The topic of reproduction was very interesting to me. In today's unconventional society, I am surprised at how primal our mate selection is. The selection and maintenance of a mate is based on survival and reproduction. While in today's society, there are many couples that choose unconventional relationships such as polyamory, open relationships, and swinger lifestyles.
The way the topic was approached I could relate it to many animal species mating patterns. The generic model of man and woman, who mate for survival and reproduction, is much like all animals. The differences are that most species do not mate for life with a single partner. This is actually extremely rare in the animal kingdom with the exception of a few such as swans and penguins. I think of the lion pride, where the dominate male beds with as many lionesses as he pleases. This is for the single purpose of growing the pride in numbers.
General characteristics of attractiveness seem to be generalized and focused on what is considered the norm. This leaves a large gap for those who are not attractive to the general consensus of beauty, but find mates based on personality. Today, there is a growing demand to change the perspective on what is considered beautiful in the world. How will the broadening spectrum of beauty affect the process of mate selection? Also, same sex couples do not fit into the definition of mate selection for reproduction and survival. How does the mate selection process apply to them? These are all questions I would love to know more about. I'm glad that the ground work had been laid by this class for me to be able to do some further research on these topics.
Hi Nicole! I find this topic very interesting. I also read somewhere about why we find certain characteristics attractive, and how much of a instinct attraction can be. A lot of attraction still goes back to our instinct to survive.
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