How To Sexually Repress Women? (tradition, choices, choice, evolution)

[Sunstone]

This is from another thread:

Every traditional society with a history of repressing women, represses their expression of beauty and sexuality. Wearing "floor to ceiling" utterly plain garb designed to hide the female body is just one example of that. Prohibitions against using make up, against "immodest" dress, and so forth are usually sold to women as ways of gaining them the respect of men, but in actuality they are ways of limiting female reproductive choice.

Why?

The reason repressing a woman's expression of beauty and sexuality limits her reproductive choice is because women typically adopt a mating strategy of attracting, via their beauty and behavior, as many men as possible, and then choosing from those they attract which one(s) to mate with. In a sense, this is a passive strategy. But not really. It's actually quite aggressive, provided the women are free to make themselves look as sexually attractive as they want to look. And this strategy is as old as the hills. Evidence from the evolutionary sciences indicates that women have been doing it for as long as we've been a species.

In other words, if you are going to repress women so that they are subordinate to men, you must repress their ability to choose mates for themselves, and the classic way of doing that has been to limit or eliminate a woman's ability to attract men to her. Put differently, the more men a woman can attract, the more choices she has, the more options she has, the pickier she can be, about whom to mate with.

Comments?

[jamaesi]

I tend to agree with forcing women to dress in a certain way is repressive- but I don't know about limiting sexual choice (especially when it is personal choice). But yes, again, men have been limiting women's sexuality for... since time began and this would limit it. Let me mull this over more.

But in person choice, sure, some guys might not find me "attractive" because I dress modestly, but I tend to find the those guys not to be the ones I would want to have anything to do with- sexual or not... and I found and have a wonderful boyfriend by being myself.

And this strategy is as old as the hills. Evidence from the evolutionary sciences indicates that women have been doing it for as long as we've been a species.

What's the evidence of that?

I'm just curious because in most other animals, it is the male that is more attractive than the female. Look at peacocks and lions, for example.

Male humans, also, look just as beautiful as females do when makeup and clothing is applied. Take Hedwig or any other well done drag queens, for (possibly well known) example.

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by Jamaesi

What's the evidence of that?

One bit of evidence for the notion that human females have exercised reproductive choice through out human evolution is the size of male testicles, of all things. It turns out that in great apes, the size of male testicles is closely related to how much reproductive choice the female exercises. Humans fall about mid way in the testical spectrum, indicating that human females exercised some choice through out human evolution, but not as much choice as, say, their bonobo cousins.

Another bit of evidence for the notion is the orientation of human males towards the appearance of females, rather that, say, their status. It's been recently found that the tendency of males to be highly attracted to beautiful women is not exclusively a cultural thing, but is to some extent hardwired in the male brain. This indicates that it evolved. The significance of it is that a more beautiful woman, all else being equal, will attract more potential mates than a less beautiful woman, allowing her greater choice; and that this has been going on since time immemorial.

[almifkhar]

i just want to make a point.

a woman can dress which ever way she wants to by either covering everything up or showing off as much as possible. she can be dirty, ugly, beautiful, fat, skinny whatever. the point is she will always be able to find many a men simply because she has what they want.

our fathers brothers sons and husbands try so hard to repress us for a few good reasons (boy i hate to be the one to say this, but it's true saddly)
1. so there will be no question on who the father is
2. men will use up women for their own sexual desires and then throw them away when they are finished.
3. if women are used to being treated like trash because of the many men with their empty promises, then this starts to effect family and society as a whole. and just think about how the next generation will be. just take a good look around at our western society for a clue.

i really wish that things were different, but men well spend their days thinking about getting laid. thank god i was not born a man!

[egroen]

Ok, I am getting sick of the thinly-veiled male-bashing coming from many muslim posters, especially women.

I can train my dog not to hump everything that walks by him, I think you can have a smidgen of that success with your men!

Men and boys do spend their days thinking about "getting laid". But so do I, many women and humanity in general... but we have this amazing ability called "self-restraint". Believe it or not, it is exercized almost every minute of every day by 99% of the human population, even men!

Maybe you should try putting a bit of this burden of responsibilty on your men instead of giving them unlimited excuses and free reign to act like out-of-control rutting pigs every time they see an inch of female flesh, because they are just men.

I'm just sorry, men are capable of so much more than you give them credit for.

-Erin

[Purple Thyme]

I am very thankful I live in a place and a time where I choose what I wear and who I mate with without the input of my male relatives. Then again I was thankfully raised by a strong willed grandmother who taught me building blocks to help me make my own decisions in life. I do agree that throughout history human mating practices are based somewhat on what we look like and wear. It's natural. Animal reproduction uses this though it usually is the male trying to win the female vote.

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by egroen

Men and boys do spend their days thinking about "getting laid".

Some of us spend our days wishing we still spent our days thinking about getting laid, but that's another story.

But so do I, many women and humanity in general... but we have this amazing ability called "self-restraint". Believe it or not, it is exercized almost every minute of every day by 99% of the human population, even men!

Maybe you should try putting a bit of this burden of responsibilty on your men instead of giving them unlimited excuses and free reign to act like out-of-control rutting pigs every time they see an inch of female flesh, because they are just men.

I'm just sorry, men are capable of so much more than you give them credit for.

It's absurd to think that all men have only the sexual restraint of 14 year old boys. One thing most (not all) men in our culture learn during adolescence and young adulthood is how to deal with their testosterone. Erin is right. This is not only expected of males in our society, but it should be expected of males in our society. There is something pathetic about a male out of adolescence who cannot see skin without going nuts.

[Purple Thyme]

I'm just sorry, men are capable of so much more than you give them credit for.

I totally agree and thank you for saying it.