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My guess is that this is happening because food is not a limiting factor right now, nor has it been in the last century or so. This meant that the canon of fem
by helveticaman 17y ago
My guess is that this is happening because food is not a limiting factor right now, nor has it been in the last century or so. This meant that the canon of female beauty changed from plump to toned, because it was suddenly more important to reveal neoteny than to reveal resilience to famine. That's just for starters.
With cheap food for everyone, everything changes. Men become taller (Americans, arguably the group which has not suffered famines for the longest period of time, is the tallest in the world, save for small populations like Norway or the Croatians of the Dinaric Alps. IQs go up over time (Flynn effect). I can't cite a source for this, but American men are noticeably more muscular than men in other countries. America is also one of the countries with the highest rate obesity rate.
So as far as men go, you have more height, muscle mass, brain mass and fat. In fact, muscle mass, neural mass and fat are the most significant ways humans spend discretionary calories. Height is a way to accomodate greater caloric discretionary spending.
So what's happening to women is that they are spending more calories on beauty. They are becoming more attractive in all the senses that beauty can be achieved when food is not a limiting factor. Otherwise, they would already have achieved this state a long time ago.
- jacquesm 17y ago> muscle mass, neural mass and fat are the most significant ways humans spend discretionary calories. I can see the fat and the muscle, but neural mass ? Do you have a citation for that ?
- helveticaman 17y agoNo, I don't. But I've asked doctors, and they say the nervous system takes up between 20 and 30% of a person's caloric intake. A third is spent on maintenance and two thirds on firing synapses. Apparently it's ridiculously energy-intensive to fire those things. I was surprised too. It is also the case that humans have a huge amount of brain matter for their size. And keep in mind it does not take that much brain power to survive; in fact, there's a theory humans have evolved large brains as sexual ornamentation, as it apparently helps attract mates.
- whatusername 17y agoHows this: (from yesterday) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=725333 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=725333
- jacquesm 17y agoYes, it uses energy, because it has chemical reactions going on. But that does not make it structurally heavier. Nor do I expect my nervous system to gain in weight significantly when I have an excess budget of calories. I'd expect to get fatter though.
- lucumo 17y ago> Americans, arguably the group which has not suffered famines for the longest period of time, is the tallest in the world, Untrue. The Dutch seem to be taller than Americans: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/15/international/i132728D54.DTL&feed=rss.news http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/15/... In fact, "[a study] conducted by the University of Munich and Princeton University, found that the United States had the shortest population in the industrialized world". [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3293191 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3293191] It seems Americans are even shrinking: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/apr/04/usa http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/apr/04/usa
- christofd 17y agoWell put. Was just gonna quote some of these sources. The author of these studies was one of my professors :)
- lunchbox 17y agoI don't know what they mean that the US has the shortest population in the industrial world. Japan is industrialized, and the average Japanese is shorter than the average American.
- helveticaman 17y agoI'd call the Dutch a small population...but yes, you are right. They're not the tallest. But going from Chile to US, it's astounding how much taller people there are.
- vaksel 17y agothat's probably due to the growth hormones that are injected into the meat we eat