Intersexual Selection

Intersexual selection is an evolutionary development in which selection, normally of a female mate by a male chooser, is dependent on the attractiveness of certain physical traits. Sought-after females often possess a specific trait, say, fertility and youthfulness, most males strive for. Similarly, in human society, men hold a common criterion to determine an ideal mate for sexual purposes. This essay will argue that men are generally attracted to women with the visible marks of youthfulness. This can be justified in the view of science and socialization.

A key argument to demonstrate young women are appealing to men is the false concept created by social media that attractiveness is equivalent to youthful bodies and appearances. Social media continuously put emphasis on reversing the skin’s age to maintain attractiveness. For instance, the advertisement for L’Oreal’s ‘Revitalift Deep-Set Wrinkle Repair’ conveys a wrong conception that youth is more beautiful (Videohordr, 2010). Gradually when similar kinds of advertisements and beauty programs increase, the perception filters into men’s minds, manipulating them to prefer youth-looking women. Besides, men are further trained to see youthful women attractive by celebrities. This is due to the truth that attractive celebrities are usually regulated to look young. A case in point is the age limit set by renowned beauty pageant competitions, both Miss USA and Miss Universe must be under 27 (“FAQ,” n.d.), resulting in the avoidance of women having wrinkles and sagging skin. It may constitute a menace on men to build up an extreme thought that all attractive women must with bare and smooth skin. In this way, that Social media is distorting the perception of women’s attractiveness to youthfulness can be seen.

Another related reason is the stereotypical gender roles that society adopts, giving rise to the consequence that youthful women are attractive to men in order to exhibit their masculinity to a large extent. In 2010, a British psychological study concluded that men, in general, continued to follow traditional gender roles when searching for mates owing to the human tendency to rely on stereotypes when processing information about people (Antfolk et al., 2015; Cameron, 2007). Men, to a certain degree, still inherit the stereotypical social norms to be assertive, ambitious and protective as society expect they do. Consequently, they have a female choice towards younger women who are commonly considered to have greater reliance on them, concerning the gender roles shaped. This explains the statistic report on age disparity in sexual relationship that a majority men marry women younger than they are (Esteve et al., 2009). Men’s preference to choose youthful women is an effect of socialization.

As a few surveys and researches keep revealing the tendency of preferring women with averaged faces, there is also a general belief that attractiveness relies on facial beauty. In fact, facial averageness, from the perspective of life science, equals youthfulness as they both are an indication of developmental stability (Muñoz-Reyes et al., 2015). While youthfulness is a sign of fertility and health, facial symmetry is linked to heterozygosity. Essentially, high heterozygosity means lots of genetic variability and can be attributed to inbreeding. Therefore, the act of valuing symmetrical faces has biological roots, illustrating that men are naturally programmed to want a potential child-bearer and youthful women.