>There are two main theories of why women are competitive in indirectly aggressive ways. Evolutionary psychology, which uses natural selection to explain our mo

>There are two main theories of why women are competitive in indirectly aggressive ways. Evolutionary psychology, which uses natural selection to explain our modern behaviors, says that women need to protect themselves (read: their wombs) from physical harm, so indirect aggression keeps us safe while lowering the stock of other women. Feminist psychology chalks up this indirect aggression to internalizing the patriarchy. That doesn't sound even vaguely right. The ev-psych explanation has less to do with physical protection (from what?) and more to do with competing for the highest-quality men. It's a bizarre article, which doesn't even touch on the fact that men also compete with each other, though for the most part in very different ways. Looking at how and why intra-male competition is different to intra-female competition would be an interesting subject for an article. Discussing intra-female competition in isolation isn't much use.