Slashdot Banner
Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
typodupeerror delete not in

Hot Comments

Comments: 834 +-   Are Women Getting More Beautiful? on Monday July 27, @10:00AM

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 27, @10:00AM
from the or-are-you-just-less-picky dept.
medicine
FelxH writes "Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors. The researchers have found beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female. Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern." I just thought my standards were changing as I got older, but it turns out it's just science!
story

Related Stories

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.
  • It's called Photoshop.

  • by Hognoxious (631665) on Monday July 27, @10:02AM (#28837369) Homepage Journal
    Until these females develop an interest in Linux (and know that it's really GNU/Linux) plus a preference for subterranean dwelling, nobody here is likely to notice.
  • Women get more attractive. Men develop bigger wallets.
     

      • Women's average earnings will stay lower than men's average earnings until there is no difference in the average amount of time spent as primary caregivers to offspring.

        Employers pay for (among other things) experience. Spending less time at work in order to be a primary caregiver reduces the amount of experience you can gain and offer to potential employers.

        • Female executives with no concept of work/life balance (living with cats) still get paid less than their male peers. Same thing for brown people, short people, and all sorts of minorities in the US (I am a tall white male that gets paid way more than my peers). The only way any of this will ever change is if companies start publishing payroll data publicly, or at least to their employees. Companies take advantage of the strange social stigma that it's somehow inappropriate to talk about salary with peers, and they use that to underpay as many of their employees as they can get away with.

        • Also a woman is seens as a risk. Yes, I know it's sexist and no employer will ever admit it because he could be dragged to court for it, but there is the "risk" that she will get pregnant and go on maternity leave. Depending on the country you're in, that could well mean not only that you are going to miss an experienced worker but also that she may even be entitled to getting her job back after being away 2-3 years. That in turn means that you would have to hire someone new, train him, then fire him after 2-3 years when he finally reached productivity level, only to rehire someone who has been out of the loop for 2-3 years and maybe has to be retrained.

          See why many companies refuse to hire women for any job but the ones that require the least training? And thus also usually have the lowest pay?

        • >>>Women's average earnings will stay lower than men's average earnings

          This is called lying with statistics. When you compare like-to-like, such as a female programmer with 20 years experience versus a male programmer with 20 years experience, you find the woman actually gets paid a few percent more. Given equal jobs with equal experience both sexes are treated basically equal.

          The reason why the *overall* average shows women getting less is because there are simply fewer women willing to do high-paid jobs like programming, or dangerous high-pay jobs like living on an oil rig.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27, @10:04AM (#28837385)

    I'm confused, how does this help the average slashdotter? Perhaps you are just reminding the readers that an even higher proportion of women are out of their league. Salt in the wound, my friend.

  • I'm dubious (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wcrowe (94389) on Monday July 27, @10:05AM (#28837393)

    If more attractive parents have more daughters and if physical attractiveness is heritable, it logically follows that women over many generations gradually become more physically attractive on average than men.

    Except that the standard for "beauty" changes over time. I'm not sure I'm buying this.

    • Re:I'm dubious (Score:5, Informative)

      by furby076 (1461805) on Monday July 27, @10:39AM (#28838047) Homepage

      Except that the standard for "beauty" changes over time. I'm not sure I'm buying this

      not really. In magazines they change, but the real beauty does not. There are basic qualities that have withstood the test of time. Also there have been MANY studies using the baby smile test. You take babies ranging from 3 months to 1 year old. These kids are too young to have been influenced by what the media/general public considers to be attractive (e.g. magazine influence). You show them pictures of people of one attractive person and one unattractive person. The babies will gaze and smile towards what they find attractive, and ignore what they don't find attractive. So put up a picture of Rosie O'donnal vs Scarlett Johanson and Rosie won't get more then a glance from the baby. They have found, over the years and even regions, babies find similar things to be attractive. A few of the features I remember
      Symmetry (e.g. Chunk from the goonies is not symmetrical)
      Smooth/similar colored skin (not black vs white, but your skin color is even colored. If you have a melanoma condition you are screwed)
      Developed hips (for women) which helps in child birthing
      Healthy weight (anorexia is not healthy, but neither is a person who is 10 lbs overweight)
      Developed/Square jaw (for men)
      Good muscles for men (yes your abs are important) - it shows you can physically protect and hunt for your mate
      Good teeth (shows you get things like vitamin C)
      Developed breasts (for women duh)
      Smell (yes being clean is a physically attractive trait)

      This test has been done over and over since at least the 60's (if not before). It always has the same results (meaning its verifiable and reliable).

      What has been considered attractive, for the most part, has been the same over time.

  • Are we guppies (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Nf1nk (443791) <nf1nk AT yahoo DOT com> on Monday July 27, @10:06AM (#28837403) Homepage

    This seems like the guppy phenomenon. Under a lack of predation the guppies self select to breed for beauty. Under heavy predation they breed to survive and quickly become plain. We are the guppies. We have no predators. It just takes longer to show up with us because our life cycle takes longer.

  • Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Etrias (1121031) on Monday July 27, @10:06AM (#28837411)
    Because beauty is a subjective matter, how do you hope to measure this in an objective, scientific way.
  • Causation? (Score:5, Funny)

    by wilburdg (178573) on Monday July 27, @10:08AM (#28837463)

    Are beer sales up?

  • by OrangeCatholic (1495411) on Monday July 27, @10:10AM (#28837497)
    >while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.

    Really? You mean those 5-foot-1 suits of armor at the museum were worn by the same 6-foot-5 monsters who grace our modern football fields and armed forces?

