Practical Application of my miniscule
knowledge of Evolution/Genetics
So OK, I understand that there is a genetic base, a human nature that we cannot escape. I know culture takes that raw "me" and, like clay, molds and shapes it to get me where (or I should say who) I am today. Understood. But so I have two questions:
1. What is the genetic attraction to females? In my blood, genetically speaking, and we're talking caveman type stuff here because we are still under that evolutionary umbrella, what were are the traits that men find attractive? A good gatherer? Child bearing hips? Long hair to drag her home? Somewhere I picked up the information from the female perspective, which obviously does me no good in my quest to understand why I am attracted to certain girls. Genetically, evolutionary-wise, women were, and in some instinctual level still are, attracted to men with bushy eyebrows and a "good hunter's physique," which could be assumed to be fit, not necessarily jacked.
The reason the bushy eyebrows are important is because, through evolution, the hunters that worked the hardest ended up sweating a lot, and the bushy eyebrows were selected because they help keep the sweat out of the face of the hunter. We know that the things I'm seeking must be related to either reproduction or staying alive. These are the essentials when we speak of what we want in another person, genetically. All genes care about is surviving and spreading.
Question 2. What does a girl's face, if anything, have to do with how attractive she seems to me? How much is my attraction to the face either culture-based or genetic-based? What does the face tell me about how she will help in reproduction or staying alive? I know there are answers and theories out there, but these are the qustions I wonder about.
Does it matter if I know the answers to my questions? Won't I still be controllled by genetics and/or culture even if I understand the inner workings of our genes and their effects in our social world? Probably, but I still want to come home after a party and be able to say, "Of course, her big breasts and dimples (?) are why I found her so attractive because they mean..."
My struggle is simply to understand. It may not help me get more girls or more attractive girls, but at least I'll know more about why I'm attracted to them. Besides, maybe this knowledge will help the differentiation provess when it comes to emotions and instinct. I've always been one to immediately attribute physical attributes to personality traits (look at her face, she must be a nice girl), which is obviously unhealthy and counterintuitive. When you feel something deep down that you realize has nothing to do with the genetic checklist of qualities, maybe you can start talking about the l-word. Or maybe there is a genetic purpose for that too, making it non-existant in the romantic sense that we hold it to today.
Either way, answers would be nice, and until then I'll be here bushying up my eyebrows for my next date.