The Pill’s Effect On Attraction
October 8, 2009 No Comments
The Daily Mail has published a story that attempts to explain how the contraceptive pill might cause women to be attracted to less masculine men and how taking the pill makes women less attractive to men.
This is a great example of how scientific research is often drastically misrepresented by the media and how the media can fuel ignorance in the general public.
The research used to support this article is weak at best.
Although the effect is subtle, Dr Alvergne said it [the pill] could alter women’s view of male attractiveness. ‘It is a possibility – but there is no evidence of this yet,’ she said. ‘We need a lot more research in this area.’ In her paper, Dr Alvergne reviewed seven studies showing how the Pill can change women’s behaviour.
Clearly the author of this article is trying to make a point based on a small amount of research and he his drawing conclusions that are not there and the researchers themselves do not adhere to.
It is true that when women ovulate and are fertile they become more sexual. Research has shown that women subconsciously act sexier and dress more provocatively to attract a mate. This article states that “during the few days each month when women are fertile – around the time of ovulation – they tend to prefer masculine features and men who are more assertive.”
It is also true that a study has shown that
on these fertile days, women are also more attracted to men who are ‘genetically dissimilar’, Dr Alvergne said. Picking a partner whose genetic make-up is unlike their own increases the chances of having a healthy child.
And for women who are on the pill and do not ovulate they chose men genetically similar. This led to some conclusions that women on the pill will pick a poor genetic mate while women not on the pill will pick a superior genetic mate, and that women on the pill would not really know how they felt about their partner until they went off the pill. Readers, this was from one study where women sniffed t-shirts worn either by strangers or family members.
This article also quoted a study that showed that strippers who were ovulating received more tips than those who were not, suggesting that women on the pill who do not have fertile days would be less attractive to men in general. First of all, this is a correlation and says nothing about the cause of this. It is likely that ovulating women were also feeling more sexual and were more provocative toward the clients leading to more tips.
Yes, as the author says, men could conceivably be more attracted to fertile women for biological reasons, but that would totally eradicate the result of our evolution – hidden ovulation. All of our ape-like cousins have a very obvious time of fertility; their vulvas swell and obviously protrude from their body, they give off distinctive scent, and walk around presenting to most any male they meet. We however, have a hidden ovulation. Women have a big secret that men are not let in on and as a result men want to have sex with women all the time just in case they are ovulating and the man might be able to pass on his genes.
These conclusions may be true for these particular studies, but these studies are not the be all and end all. They are not the final decision and they are not true for every situation. They are simply laboratory results from very specific situations. They are examples of what might happen and can give researchers an idea of how people might act in certain social situations.
But I’m willing to be proved wrong.
‘If this is the case, Pill use will have implications for both current and future generations, and we hope that our review will stimulate further research on this question,’ said Dr Lumma.
But I would first need to see some conclusive evidence rather than just a few studies.
Different women will find different features attractive. One woman might want facial hair, another height, another might be attracted to intellect or the ability to cook or certain aspects of the man’s personality or his artistic ability or blond hair.
Variety is what keeps our species alive and thriving, after all. Not all women (or all men) are attracted to the same things and that’s what makes genetic diversity possible. Otherwise certain men would never reproduce and others would have hundreds of children. In fact, the boyish man would die out entirely.
The author says that if the research is true, then the trend in the media for more boyish men to be popular and more masculine men to be less so, would be because women take the pill.
