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SELFIES. Whether you love them or you hate them, they're constantly flooding our social media feeds.
For women it's often about being seen as sexy or looking glamorous. But why?
Well, researchers have figured it out. And the reason is not what you might think.
University of New South Wales researcher Khandis Blake says the next time you see a woman adjusting her bikini provocatively with her phone at the ready, don't think of her as vacuous or a victim.
"Think of her as a strategic player in a complex social and evolutionary game," says Dr Blake said [sic].
The study revealed women tend to sexualise themselves in environments with greater economic inequality, rather than where they might be oppressed because of their gender.
Analysing tens of thousands of social media posts across 113 countries, they tracked photos where people had taken selfies and then noted that they were tagged sexy, hot or similar.
[...] "That income inequality is a big predictor of sexy selfies suggests that sexy selfies are a marker of social climbing among women that tracks economic incentives in the local environment," Dr Blake says.
"Rightly or wrongly, in today's environment, looking sexy can generate large returns, economically, socially, and personally."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Friday August 31 2018, @06:21AM (13 children)
Men are attracted to young, healthy, attractive women. Women advertise their visual attractiveness to attract a mate. Meanwhile, women are attracted to material wealth and physical prowess. Men advertise these attributes to attract a mate. This is the instinctive behavior built into our species, just like peacocks showing off their tail feathers. A look around successful YouTube music videos makes this absolutely clear.
Truth be damned: How long until these researchers are forced to retract their paper, because it isn't politically correct? Don't laugh, it is entirely likely. There was a recent paper that showed that kids and young teens may declare themselves "trans", not because they actually are, but purely due to social pressure. This was retracted, because the LGBT movement found it "insensitive".
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @06:27AM (2 children)
You have been found to harbour wrongthink.
A re-education team has been dispatched to assist you in purging these invalid thoughts.
Valid SJW Loves You
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 31 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)
Aww...look at the poor perpetual victim. Did you get triggered?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @10:51PM
There is no triggering. There is only permanent outrage at the invalid.
Please report to the re-education facility where you will be returned to validity.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @08:45AM
In other words. Whoring.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @10:26AM (6 children)
Each gender displays what they believe to be their desirable assets to attract a mate. It doesn't mean they attract a desirable mate, or attract only desirable mates, or are able to keep one whom they feel are desirable. Having the goods isn't enough to keep someone around; you've got to have personality to accomplish that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Friday August 31 2018, @03:06PM (5 children)
Are you suggesting Melania stays around because of Donald's personality?
Oh, you are funny. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @03:57PM
Da
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:40PM (3 children)
She wasn't exactly poor. She had her modeling career, and she could fall back on languages.
Trump is charismatic. Don't bother denying it. FYI, Scott Adams wrote about it recently, after visiting the Whitehouse.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday August 31 2018, @08:29PM (2 children)
lol no. Not unless your IQ is somewhere south of your shoe size.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:11PM (1 child)
+Trump is charismatic
++lol no. Not unless your IQ is somewhere south of your shoe size.
Are you basing this on personal experience, or because it's what you've been told to think?
The Donald Trump you see on TV is not the Donald Trump you talk to one-on-one. I don't understand why he reverts to the wandering idiot persona in public, but in a small group he's a different person. I saw this DT on television once during his campaign on a very early morning television interview. The reporter asked a question about China and he apparently forgot this was for TV. His reply included source-quoted statistics and a nuanced assessment of China's Leadership's sword of Damocles dependence on maintaining extreme economic growth. He used that to support the argument that China needs US trade just as much as we need theirs, and that it was possible to use that dependence as a lever to bring the playing field into a much closer balance. He'd be much harder to dismiss if that DT replaced the blithering cacophony we see on CNN. He chooses not to do so, and I don't understand why. Perhaps being underestimated is a part of his strategy. I genuinely don't know.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday September 02 2018, @07:09PM
The Donald Trump I know is the one that is the narcissistic, misogynist, manifestly dishonest, xenophobic, sexist, rude, compulsive, racist, poorly spoken, selfish, historically and culturally ignorant, plutocratic, mean-spirited, scientifically illiterate, and frankly, not too bright individual.
Trump is a person that appeals to the lowest common denominator, not because he is charismatic, because he most certainly is not, but because he shares the basest of values with that demographic, most notably racism, xenophobia and misogyny. There's a great deal of sucking up that goes on because of his wealth as well.
Charismatic:
No. Not on his very best day. He inspires with money, not charm, as well as repetitive dog whistles to low social behaviors, handing out validation to those who secretly, or not-so-secretly, engage in them. But charm? Hardly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @02:06PM
A look around a Chinese click farm or two may help make this rather less than absolutely clear.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Friday August 31 2018, @09:55PM
social status, material wealth, and physical appearance. They don't give a shit about actual physical prowess. The appearance of it in a social context is what is required.
Social status is a big deal, and studies have shown that women will generally only "date up" in terms of social status, but will date down in male appearance and wealth (at least temporarily).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 31 2018, @06:36AM (6 children)
Sassy. Smart. Sexy. [newsbusters.org] (warning: actually "safe for work" since 2007, but pondering the idea may cause you harm).
