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Maybe, but my point is that lipstick and nail polish are very likely learned preferences. Perhaps there is some mechanism by which a child picks the people it l
by knowitall 13y ago
Maybe, but my point is that lipstick and nail polish are very likely learned preferences. Perhaps there is some mechanism by which a child picks the people it learns it's preferences from.
I've read for example that kids learn their beauty ideals from the people that surround them, but there is also a taboo to not fall in love with closely related people. For example researchers looked at people living in a Kibuz and found that there were hardly any love affairs among them.
- nailer 13y agoI think it's a learned /expression/ of reproductive signalling. I think of lipstick as just a human equivalent of a monkey with a big red butt (which is natural, but doesn't serve any purpose other than to let other monkeys know they're in heat). They're human ways of drawing attention to sexuality. In our society we can't paint our genitals, so we paint another set of lips. Or our fingernails, etc. When a child picks lipstick, however, they're not being sexual, just emulating adults. They same way they copy adults tone (ever heard a kid 'scold' another kid, the same way their parents would?) Most infant animals do that too.