Re: how many bastards are there, anyway?

Matt Beckwith (beckwith@jaxnet.com)
23 Aug 1996 00:19:23 GMT

sfolse@odin.cair.du.edu (sgf) wrote:
>In article <4v7im5$rg6@argo.unm.edu>, Bryant <mycol1@unm.edu> wrote:
>>In article <4v76hs$4e1@jaxnet.southeast.net>,
>>Matt Beckwith <beckwith@jaxnet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>So the man who gives the woman the most pleasure (or allows her to feel
>>>relaxed enough to give herself pleasure) is the one who will reproduce.
>>>That's interesting. It means that, it's not just the handsome men who
>>>are selected for; it's also the ones with the most sexual skill.
>>>
>>>This means that, as time goes by, men are going to be more and more
>>>sexually skilled. (Assuming that there is a genetic component to sexual
>>>skill.)
>>
>>Since more attractive men begin sexual activity earlier in life than
>>other men, it's not surprising that they're more skilled than other men
>>at any given age--they're more experienced.
>>
>>However, better looking guys (that is, at least in part, men with high
>>developmental stability) do not induce more orgasms during foreplay,
>>etc. They only boast a higher mate orgasm rate during copulation!
>
>The research suggests that higher conception rates occur when the woman
>climaxes *after* the man does -- before doesn't do anything. So sexually
>successful (in the reproductive fitness sense) are the ones who, as it
>were, don't fall asleep immediately afterward.

Somehow this doesn't sound right to me. Higher conception rates may
occur, all other things being equal, when the woman climaxes second. But
if the man climaxes first, the woman isn't likely to climax period.
(This isn't true for me, but I'm 43 years old. When I was younger, it
certainly was true.) So we might say that the greatest reproductive
success occurs when the woman is not motivated by orgasm, but by pleasing
her man; and when the man is not motivated by pleasing his woman, but
simply by having an orgasm as quickly as possible.

But all things are not equal. And reproductive success is simply
reproducing. The genes of those men who impregnate survive, the genes of
those men who don't, don't. The genes of those women who are impregnated
survive, the genes of those women who aren't, don't.

One interesting thing about this thread (aside from the fact that it's
gotten off-topic) is that, in spite of the fact that with modern medicine
we have somewhat usurped the process of natural selection, where sexual
activity is concerned natural selection is alive and well. After all,
the genes of anyone who does not reproduce are being de-selected.

So what qualities in a man determine whether he will impregnate a woman?
Attractiveness, success (which is attractive to women), lack of
discrimination in his sexual partners, unfaithfulness (since then he will
impregnate more women), and sexual skill (after all, if he's a dud, he'll
have less sex).

Qualities in a woman include attractiveness, submissiveness (attractive
to men's fragile egos), lack of discrimination in sexual partners,
unfaithfulness, and sexual skill. (Unfaithfulness used to be de-selected
because a woman's offspring were less likely to survive without a father;
but these days the state takes responsibility for fatherless children.)

-- 



Matt Beckwith                        

http://users.southeast.net/~beckwith/