nature and humanity why are we different? - Page 2

quote LilPokaboo

but we were it everyday!

So does any theatre kid. What's your point? That's a choice - you aren't forced to wear makeup.

You bring up an interesting question, LilPokaboo.

The only reason I can think of is that we humans live in a patriarchy in which much of our behaviour is not at all 'natural' but culturally inscribed. Some animals live equally or in a matriarchy (go elephants!) but in humans men have gathered much more societal power over time than women have. I think what you were trying to get at is that although looks do matter to some degree, why should it be that women's looks often outweigh in importance of any talent she may have while men are still judged mainly on their talents. Why is it that women are objectified so much more strongly than men are. Well, in some ways culture tells women that looks are our worth, if we want to feel loved and important then we have to look pretty.

Naomi Wolf writes about this in a book called The Beauty Myth which is fantastic but difficult reading if you're interested in this type of thing (or just want to impress teacher!). Anyway, what she says is that the way we think about women being the beautiful sex has only existed since around the 1830s when more women started working rather than being housewives. Instead of subjugating their power through domesticity, there needed to be a new way of doing this - through the pursuit of 'beauty', whatever they decided that was at the time (and this idea changes a lot.)

There are still some human tribes who are lead by women and in which it's actually the men who dress up in jewellery and dance around for the women

As for the make-up thing, nobody grabs me and forcefully puts it on me but I definitely feel compelled to wear it because it's an expectation now. I'd actually love not to wear it but I don't feel confident enough without it because society is constantly telling me I'm ugly without it.

Well, different animals have different mating systems. And as humans, we are nothing but another species. So it's not surprising that we also have a differing mating system. I think that humanity is a part of nature itself.