The evolution of gender strengths

Philosophy Forums Science, Technology, and Math
1

It’s not a sexist thing to say that men are physically stronger than women, at least in the human sense.

Why is it that some animals in nature have stronger females than their male counterparts? why are humans differernt?

Here’s my theory. In nature some female animals can easily be 3 or 4 times larger than their mates. Snakes are a good example.

One of the major differences between humans and snakes is that humans form lasting relationships. What’s important about this is that the male asissts in the rearing of young (in humans) whereas in nature, the female is left entirely alone to successfully give birth.

naturally the female snake would need to be stronger than the male, overtime the most efficient males (the smaller ones) would spead their genes dominantly where the female genes would strengthen through natural selection among successful mothers.

In humans the male is required (assumingly) to help rear his young in a lasting relationshiip with the mother.

Our emotional minds are equipped and designed to create these lasting relationships, tho it’s debatable wether direct male assistance is required, or even monogamy.

In any case the male is likely to contribute to the survival of his children. innate emotional attatchments are undeniable.

What this does is have the effect of placing accelerated evolution (meaning more evolutionary devices) on the physical strengths of the male and favoring reproductive strengths in females.

Im wondering if anyone has anything to add to this thoery, or if they think it is innacurate, but what i am particularily interested in discussing is how the “modern way of life” will impact the process of this evolutionary gender divergence.

With such a high rate of signle mothers, can we expect women to become stronger than men?

These things happen very fast. Sparta is an example where the women, being completely independant, quickly became renown for their strength and physical fitness. When sparta adopted its military state nature the men, aswell as the women quickly became in essence, selectively bred. In their glory they had the worlds best soldiers, and arguably the strongest women.

With a physical fitness level per capita ludacrisly low, it is my assertion that womenwill, through natural selection, become stronger than men on the basis that they need the extra strength in order to rear their young (only the sstrong will be successful).

Like snakes men will become smaller, just being able to pass on our seed.

2

its well accepted that male/female size differences in a lot of mammals is due to male competition against other males for females.

3

that would take direct competition between males. can you give me examples of some species that this effect is seen in?

what of monogamous animals? surely you cannot give me an example of father-assisted-rearing-male-competition species that has a larger female than male? because that would contradict my theory.

most female birds are plain and the male gets all the glitter. this i can agree is caused by competition for females, but the females, being plain and all, are actually probably better functioning birds than their needlessly flashy male counter parts.

male competition only explains for changes in males. how does competition explain females that maintain sizes similar to their mates?

how does competition explain times when the female is stronger than males, despite competition.

take grizzly bears for example. everybody knows not to fuck with a mothers cubs, even the largest males.

I think competition definitely has an effect, but i also think that there is a male female cooperation factor.

if the male does not assist in the rearing of the babies then the female should be stronger than the male, despite competition.

Can you give me an example of a solitary mother who is smaller than the male?

Once the successful birth rests entirely on the mother, the luckiest and most efficient living, widely mating males will thrive. in snakes i believe this accounts for the differences in sizes. smaller snakes can deliver the same potency of sperm without needing to fight so hard for survival.

4

female aren’t bigger or stronger than male bears. they have somthing more important to fight for and as such willing to risk injury more readily. male bears do outpower female bears commonly, they tend to backdown when cubs are around somtimes they eat them too.

as to monogamous species like what? most called monogamous generally sleep around as well. as to females being larger other evolutionary pressures. usually envolves same species competition though.

5

defending young is certainly part of the reason some females grow bigger or the needs associated with rearing young. its just not always the case.

6

women becoming bigger and bigger isn’t that likely, consider sexual selection. imagine males lived longer weak/skinny, evolution could still reject it based on female sexual selection, they’re not attracted to weak/skinny even if by chance it helped in modern environments. because in past environments where female psychology evolved it wasn’t benefecial.

7

might be good for females to grow bigger and bigger but unlikely if males are already attracted to small women with certain shapes.

8

It seems you are right about that. Male bears do have quite abit of competition though.

