What matters in the evolution of animals through "sexual selection," according to Darwin, is the choices that _females_ make:
***** But in very many cases the males which conquer their rivals, do not obtain possession of the females, independently of the choice of the latter. The courtship of animals is by no means so simple and short an affair as might be thought. The females are most excited by, or prefer pairing with, the more ornamented males, or those which are the best songsters, or play the best antics; but it is obviously probable that they would at the same time prefer the more vigorous and lively males, and this has in some cases been confirmed by actual observation.* Thus the more vigorous females, which are the first to breed, will have the choice of many males; and though they may not always select the strongest or best armed, they will select those which are vigorous and well armed, and in other respects the most attractive.
(Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, <http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e36_descent/descent_chap8.htm>) *****
It is "much rarer" for males to select females in the animal kingdom, and when the former select the latter, it is "vigor" as well as "attractiveness" of the latter that counts:
***** In the converse and much rarer case of the males selecting particular females, it is plain that those which were the most vigorous and had conquered others, would have the freest choice; and it is almost certain that they would select vigorous as well as attractive females.
(Charles Darwin, _The Descent of Man, <http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e36_descent/descent_chap8.htm>) *****
Darwin, however, failed to apply the same principle to analysis of the role of "sexual selection" in the evolution of human beings in particular, choosing, instead, to develop explanations that suited the ideology of male supremacy and naturalized it.
Postscript: Hopeful LBO males may submit the pictures that show themselves to their best advantage to LBO females, for our discriminating examination of their beauty, vigor, or lack thereof. Clothing optional. ;-> -- Yoshie
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