A close friend recently made the observation that there is an unusually high proportion of beautiful women in New York. This is certainly true and is a very visible effect of the structure of the sexual economy. Let me explain. It is natural to use economic analysis for sexual selection because it is based on the relative scarcity of desired attributes. Many attributes are routinely held to be desirable by males and females. Its not a question of their moral value or socio-cultural origins, what matters is that such regularities exist. So, (heterosexual) females looking for life partners look for healthy, good looking, emotionally stable, intelligent, successful, and financially secure males. Similarly, men judge women on certain attributes like beauty, intelligence, character et cetera. Its arguable that men value female beauty too much and that this is a recent phenomenon. Regardless of the merits of such arguments, we only care that it actually holds statistically for the male population. Note that some of these attributes are more easily discernible than others. Its easier to tell if someone is physically attractive than if they are emotionally stable, of good character or likely to be more successful.
The Sexual Economy
The Sexual Economy
The Sexual Economy
A close friend recently made the observation that there is an unusually high proportion of beautiful women in New York. This is certainly true and is a very visible effect of the structure of the sexual economy. Let me explain. It is natural to use economic analysis for sexual selection because it is based on the relative scarcity of desired attributes. Many attributes are routinely held to be desirable by males and females. Its not a question of their moral value or socio-cultural origins, what matters is that such regularities exist. So, (heterosexual) females looking for life partners look for healthy, good looking, emotionally stable, intelligent, successful, and financially secure males. Similarly, men judge women on certain attributes like beauty, intelligence, character et cetera. Its arguable that men value female beauty too much and that this is a recent phenomenon. Regardless of the merits of such arguments, we only care that it actually holds statistically for the male population. Note that some of these attributes are more easily discernible than others. Its easier to tell if someone is physically attractive than if they are emotionally stable, of good character or likely to be more successful.