There are many other examples of non cooperative species where the female is bigger than the male.

allot of monogamous species who take care of their young are fairly evened out in terms of size.

male and female crows are monogamous. birds are actually a good case example because every species i can think of raises their young.

Pigeons are a good example. the female actually becomes quite a bit bigger when she is getting ready to lay eggs, so for reproductive reasons we can say that that’s the reason why females are bigger (if at all, i’m just going by what they did on my balcony).

It true that birds tend not to have physical competition, probably because they can’t risk their ability to fly, but it would be interesting to compare the female male differnce among birds where the female raises the chicks alone versus a cooperative effort.

cooperation would favor an equalisation in sizes, though the male side stands to gain more from competition.

I will have tog et back to you after i do abit of research but i still believe that where there is no or little competition among males, and where the female is left alone to raise and or give birth to young, i would expect the female to be a greater size than the male,

9

As said:

Females, in our species and in several others, will mate with the males that they think are attractive, strong, useful (within the society, pack, herd and so on) etc. Basically the ones that will produce the best offspring.

The males want to pass on their genes and so will work hard to impress females. They will try to be everything the female wants them to be (espcially attractive and strong) They will fight each other to become the female’s favourite.

This keeps up and the ‘strong’ male gene never leaves the gene pool.

If we look at lions for example. The lioness does everything - (hunt, look after the cubs, protect the cubs etc). I think it’s quite safe to say they could raise their offsrping without the male. But whilst the male does quite a little in the pride they still remain bigger, more dominant and stronger (I could be wrong when I say ‘stronger’) than the female.

10

thats highly exaggerated. Male lions do a lot of things they; fight off/hunt hyenas with a level of specialization that the females don’t have. They also tend to fight off, other massive male lions.

Male lions occasionally hunt/kill prey as well. Help scavenge it from other killers etc.

11

okay. fair enough - i was going by a documenrty i saw. but your statement does seem more correct.

But what I say about males fighting to be the females favourite, you think that might be valid? And prehaps, then even more so, doesn’t the lion species of the males and females working together say something about that of the human?

12

I do believe evolution only affects the body.

The mind is beyond it and so not affected by evolutionary forces. ](*,)

So intelligence came from the ether where fairies live and little children dance in their dreams.
Then one wakes-up, if she is lucky and finds herself stuck in a body she did not choose with a brain she did not create and she hates that she did not choose any of it.

That’s when she ignores what disturbs her tender little girly mind and only focuses on what she cannot deny…i.e. the body.

13

i don;t focus on what i can deny, i focus on what i can exploit.

14

Oh, you naughty littler girl.
You can exploit the body but not the mind?

How sad.
Shall I weep for you?

Boo-hoo-hoo :cry:

15

heavan forbid the greatly depressed satyr should deem me a fool.

i hope this doesn;t affect my ivy league chances…

16

My depression has increased. Will you exploit it, little one?

17

secretly yes, but you can cry on my shoulder if you want.

but if you want to get sentimental, do it in a pm. i’d rather not start a shit fight…

18

your delicate, tender heart is too kind to me.

Will you use and abuse me, little girl?
Shall i prepare the butt-plug and the nipple clamps?

You are sooooooooo sweet.
See, I’m more depressed now.

19

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Laurel and Hardy were not nearly as entertaining.

20

sure, males compete with each other in most species for female attention. Theres no species where the female/males will throw themselves to any mate. this creates things like persumably (at least) the lion’s mane, male/female size differences and etc.

not to mention the in-depth mental evolution/adaptation that we have for sexual selection/mate preference.

Its not that we’re keeping alive a ‘strong’ male gene, but rather, massive and massive amounts of genes that usually or can convey high levels of fitness. For example, I can digest milk rather easy, most people in the world can’t. That gives me a huge advantage in maintaining bone density and all other things equal, (diet, exercise etc) strength.

Like someone who exercises for strength regularly having milk growing up as a child/teen and such can radically effect bone density.