Don't Patriarchal Societies Define Masculinity?

We would like to put another spin on the WSJ Why Women Don’t Want Macho Men story that’s cruising the Internet.

For starters, we like the fact that results from the 4,800 women surveyed at the Face Research Laboratory at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland established a positive correlation between high health countries liking less macho men and the reverse — less healthy countries liking more macho guys.

Connecting dots is our speciality and we like horizontal analysis, which bears a lot of research fruit.

FYI for readers. There are 30 countries in the survey, deliberately ‘white’ populations to eliminate a key research variable of skin color. The explanations given for women liking more macho men is tied to evolutionary biology theory.

Simply stated in poorer-health countries, the conclusion is that women seek more dominant-looking men because subconsciously women believe the macho guy has stronger sperm, more testosterone and better survival skills for babies that will be tested in subpar medical health countries.

We’re not disputing the influence of evolutionary biology in the women’s preferences. Similar science stories are all over RedTracker and Body|Beauty|Sex.

However, taking a look at the high health-low preference for macho guys, we have almost the same lineup that we referenced over the weekend in Status vs Money | A Third Look at Happiness, Gender Equality & Taxes.

I’ll play with this analysis but I’m 90% correct in saying that where religion is strongest, women prefer macho men. Where women have less political representation, they prefer macho men. We already know that where the patriarchy is strongest, women’s health is not a priority.

I already checked Argentina’s political representation, given the fact that they’re led by a woman president. In terms of total political participation, Argentina is actually be better than the US, but subpar compared to the Scandinavian countries, Belgium and New Zealand.

Bottom line, we don’t find this discovery all that ‘scientific’ from an evolutionary biology standpoint. Women are revealing the cultures in which they live, and they happen not to value women’s health where macho reigns.

As for the US comparison with macho men and poor health stats, the argument for patriarcal and strong religious values may be stronger than the maternal health stats for white women. Latino and African American women do have a problem with maternal health in America. We’ll check white women, who I believe are the focus of this study, and I know score higher on maternal health care research. Anne

Status vs Money | A Third Look at Happiness, Gender Equality & Taxes