Now we've got that out of the way, why is it that every writeup of some social science research must have at least one glaring factor that's been ignored? In this case it's:
There is a significant difference, however, on whether they have ever had sexual intercourse with men. Overweight (92.5%) and obese (91.5%) women are significantly more likely ever to have had sexual intercourse with men than normal-weight women (87.4%).
Is this primarily due to the fact that women get fatter as they get older and hence the overweight/obese group is overloaded with the women at the high end of the (15-44) age range? Probably.
Also this bit:
When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say “yes” or she can say “no.” When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say “yes” or he can say “yes, please.” He has no realistic choice to say no.
thankfully is not true. Yeech!
It is probably true, however, that women at the low end of the attractiveness spectrum have a much easier time of it than men at the low end of the attractiveness spectrum, thanks to the relative abundance of non-picky men compared to non-picky women.
In all species in which the female makes greater parental investment into the offspring than the male does (including humans and all mammals), mating is a female choice; it happens when the female wants it to happen and with whom she wants it to happen, not when the male wants it to happen or with whom he wants it to happen.
Doesn't really justify such a strong statement. Especially if you consider culture & the fact that we are a loosely monogamistic social species with complex social & mating habits. But I think the author was magnifying a realistic point. The relative abundance of non-picky men is a more accurate, but less funny. Similar social effects.
Is this primarily due to the fact that women get fatter as they get older and hence the overweight/obese group is overloaded with the women at the high end of the (15-44) age range?
I don't agree with your premise, here. You need to show any study that would demonstrate that women (a) really get fatter as they get older and (b) they get so much fatter that they would increase their BMI to the point of jumping up in the classification.
Also:
When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say "yes" or she can say "no". When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say "yes" or he can say "yes, please." He has no realistic choice to say no.
You may be grossed out by fat women, but rest assured that not all men are. Combine that to your following statement about fat women being less picky, and you have a formula where the available mate population is far more favorable to fat women than to normal-weight ones.
"When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say 'yes' or he can say 'yes, please.' He has no realistic choice to say no."
This is just mind-numbingly absurd. Please tell me that this article is some kind of a pg-planted honeypot for Digg voters....
I like that there is a link at the bottom which links to a well-written counter response:
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/lust-in-paradise/20081...
Even if the link title is "Is Satoshi Kanazawa the Rush Limbaugh of evolutionary psychology?" and the reply article title is (now?) "Is Evolutionary Psychology a Used Car?"
It is a little weird, however, to read an article calling out another article as linkbait, both hosted on the same site.
Thanks for pointing that out. The response was better than the original article, except for this one bit:
Because sexuality is so entangled with power in American culture, it's hard to talk about sex without getting political. The two are nearly inseparable to Republicans especially, as has been demonstrated repeatedly in their opposition to "non-traditional marriage" (only a near-complete ignorance of the history of marriage could lead one to think what we have now is "traditional"), Senator Craig's "wide stance" in the bathroom stall, and their glee in bringing down Bill Clinton over his "unnatural acts."
which is just plain odd, because that's the one and only time politics is mentioned in either article.
Overweight (92.5%) and obese (91.5%) women are significantly more likely ever to have had sexual intercourse with men than normal-weight women (87.4%).
The age range was 15-44, which is wide, and nothing indicates that these findings were controlled for age, the obvious culprit.
The numbers seem about right for my assumed age groups for each category. The fact is that sex is actually very easy to get (for either gender). Quality sex is somewhat harder to find. This is what makes this sort of study meaningless. Sexually undesirable people (not to say that obese women are necessarily undesirable, but that seems to be the null hypothesis) tend to have sex fairly often, just with lower standards.
When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say “yes” or she can say “no.” When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say “yes” or he can say “yes, please.”
This is not true. I'm 25, male, and have never had sex outside of a long-term relationship. I've definitely said "no".
"Choosiness" is one of those gender-loaded traits where the differences within genders are larger than those between them. Duh.
Men may not be saying “yes, please” to overweight and obese women, but Kaneshiro et al.’s study clearly suggests that they are definitely saying “yes.”
