gh QUESTION OF THE CENTURY: "GOOD GENES " OR ATTENTIVE PARTNER?

Marina Butovskaya (Doctor of History), Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, told about that at the recent seminar in the Severtsov Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences. The discourse was based on the findings of Butovskaya's own research on young Muscovites' behavior and on foreign scientists' data. "Contemporary young people apply both strategies inherent to animals, says Marina Butovskaya. However, the ratio of these two strategies is not even - women evidently trend to choosing not the best, but the most careful partner".

Out of 29 diverse parameters, the students of both sexes attach importance to mutuality and almost no importance to nationality. The respondents unanimously ranked the sexual life experience to the 21st place. In other aspects the young men's and women's opinions differ. Men consider important the partner's fidelity, intelligence, sense of humour, appearance and possibility of issue. Women rank male appearance on the 19th place, and believe that the main priorities are intelligence, fidelity, sense of humour, attention, ability to stand up for himself, i.e. the qualities that will help the husband to succeed and support a family in the future.

Priorities of a "good husband" qualities were found several years ago by western colleagues of Russian ethnologiests, when a series of photos and photorobots helped to identify universal criteria of appeal for the masculine and feminine face and figure. From the feminine point of view, the most attractive masculine face appears to be a symmetrical one with hard chin. This may seem to signify love for manlinesss. However, after the experiment conditions were changed, it turned out that the implications were not that simple. The researchers made the selected sample face more feminine. This less masculine type of face in particular attracted attention of the majority of women.

At first, the researchers were at a loss. But when they made it out, the reasons became evident. Testosterone, masculine sex hormone, is responsible for the manly appearance. People with a high level of testosterone, often have conflicts and are disposed to divorces. They are undoubtedly carriers of good genes, but not the genes of a "good father". The latter turns out to be preferable in the contemporary society.

A woman attractive from the masculine point of view should have soft outline of the face, small and narrow lower jaw, small nose and full lips. This is not by accident, as these features are related to the quantity of oestrogens necessary for successful conception. The waist/hips ration for "ideal women" should make 0.67-0.7 (so they should not be too slim), and 0.8-0.95 for men. These correlations are also regulated by hormones which are responsible, among other things, for the hypodermic fat distribution in the body. Oestrogen distributes fat according to the feminine type, therefore, the women with high level of this hormone have the thin waist and wide hips. So, the fashionable liposuction operation -suction of fat from the waist -is a way to cheat men by imitation of a higher level of oestrogens than the woman has in reality. Testosterone distributes fat according to the masculine type - on the waist. Typically, the men who undergo the oestrogen treatment for cancer accumulate fat on the hips, and on the contrary, women undergoing the testosterone treatment, demonstrate masculine-like redistribution of fat: from face and hips - to the waist.

Male sex representatives normally compete for a partner, and women, on the contrary, choose the partner passively. The reverse situation occurred in Russia after World War II when there was a lack of men. At that time, the guests from Western Europe pointed out that women in the USSR tried to look particularly beautiful, paid more attention to appearance and used make-up more often than the European women did. In the contemporary society, both in Russia and in Western countries, both sexes have to compete for a more attractive partner.

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