result, men may have evolved to desire certainty about their paternity. Moreover, being providers of resources, men have extra incentive to minimize the chances of investing in someone else's offspring. Men can best achieve this certainty by monopolizing girls as early as possible, preventing other men from impregnating them. Further, men may have evolved to prefer childish, weak, submissive and obedient women, as those are easy to control. Gowaty (1992) writes: | |||
{{quote|There should be strong selection on males to control females' reproduction through direct coercive control of females […]. Evolutionary thinkers, whether informed by feminist ideas or not, are not surprised by one of the overwhelming facts of patriarchal cultures, namely that men […] seek to constrain and control the reproductive capacities of women […]. Juvenilization decreases the threat some men may feel when confronted with women; many men are comfortable around women whom they can clearly dominate and are profoundly uncomfortable around women whom they cannot so clearly dominate.<ref>https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=fchd_facpub p. 231-240</ref>}} | {{quote|There should be strong selection on males to control females' reproduction through direct coercive control of females […]. Evolutionary thinkers, whether informed by feminist ideas or not, are not surprised by one of the overwhelming facts of patriarchal cultures, namely that men […] seek to constrain and control the reproductive capacities of women […]. Juvenilization decreases the threat some men may feel when confronted with women; many men are comfortable around women whom they can clearly dominate and are profoundly uncomfortable around women whom they cannot so clearly dominate.<ref>https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=fchd_facpub p. 231-240</ref>}} | ||