(GRIN)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @06:45AM (2 children)
Article written by Julia A. Seymour, one of the sexiest plus-sized models alive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @06:49AM (1 child)
Pictures or it didn't happen
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @04:00PM
I saw the pictures. It didn't happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:36AM (2 children)
I had a picture of Hillary hanging in my dorm room during the Clinton presidency.
Absolutely no reason, I found it one day and felt like being random, so up she went.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @09:07AM
I'm sure she'd be flattered - at least the vile creature was receiving sexual attention from someone.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bradley13 on Friday August 31 2018, @12:41PM
A picture of Hillary hanging"? Sounds like a winner.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stormwyrm on Friday August 31 2018, @07:16AM (6 children)
As usual the article didn't link to the exact paper itself. It seems to be this: DOI 10.1073/pnas.1717959115 [doi.org]. Full text appears to be not paywalled.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:44AM (4 children)
It sadly is paywalled. Real science should be in the open for everybody to peruse much like currently you're supposed to openly explain your methods and assumptions in your paper for everybody to evaluate...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:55AM (1 child)
Can we therefore conclude that this article isn't real science?
(Score: 2, Touché) by nitehawk214 on Friday August 31 2018, @06:26PM
I think that is a safe assumption. Its from a gender studies program.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Informative) by stormwyrm on Friday August 31 2018, @08:02AM
http://www.pnas.org/content/115/35/8722 [pnas.org]
http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2018/08/20/1717959115.full.pdf [pnas.org]
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327187373_Income_inequality_not_gender_inequality_positively_covaries_with_female_sexualization_on_social_media [researchgate.net]
These three links work for me, and seem to have full text.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1) by easyTree on Friday August 31 2018, @10:29PM
It seems to have been submitted to SciHub:
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1073/pnas.1717959115 [sci-hub.tw]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Friday August 31 2018, @03:43PM
Also, the title for the article is wrong, it should be:
Doesn't flow as smoothly as the original though.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Friday August 31 2018, @08:07AM (4 children)
"Think of her as a strategic player in a complex social and evolutionary game"
Bringing interaction to counter homogeneity, as I always say.
Might as well turn that into an acronym. O wait.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @08:40AM
No need for that just because - womens hankering overtly represents endogenous selfies.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday August 31 2018, @08:59AM (2 children)
Huh. Social media has elements of a "game," where people compete against each other. Who'd have thought that?
I mean, most posts seem to consist of people showing off how cool they are, trying to accumulate more "likes." And women tend to post photos of themselves that are more flattering to get more likes! No way!
[/Sarcasm]
For those who don't realize it (apparently these researchers among them), social media is obviously a game. And the goal for photos is to make yourself look as awesome as possible... However you think "awesome" is defined in your peer group.
For many young women, I'm sure that's being "sexy" or "glamorous." If you are friends with a bunch of foodies, it's likely showing complex plated dishes -- you don't take a photo of the mac-and-cheese you really eat most nights; you post a photo of the one night that month you made a real meal. And you dim the lights, light a candle in the background and put a glass of wine strategically in the photo to make you look more cultured. If you're friends with the book club, you post photos of your library or stacks of books with the most interesting or "important" books prominently displayed (even if you have to rearrange your shelves for the photo), even if you've never managed to read them.
Etc., Etc. That's how the social media game works. Which is why I don't play because it's superficial and silly. It's just like attending a cocktail party and trying to chat up strangers -- for women, you put on your "little black dress" and talk about stuff you think people want to hear, showing off strategically what attributes you think will attract your desired audience.
It's not a very "complex" game at all. It's the same social game people play all the time in groups, just "on the internet."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday August 31 2018, @09:34AM
Oh, one correction: I should say "the peer group you aspire to." That's often your most important target audience on social media (and in real life). Garnering likes from your friends is important to many people, but most people are really looking for approval from a wider audience on social media.
Poor people may not have as many options to impress people with material goods to show off in photos or photos of exotic locales they go on vacation or whatever... So they resort to highlighting their looks.
Again, why should anyone be surprised by this?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @02:09PM
Strange game, Professor Falken. There seems to be only one way to win...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by donkeyhotay on Friday August 31 2018, @03:06PM (1 child)
"It's not what you think..."
Uh, no, it's exactly what I think, and have always thought. Women compete; men compete; it's primal and there's no getting around it.
I guess that just shows you how far we've fallen down the stupid PC hole when they have to say, "It's not what you think."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Friday August 31 2018, @09:59PM
Unfortunately many young people are fairly successfully brainwashed and essentially unable to deal with the reality of social interactions as a result. How females and how males compete amongst each other to claim mates is an important part of life. So many people are intentionally sabotaged early in their lives by well-meaning idiots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @09:32PM
being a lazy f...k myself i really hope the financials alpha males idea of sexy doesnt overlap too much with mine ...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 31 2018, @09:39PM (2 children)
There is a reason there are no actual pictures of me online or on social media. It's gotten to the point Google actually seems to think this character I'm using as an avatar is a real person who lives in the midwestern US. Then again, the number of women who think like this is probably very low...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @05:29PM (1 child)
Nobody cares.
Really.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday September 01 2018, @06:37PM
You cared enough to downmod me and then post AC about how no one cares, loser.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...