The Curse of Curves

Sir Mix-A-lot will probably forever be immortalized for his song Baby Got Back, but what sticks out in that song is the lyrics "36-24-36." Representing a woman's size in inches for her breasts, waist, and hips. After some calculations, someone figured out that American men combined, annually, spend about 3 billion dollars to stare at women that look like Sir Mix-A-Lot's description.  Men are attracted to women who have a "waist size that is 60 to 70 percent of their hip size" (Lassek). Psychologist Devendra Singh and cognitive neuroscientist Steven Platek found that when a man looks at a woman with a Playmate figure,  it ignites a internal pleasure system. The system which curvy women lit up in men, is the same system that is lit when using drugs such as cocaine or heroine. Men's preference for women who look like they belong in an issue of Playboy, has been "shaped by a millennia of evolutionary forces" (Lassek).  What in evolution makes years to shape men to want women with the curse of curves? The answer: an hourglass figure relates to not only a woman's success at being a mother but also, believe it or not, her intelligence.

Marilyn Monroe is famous for having the ideal body size and type. Small waist with curvy hips all on a 5 foot 5 1/2 inch frame. The average Playmate is 5 feet 6 inches tall and 115 pounds. The 24 inch waist held by not only Marilyn but also most Playmates, is only a small part on what gives a woman her curves. The ideal woman also has normal sized legs and hips which are also well graced with fat. That's right, I said it ladies, fat. For what ever reason it may be, men LOVE the fat found in these areas. As much as we may hate it, female humans carry the most amount of fat out of any animal. Carrying seven times the amount of any other animal, excluding ones hibernating bears or Arctic diving whales, though we may compare ourselves to them.  A reason for this could be that the fat stored in women's hips, butt, and legs are a constant. Weight fluctuates but these areas stay untouched during weight changes. 

The human brain, other than water, contains fat, mostly an omega-3 called DHA or docosahexaenoic acid (Lassek). Women, tend to store their DHA in their these loved areas, their hips and legs. A human infant's growing brain needs DHA, which help in the rapid communication of information. Most of the DHA, that a mother feed to her child in her breast milk, comes from the fat stored in her hips and legs, however her supply is not endless and with each child her supply decreases. With this logic comes that a mother gives the greatest amounts of DHA to her first born child, which is "why the first born sibling tends to be the smartest" (Lassek). 

The fact that a woman's DHA amount helps to produce smart children helps to connect a woman's figure to why men want it. Studies have shown that women with "curvier hourglass figures have more DHA stored in their body fat" (Lasske). Higher the DHA, the better the brain works and in turn the curvier the woman the smarter their child will be. Today, American mothers rank near the bottom in the DHA content of breast milk. Therefore, the only way a woman can increase her DHA in her fat stores would be to gain more weight. This can help to explain why American women weigh twenty pounds more now than they did in the 70's, and a whopping forty pounds more than the average Japanese women, who were also found to have four times the amount of DHA. 

Who Doesn't Love a Bad Boy?

Even though we know they are bad for us, what draws women in to bad boys? Every woman out there wants a man who they know will be there for them, to provide, comfort, care for future/current family. Yet, there are still bad boys out there because lets face it, they are irresistible. Gregory Louis Carter and his team at the University of Durham conducted a study to try and figure out why these bad boys are just so utterly appealing.

Research has shown that more men have what is considered the "Dark Triad" (Mehta). This Dark Triad are three personality traits; narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellism. Narcissism is a greater trait in men than it is in women and the hallmarks include dominance, a sense of entitlement, and a grandiose self view. It is also believed that narcisissm helps bad boys for short term dating because it involves in "a willingness and ability to compete with one's own sex, and to repel mates shortly after intercourse" (Mehta). Psychopathy is callousness, a lack of empathy, and antisocial, erratic behavior. Just like Ted Bundy, psychopaths exhibit superficial charm, deceit, and a "sexually-exploitative interpersonal stance" (Mehta). Lastly is Machiavellianism. These people are manipulative, coercive, and opportunistic, which are an advantage in short term mating. The men who exhibit machiavellian behavior also appear to be more promiscuous.

The team presented a 128 female undergraduate students with descriptions of two types of men, Dark Triads and controls. The only difference in the descriptions of the two were that the control group dropped the dark personality traits. The findings you ask? Well Carter and his team found that women found the Dark Triad personality traits more appealing than that of the control. So why is this? One theory could be that sexual selection could be at work here. The confidence, stubbornness and risk taking tendencies are all those that represent a quality mate for reproduction. These traits however relate to short term mating, not anything women actually want longterm.  Another reason could be sexual conflict at play. "Women may be responding to DT men's ability to 'sell themselves'; a useful tactic in a co-evolutionary 'arms race' in which men convince women to pursue the former's preferred sexual strategy" (Mehta). These men are effective charmers and manipulators which helps to further short-term mating.  Yet, it is important to emphasize that the women tested are also young women, college women, who are still interested in short-term relationships.

Are Dogs People Too?

Who doesn't love their poochy pal? Dogs are considered man's best friend but do you think that they should have the same rights as people do? A recent study has shown that dogs can exhibit emotions too. But how similar are their emotions to ours?

After some training, Gregory Berns with the help of a trainer has trained dogs to stay still during an MRI scan. Many test subjects later and some strange conditions (having the dogs, or rather their owners, fill out consent forms, as if they were children, where the test subjects can back out if they so chose) the stage was set to start the study. The dogs were put through the MRI machines without sedation or restraints and adorable earmuffs to protect their very sensitive ears. The study was performed using hand signals and presenting the dogs owner to the dogs. In the human brain, between the brainstem and cortex lies the caudate, in which parts of the human caudate activate when someone experiences joy. When examining the dogs, the hope was that a dog's caudate would light up in the same way. After the study was completed it, it was shown that many of the same things that activated in the human caudate also activated in the dog's caudate. Berns seems to think that dogs have the ability to experience positive emotions like love and attachment which he associated with as that of a small child.
The problems I have with the claims he makes are that we are still learning so much about the mind of animals and specifically dogs, it's hard for me to believe that they have all the same cognitive processes that we do. Also the study is not to see whether or not the dog's caudate lights up when they are happy but to see how the dog's brain works as it lies motionless in the MRI. Additionally, how can we test true emotion in the dogs when were trying to get a reaction out of them with food. Everyone gets happy thinking about digging into their favorite meal, humans and other animals, not really a solid example that our emotions are very similar.

There have been plenty of other studies proving that dogs are attune to our emotions, can learn words at an amazing speed, and even have memory skills to play Simon Says but saying dogs have the same emotions as we do is different. I'm not saying that in coming years we will be able to see into a dogs mind and maybe understand how they think and feel but as for right now I don't think that lovable Fido and my baby brother are on the same cognitive level.