    I guess men from the Renaissance were the same as us, except highly compressible.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27, @10:11AM (#28837515)

    Not in Liverpool. Looking at the women on dating sites for this city is like looking at a freak show. Seriously.

  • by HangingChad (677530) on Monday July 27, @10:11AM (#28837525) Homepage

    The researchers have found beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female. Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern.

    So easy a caveman can do it.

  • by glebovitz (202712) on Monday July 27, @10:11AM (#28837527) Homepage

    If evolution is making women more attractive, does creation have the inverse effect?

  • If anything the reasons a woman has a baby has nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with her sense of well being, security along with cultural beliefs. Women are plenty attractive enough to get some sort of a sex partner and I'm trying to identify a time when that has not been the case.

    In today's day and age, culture matters for birth more than looks. There are some women out there having nearly 10 children simply because they feel it is a christian thing to do. How does evolution account for that, unless it accounts for obvious social influences. On the opposite end of the scale, you have some green women who are deeply concerned that bringing too many children into the world might somehow compromise the planet.

    It's almost like environment plus culture need to be considered as a holistic system in order to really understand human evolution.

  • by drater (806171) on Monday July 27, @10:24AM (#28837745)
    This thread is useless without pics
  • by imgod2u (812837) on Monday July 27, @10:25AM (#28837767) Homepage

    They used old photographs in the study of people from past generations and their method of "objective" measurement of beauty were to have modern-day people judge them.

    It seems almost a foregone conclusion that people in modern times would find the women of modern times more attractive; standards of beauty change.

  • by Theolojin (102108) on Monday July 27, @10:34AM (#28837937) Homepage

    Huh. I had no idea that watching my wife grow in beauty over 15 years was watching evolution in process. Nice.

    This discovery has lead to the solution to a particular slashdot meme.

    a. Yes, this post is sappy and sentimental.

    b. Yes, I am sending my wife a link to this post.

    c. Yes, the kids are going to bed early tonight.

    d. Profit!!!

  • by Important Remark (1604945) on Monday July 27, @10:36AM (#28837989)
    Women aged 20-29 were nearly 29 pounds heavier on average in 2002 compared to 1960.
    Women aged 40-49 were about 25.5 pounds heavier on average in 2002 compared to 1960.
      • by Overzeetop (214511) on Monday July 27, @11:52AM (#28839505) Journal

        Had I not lost my mod points, you'd have gotten a funny.

        Since I don't, I'll do the next most popular thing on /. and point out your error. Silicone, which used to be used for fake boobies, has a specific gravity just above that of water (1.1 range). Silicon, which powers your computer, has a specific gravity of 2.3.

        Again, this /. so I can see how things got mixed up. AFAICT, the latter form is more popular as a tool for personal gratification around here.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27, @10:07AM (#28837423)

      The downside is that unless you are a dirty old man, there is no way to take advantage of the beautification of the female portion of the human race.

      What downside? That's what the Internet is for.

      Thanks to technology, you can see more boobs in an hour than your dad had in his entire stack of Playboys, and than your grandfather did during his entire life.

    • Re:As a male... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by snspdaarf (1314399) on Monday July 27, @10:07AM (#28837429)

      As a male, let me just say that it is sometimes good to be in the minority. The downside is that unless you are a dirty old man, there is no way to take advantage of the beautification of the female portion of the human race.

      Rich. Not dirty, rich.

        • Re:As a male... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by morcego (260031) on Monday July 27, @10:53AM (#28838335) Homepage

          It is not only attractive women. What you are saying here is actually known as a social disease. Urban centers, overpopulation etc will have the effect of making woman want to have less kids. If you get those same woman and leave them on less populated places for a few years (6+), they will start wanting to have kids again.

          As a father, I can say this doesn't happen only to women. Having a child will actually completes you and make you happy. It is natural for men and women to want to have kids. All the other "career" bullshit (given as a reason for men/women not having kids) is a symptom of a social disease.

          • Re:As a male... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by cayenne8 (626475) on Monday July 27, @11:44AM (#28839349) Homepage Journal
            "Having a child will actually completes you and make you happy."

            Hey, whatever floats your boat man...I've spent my entire life trying my BEST to avoid having the little 'milstones' around my neck. That's what contraception is for (and abortion if those still fail).

            I'm glad people like having kids, but, it just isn't right to say it "completes" you. I've never wanted any, and I feel very complete! I'm not tied down to kids and a wife, I can date as I please, trade to a new 'model' of woman when I feel like it, and I don't have to worry about what I spend my finances on, because little Suzy needs braces. I can come and go as I please, travel, experience life and all it has to offer.

            I don't look down on your for your choices, but, to say one must have that 'traditional' home with wife and kids to be a complete person is just plain nonsense. Different strokes for different folks...

    • Teenage girls blossom earlier for one reason: calories.

      Menses is largely dependant on having sufficient calories, both intake and stored(approaching 20% bodyfat), and estrogen. Fat also emits estrogen, so fat kids means earlier menarche.

      Compare a gymnast (high caloric output, minimal caloric input relative to output) to a girl who's economic status is such that she gets sufficient calories in the form of fast food & microwave meals and spends 15+ hours per day sitting on her ass.

      On the other hand, the average age of menarche has only changed by maybe 3 or 4 months in the last 30 years.

      http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/111/1/110

      Let me know if the study is bullshit.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27, @11:37AM (#28839205)
      Should be fairly simple to find out - make off with Michelle Obama and see how many ships get launched. (definitely going anonymous for this one)
FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #6 "Johnny, if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!" -- Mrs. Emily Barstow, June 16, 1954