Sunday, September 28, 2008

This Is News?

Be honest: we all love the sexist alpha male | India Knight - Times Online: "Many women will tell you that one of the most irritating things about life is that alpha males - great silverbacked gorilla types - strike us, maddeningly, as being rather more attractive than their kinder, gentler, more considerate dwarf-monkey counterparts. We know intellectually that it shouldn’t be so, since the gorillas are often sexist pigs (just to mix the animal metaphors); but when push comes to shove and we’re picking a boyfriend rather than a friend, few of us find beta males especially appealing.

In real life as in Georgette Heyer, the reprehensible, oddly sexy brute fares rather better than the sensitive flower. Now it turns out that the unreconstituted, sexist male chauvinist is not only more attractive to many women, but earns more money and is more professionally successful than the kind man who sympathises when you have period cramps and offers to make you a nice cup of camomile. Not fair, is it?"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If ladies love outlaws, how did Ivy end up with Dan?

mybillcrider said...

Hey, Dan's a silverback!

Todd Mason said...

[...]great silverbacked gorilla types - strike us, maddeningly, as being rather more attractive than their kinder, gentler, more considerate dwarf-monkey counterparts. We know intellectually that it shouldn’t be so, since the gorillas are often sexist pigs (just to mix the animal metaphors);

--indeed, when gorillas are relatively mellow creatures, while small monkeys are often as mean to one another as rabbits are. Silverbacks don't have much to prove, nor fear...and can afford to groom if they want to or let the post-infants use them as playground equipment (until it gets tiresome...having been in a similar position, I can sympathize).

So, no, not even good rehash. I love how all these primate metaphor folks also ignore the fact that females from nearly every species are likely to take on "extra" partners, too, often secretly...including the gentle, relatively unaggressive ones. Not being fools, they.