Stressed men fancy bigger women....

I don't really get where morality comes into it, TBH. I think she might mean that people don't want to research something if they see it will show that women aren't all lovely, model-of-the-patriarchy types but actually enjoy sex, that sort of thing?

That sort of thing.

Its not that the research isn't being done, its that many people are uncomfortable with the answers - women play the Game of Life as hard - and in many ways far harder - than men do. Because they play for bigger stakes.

And its not just The Patriarchy who get upset - Nurture-ists, Religious people, Feminits - all hate some of the implications for their belief sets.

There are two ways to hypothesise about the same thing in this area of 'science', from the patriarchal vantage point where everything looks straightforward and clear (a bit like Nazi architecture), or from the messy perspective where unequal power of one group (those with the vantage point) dominate, control and restrict the other group cumulatively through generations, skewing the behaviour of that group (and also their own actually).... but of course you could always brush off that massive and important influence of cumulative oppression and put the 'messiness' down to the influence of "hormonal cycles, life stages, social fabric" of that group..... whilst comfortably ignoring the great big f*cking elephant in the room!

I don't really get where morality comes into it, TBH. I think she might mean that people don't want to research something if they see it will show that women aren't all lovely, model-of-the-patriarchy types but actually enjoy sex, that sort of thing?

I do know that people have suppressed research on that in the past. People knew for ages women had orgasms (as you'd hope!) but it didn't get into medical textbooks for hundreds of years after people had been writing about semen, and it's still had only the tinest fraction of money gone into researching it that male erection/orgasm has had.

Whatmeworry I do not get what you are speaking about. Are you referring to the difficulty following paternal lines? I think you are being selective and get your information from other popular takes on human sexuality. For example, perhaps rather than being 'amoral', it is actually 'rape' and the stigma following raped women and the historical stigmatisation of single mothers that is responsible for the difficulty tracking the paternal line? Just a thought?

Nope, it's very recent that people even accepted men did produce sperm and not the whole material for the baby. For a very long time people thought women were just incubators and didn't do anything except carry the baby that men put inside them. Disturbingly, the roots of the US and UK legal systems must have been developing while people still thought that.

However, I would like to see this masses of research on women (though don't bother if it's wiki, obvs.) - I bet there is some out there and it would be interesting.

You are aware there are, you know, feminists here?

"womens' behaviour is far more amoral than many in society are comfortable with"

You're kidding right?

Actually there has been a lot of research on womens actions on/reactions to men in all sorts of areas, if anything more than research on men.

(Men were seen as fairly simple sperm delivery systems that will shag a drainpipe if needs be, for a long time... Afaics most of the new research says they are more nuanced and have preferences but will still shag a drainpipe :o )

My personal view on why a lot of the research on women doesn't make it into the popular press is that

(i) it is much more complex - women are more influenced by hormonal cycles, life stages, social fabric etc so it's not easy copy

(ii) womens' behaviour is far more amoral than many in society are comfortable with (both men and women) so that too is not easy copy.

Actually FoodUnit, I think there bloody well should be a study into the funding of 'scientific studies!'

Not just related to this, there's lots of dodgy funding coming from strange places.

How about a study into 'how the length of a woman's skirt can measure the likelihood of her having numerous sexual partners?'

lol

I think it would be worth doing a 'study into the funding of studies' into sex and gender.

I bet if a woman hypothesised something status quo reinforcing, but utter bollox she's get funding for it. Like "a study into female sexual submission and the necessity of rape for optimum natural selection" - they'd fall over themselves.

But remember, they started a science program JUST for girls! About how to find out the colour of your nail polish! [helpful]

"Maybe that field of science should be nuclear exploded off the planet have their funding go to...More useful fields?"

If only more women held the purse strings..... So annoying that Patriarchy keeps financial power out of women's hands

Maybe that field of science should nuclear exploded off the planet have their funding go to...More useful fields?

There are lots of brilliant female scientists out there - just not specialising in the 'science' of looking at pictures of naked women and rating their attractiveness.. for obvious reasons

If you keep going Food, I'll lose all faith in scientists!

That's why we need more female scientists. Too bad I'm useless at it.

"I dream for the day when the people who conduct these fruitless studies are called into question. Or rather, asked why they are wasting so much of their intelligence and uni degree on something so fucking pointless, when they could actually be helping people."

I'm pretty sure it is 'cart-before-horse' - they do it to justify the position they find themselves in - having access to an extraordinary number of images of naked women in positions of sexual invitation and a fondness for looking at, appraising, judging, categorising and postulating about them. From there they just need to find a way to get paid for doing it... in comes the 'evolutionary psychology' excuse. Winner!.... The idea that they want to help people .... nah... isn't that women's job?

FoodUnit, thanks for depressing me. Your version actually sounds real!

I dream for the day when the people who conduct these fruitless studies are called into question. Or rather, asked why they are wasting so much of their intelligence and uni degree on something so fucking pointless, when they could actually be helping people.

"The scientific reasons behind why men prefer not to be vomited on during oral sex."

Or put this way "a study into the reproductive advantages of partnering with a women who does not vomit while performing oral sex. Conducted by asking white male college graduates to look at pictures of naked women with obscurred faces to say which ones looked most likely to vomit while performing oral sex and if this correlates to where they place them in order of attractiveness"

The next study will be:

The scientific reasons behind why men prefer not to be vomited on during oral sex.

That was really disgusting, wasn't it, mal.

Thanks Promethea glad to see it!

Nearly as stupid as that "Doctor" the other day who postulated that women with morning sickness can cure it by ingesting copious amounts of semen
Yes, because what a woman retching or vomiting multiple times a day really wants, is to suck huge amounts of cock and what the man who sees her in this state really wants to do is ejaculate into her mouth at every opportunity.
Tosser.

Yes LurkingAndLearningLovesCats, it pushes my buttons too. I just don't see what good these studies do, or what they are hoping to achieve. I remember reading that it is overwhelmingly men who go into the 'science of attraction'.... mmm I wonder why that is? I wonder why the data is all about what men find attractive, not what women find attractive?... (Not really - its obviously male-entitlement)

And as for feeling crap about ourselves, such as anorexics and other body-dismorphics (such as women who have multiple breast enlargements), studies like these add to the problem, not the solution. There is something completely fcked about this obsession with the photograph - a flattened image stimulating one* sense - that of the eyes, the visual appraisal of a human being - as the main factor in attraction. ... I understand it is important when choosing what image to wank over or pin on your wall for perving reasons, but when it comes to mate selection - you know, an actual human being with a smell, a voice, a vibe, a personality, there are compatability factors that come into play.

Haven't read thread, but this here is a good article about this:

apps.facebook.com/theguardian/commentisfree/2012/aug/10/stressed-men-prefer-big-women

Haven't read the thread but I hate these fucking 'studies.' All they do is manage to put pressure on women who DON'T conform to the study!

I'm skinny, these make me feel like shit and like I need to change who I am for someone else. The studies that show men prefer smaller women make bigger women feel like shit and like they need to change themselves for someone else.

Also, why do they never do a gender reversal of these 'studies?' The closest I've seen is the one that says women prefer different types of men during her cycle. And even that is pandered to men in a reassuring 'she's just hormonal, she won't be so shallow soon' way.

Sorry but these just really push my buttons.