"Carole Jahme shines the cold light of evolutionary psychology on everyday life. This week:
The allure of blonde women":
Caucasian blondes are usually slightly higher in oestrogen than brunettes and are likely to exhibit other infantile sexually selected traits (indicating low levels of testosterone) that are considered desirable by males, for example finer facial features, smaller nose, smaller jaw, pointed chin, narrow shoulders, smooth skin and less body hair, and infantile behaviour such as higher energy levels and playfulness. [. . .] Blond hair in males does not correlate with oestrogen levels as it does in females
Very interesting article, thanks.
ReplyDeleteSome choice bits:
"Sexual selection would certainly have been a powerful driving force behind evolution in northern Europeans. Late Palaeolithic females in southern Europe and Africa could forage for food and feed themselves and their infants, with males occasionally supplementing their diet with meat. In northern Europe, however, where ice covered much of the terrain, people were dependent on meat. Bands of men went in search of herds of prehistoric bison or mammoth. These hunting trips were dangerous, resulting in many fatalities.
It has been suggested that as a result this was a time of intense sexual rivalry between females due to their numbers exceeding those of males.3 At any given time far more fertile women than men were left unmated, so females had to compete for mates and for a favourable share of meat. The theory is that when given the choice, Pelaeolithic males chose blondes, who stood out from their rivals.
In addition, before bottles of hydrogen peroxide became available, blonde hair in females could be interpreted as an honest signal of youth and therefore reproductive fitness. This is because postmenopausal women rarely retain the flaxen locks of their youth, of course eventually becoming grey grannies."
Unfortunately we have so many mimics now and negative images from the Jewish sex industry that real blondes are not appreciated enough.
If you removed the ability for women to color their hair I think you would see more women selecting blond men. For while they might not value blondness in men as much as men value it in women, women themselves want their offspring to be beautiful and have advantages. I've known several women that stated they chose a blond male for that reason.