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The Science of SexSIMON SHEPPARD |
Females are more uniform than males, so are easier to understand, once their policy of obfuscation is recognized. Most of the following is adapted from All About Women because it is more suitable as an introduction than excerpts from the Suppressed Science papers. Biology, Evolution and HistoryMost of history has not been written; it lies within us. Instincts have evolved just as organs to give us advantage in a competitive, often hostile environment. During early human history women were constantly either pregnant or breast-feeding. In the upper paleolithic period (30,000 10,000 BC) the life-expectancy of males was 33.3 years and of females 28.7, with the major cause of female mortality being childbearing and attempts to induce abortions (e.g. putting a plank over a woman’s stomach and jumping on it until blood spurted out of her vagina). Male mortality would have been mainly due to hunting accidents or fights over women. According to Darwin the Best Man tradition derives from him being the groom’s accomplice in the act of stealing a bride from a neighbouring village. To obtain anything approaching an accurate perspective on human behaviour, and male-female interaction in particular, we have to be aware of humans’ evolutionary history: in the biological jargon, our phylogeny. The great bulk of our evolutionary conditioning took place during our two million-year prehistoric period and it is here that we find the origins of behaviour and the reasons we are what we are. Probably the three dominant factors at the root of male-female interaction are the following, operating at the primal, the physical and the psychological level:
Several psychologists have investigated male pick-up lines and the consistent lowest-scorer is Come back with me and have sex right now. That is, if the male is direct and completely honest, he does not generally succeed. (Males using such an approach statement in real life are likely to be doing so in an attempt to resolve excessive neurosis.) In fact females, if given a free choice, will prefer males who express female characteristics. This is because of the selfishness of the gene (Dawkins): the gene promotes itself. This explains, for example, the female affinity for homosexuals: male homosexuals express female characteristics. Mature males feign disinterest in a female in order to arouse her interest: the difficult part here is engineering a situation where the relationship may progress without obviously declaring a desire. Immature males sometimes approach a female making no attempt to hide their intentions and occasionally succeed, likely reasons for this being: a) The female is offered a relationship on such favourable terms that she cannot resist (she is given all control of the relationship at the outset), and/or b) She is seeking to remove Ambiguity of Intention from males in general. Females seek to monopolize Ambiguity of Intention so that only their objectives are allowed to be ambiguous (e.g. females interpreting a friendly remark from a male as an approach).
It is proposed that every transaction can be analyzed in terms ofSignals, Markers, Tokens and HandlesDefinitions and ExamplesSignal. Ambiguous; a signal is an ambiguous gesture, especially of a sexual nature. Examples: Accident Signals, the Open Legs Signal, the Wide Eye Signal, normally functioning to attract a mate: The female signals, the male responds. Signalling is the female strategy; it is passive, safe and ambiguous. The female manipulates the male into making an approach and can always deny her intent. Signals induce neurosis in males, making them confused and yet easier to manipulate. (Neurosis is here defined in Pavlovian terms as the stress induced when one stimulus evokes two or more responses.) Each sexual signal is evolutionarily stable. Marker. Unambiguous; a marker is an unambiguous indication of involvement. Examples: Talking to someone or buying someone a drink. Electricity, telephones, cars and other items of utility are markers discovered, invented or created by males. A female marks a male by choosing or mending his clothes. Primordial marking is leaving scent. Other forms of territorial marking are decorating a flat or leaving something at a table intending to return. Token. Ambiguous; a token is when one thing means another. Examples: Do you have a light? or Come back and have some coffee. Hints are commonplace examples of the token. A token has different values for the giver and the receiver. The cost of a cup of coffee in a café is a token because the cost of the drink is insignificant compared to the rent of the premises, wages of staff etc., and this is understood by both parties. Handle. Unambiguous; a handle is a request which generates a fixed and predetermined response. Examples: Calling someone’s name, having an arrangement to meet, being able to touch or hold someone. A handle state is a state in which handles are issued (e.g. being married).
Females prefer signals and tokens because they are ambiguous and therefore manipulative, while males prefer markers and handles because they are unambiguous and often involve the wealth which he creates. The Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Male-Female GameThe Prisoner’s Dilemma is a basic model in biology, used to model and predict the behaviour of many animal species. The PD has been applied to insects, lizards and fish, to name but a few. It can also be applied to humans and here it is applied especially to the male-female game. The model is mathematical (see box) in which behaviour is modelled as a game, but it is possible to detail its essentials without mathematics. For a fuller discussion of the PD see Axelrod: The Evolution of Cooperation or Poundstone: The Prisoner's Dilemma; the former is easier to find but Poundstone’s is more wide-ranging (and entertaining).
Disguised Defection models the female imitating the male, adopting roles and exploiting technologies which males have defined and developed once they become sufficiently facile, in order to disguise her defection from her natural functions.
Some Other Policies and Forms of Perception-Distortion Encouraged by Females
DiscriminationDiscrimination is an essential human function. To discriminate is to see the difference. It is obvious that someone who cannot see the difference between a small opponent and a large one, or between an enemy sneaking up in disguise and a friend, is at a disadvantage. If one kind (sex, race, species, genotype) is exploiting another it is to their advantage to erode their opponent’s discrimination to discourage discrimination on the basis of kind. This is the Malign Encouragement procedure: encouraging an opponent to pursue an adverse strategy. Collectively employed it is What’s bad for them is good for us. One of the most profound discoveries was that it is the male instinct to be racist. Anyone who says they are "anti-racist" is really saying they are anti-male. |
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