a word. a thought. a song. a lady.

Evolutionary Pop Psychology Strikes Again

limitlessvoid:

The Vitals health blog at MSNBC reported earlier this week on a new study out of Williams College which shows that straight men tend to overestimate their chances of pairing up with women, and their estimates become less realistic the more conventionally attractive the woman is. Interestingly, more conventionally attractive men have a more realistic view of their chances than less attractive men. At the same time, women across the board tended to underestimate how much the men in the study were interested in them.

It’s an interesting study that says a lot about our social interactions and how we perceive flirtatious behavior. But the authors of the study go way off track in their interpretations of the results. As is the fashion in behavioral research these days, the scientists invoke the almighty evolutionary explanation to explain behavior that is much more likely to be socially constructed. And it’s the kind of explanation that reinforces slut-shaming and rape culture.

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Reblogging from my phone, so who even knows how this will show up, but I just had to say this:

BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM CAN SUCK ALL MY DICKS, EXCEPT NO, IT CAN’T, BECAUSE MY DICKS ARE WAY TOO AWESOME AND BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IS GETTING NONE OF THAT

*sigh*

Brings me back to the related bullshittery brought up by students/in readings and (happily) exploded by (almost all of) my profs during my sociology undergrad.