| Why Are There Sex Differences In Humans? |
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Social differences between males and females have lasted since humans have walked the planet: they aren't new. But how did they come about, and why do we still have these differences, despite societal determination to get rid of them? In a moment we shall see how evolutional motives, not learned behaviours through society or culture, have created the premise for our biological differences. Firstly, we must distinguish that all sexist accusations are, essentially, any difference attributed between the male and female human being. Here are a couple of questions for you: Why have men been known to be more controlling or dominant with women than women have been with men? Why are men more jealous and therefore more violent than females when it comes to infidelity? Why do men court the female, i.e. pay the cheque, and not the other way around? Why are men physically stronger than females? Why have men been known to be more aggressive? Why should mothers have more rights in custody battles than fathers? Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plainly states that: Male competition and female choice are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. [Charles] Darwin called attention to these two spectacles, which he dubbed sexual selection, but was puzzled as to why it should be males that compete and females that choose rather than the other way around. The theory of parental investment solves the puzzle. The greater investing sex chooses, the lesser-investing sex competes. Relative investment, then, is the cause of sex differences. (Pinker 661) What he means by "relative investment" is simply this: Only one of the two sexes invests more in the development of the fetus, and that is the female. Since there are millions of sperm and only one egg, it is easy to see which is more important. The amount of time, risk, and resources used up by the female body to protect and nourish the fetus are incomparable to the amount of resources the male contributes: a copy of his DNA - and nothing else. Competition or aggressiveness amongst males is also explained: First, a single male can fertilize several females, which forces other males to go mateless. That sets up a competition among males for access to females. A male may beat up other males to prevent them from getting to a female, or compete for the resources necessary to mate, or court a female to get her to choose him. (464) This is why females have the upper hand in "choosing" their mates, and why males must compete to gain access to them. Males can fertilize numerous eggs at a time but a female can only nourish and give birth to one. This is exactly what sets the standard for fear and aggression in males regarding jealousy or dominance over females. Males can never actually be sure that the offspring is his. All future measures taken to control females, then, are fundamentally stemming from a combination of anger and fear: that they could be wasting their time building a relationship with the mother and her offspring if it doesn't actually carry his genes. Second, the reproductive success of males depends on how many females they mate with, but the reproductive success of females does not depend on how many males they mate with. That makes females more discriminating. Males woo females and mate with any female that lets them. Females scrutinize males and mate only with the best ones: the ones with the best genes, the ones most willing and able to feed and protect her offspring, or the ones that the other females tend to prefer. (464) In other words, courting her or just being able to pay that cheque is the nomadic equivalent of winning a fight with another male competitor: proving to the female that he will be the best suitor. In conclusion, this adds sense to why we behave this way, even despite social goals such as the promotion of feminism or downplaying the standard for masculinity in men. Works Cited Pinker, Steven. How The Mind Works. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1999. Written by CJ H, 2007. Last updated Mar 12 2007. |