This made me laugh, and might have justified the time I spent reading this otherwise horrible article.
[+] [-] hugh|17 years ago|reply
Now we've got that out of the way, why is it that every writeup of some social science research must have at least one glaring factor that's been ignored? In this case it's:
There is a significant difference, however, on whether they have ever had sexual intercourse with men. Overweight (92.5%) and obese (91.5%) women are significantly more likely ever to have had sexual intercourse with men than normal-weight women (87.4%).
Is this primarily due to the fact that women get fatter as they get older and hence the overweight/obese group is overloaded with the women at the high end of the (15-44) age range? Probably.
Also this bit:
When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say “yes” or she can say “no.” When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say “yes” or he can say “yes, please.” He has no realistic choice to say no.
thankfully is not true. Yeech!
It is probably true, however, that women at the low end of the attractiveness spectrum have a much easier time of it than men at the low end of the attractiveness spectrum, thanks to the relative abundance of non-picky men compared to non-picky women.
[+] [-] netcan|17 years ago|reply
Doesn't really justify such a strong statement. Especially if you consider culture & the fact that we are a loosely monogamistic social species with complex social & mating habits. But I think the author was magnifying a realistic point. The relative abundance of non-picky men is a more accurate, but less funny. Similar social effects.
[+] [-] rglullis|17 years ago|reply
I don't agree with your premise, here. You need to show any study that would demonstrate that women (a) really get fatter as they get older and (b) they get so much fatter that they would increase their BMI to the point of jumping up in the classification.
Also: When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say "yes" or she can say "no". When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say "yes" or he can say "yes, please." He has no realistic choice to say no.
You may be grossed out by fat women, but rest assured that not all men are. Combine that to your following statement about fat women being less picky, and you have a formula where the available mate population is far more favorable to fat women than to normal-weight ones.
[+] [-] timr|17 years ago|reply
This is just mind-numbingly absurd. Please tell me that this article is some kind of a pg-planted honeypot for Digg voters....
[+] [-] hugh|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattmaroon|17 years ago|reply
What he would seem to mean is that men are much easier to coerce into the sack than women. That's indisputable. To quote Chris rock:
"A man is only as faithful as his options."
[+] [-] dmv|17 years ago|reply
It is a little weird, however, to read an article calling out another article as linkbait, both hosted on the same site.
[+] [-] hugh|17 years ago|reply
Because sexuality is so entangled with power in American culture, it's hard to talk about sex without getting political. The two are nearly inseparable to Republicans especially, as has been demonstrated repeatedly in their opposition to "non-traditional marriage" (only a near-complete ignorance of the history of marriage could lead one to think what we have now is "traditional"), Senator Craig's "wide stance" in the bathroom stall, and their glee in bringing down Bill Clinton over his "unnatural acts."
which is just plain odd, because that's the one and only time politics is mentioned in either article.
[+] [-] noelchurchill|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|17 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] river_styx|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] time_management|17 years ago|reply
The age range was 15-44, which is wide, and nothing indicates that these findings were controlled for age, the obvious culprit.
The numbers seem about right for my assumed age groups for each category. The fact is that sex is actually very easy to get (for either gender). Quality sex is somewhat harder to find. This is what makes this sort of study meaningless. Sexually undesirable people (not to say that obese women are necessarily undesirable, but that seems to be the null hypothesis) tend to have sex fairly often, just with lower standards.
When a man propositions a woman, she can respond in one of two ways; she can say “yes” or she can say “no.” When a woman propositions a man, he can also respond in one of two ways; he can say “yes” or he can say “yes, please.”
This is not true. I'm 25, male, and have never had sex outside of a long-term relationship. I've definitely said "no".
"Choosiness" is one of those gender-loaded traits where the differences within genders are larger than those between them. Duh.
Men may not be saying “yes, please” to overweight and obese women, but Kaneshiro et al.’s study clearly suggests that they are definitely saying “yes.”
This made me laugh, and might have justified the time I spent reading this otherwise horrible article.
[+] [-] dexter|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syntax-case|17 years ago|reply
Non sequitur.
[+] [-] unknown|17 years ago|reply
[deleted]