On Sat, 3 Jun 2006, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> And I hate open this can of worms again, but there is
> an obvious sociobiological explanation for the double
> standard, which does not of course mean it is
> unchangeable or justifiable.
I've come across this sociobiological explanation as well; it seems obvious on its face--men have sex with lots of women, it increases their reproductive success--but if you think it through from an evolutionary perspective, it's a pretty dubious claim.
1. Human children need lots of care to survive; it is far from obvious that a man who has sex with many partners will have children who survive. As in many primate groups, the man who stays with one partner and nurtures the children could easily have higher reproductive fitness than the man who fucks everything that moves and then bails.
2. From the perspective of reproductive success, there are obvious advantages for women who have multiple partners: not all men are fertile, more opportunities for support/food/ protection, etc. Again, this is well documented in a number of primate species.
The fact that sociobiologists overlook these plausible evolutionary reasons for female promiscuity and exaggerate the evolutionary reasons for male promiscuity provides another example of how existing theories of evolutionary psychology are based on social norms (here, gender standards) rather than a rigorous and logical application of the principles of evolutionary theory.
Miles