As an anthropologist, I’m always amused at how the theory of human evolution can get twisted around to rationalize pretty much any bad human behavior one doesn’t want to give up. (Like eating Oreos. Oreo-eaters were more attractive to the opposite sex during the “black teeth” fashion period.)

As  a feminist, I find the gender-specific distortions especially amusing because they all seem to come from men who are sick and tired of being guilted about sex, damn it.

There’s a great article by Amanda Marcotte in Pandagon today about the ever-popular “caveman” pseudo-science.  Caveman proponents say that men simply can’t help their desire to rape – they evolved to do just that, sowing their wild oats every whichaway whether the chosen field wanted to be plowed or not.

Problem is, these theorizers stop short of actually providing evidence indicating rape was something the fittest human males mastered. Coincidence? I think not.

Then there’s my other fave, the middle-aged man’s tried-and-true rationale for the temptations of adultery. It goes like this:  “Men are supposed to want to do those small-waisted, big-boobed, nubile young girls. Their bodies signal fertility, and a guy’s inner caveman always wants to propagate his genes!”

Um, then why are the women who most closely resemble this pre-pregnant siren also physically incapable of having children?

As Natalie Angier writes in her book Woman: An intimate Geography, women with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome are a caveman’s wet dream:  Good skin, great hair, full breasts, tall stature – even naturally nude armpits.  They frequently become supermodels in western culture.

And yet, these uber-hotties that seem designed specifically to drive man into a oat-sowing frenzy couldn’t carry a child in a bucket. They have no uterus.  So much for the Baby-Making Barbie theory of cheating.

If evolution points to anything, it’s the development of human choice.  As Marcotte puts it:

The evidence suggests not that men are “programmmed” to rape and cheat, but that human beings are equipped with large brains and an ability to weigh a series of options, and that the choice to rape or cheat is made by a creature that evolved precisely to be reactive to its environment in complex ways.

And that’s called raining on your parade.

[tags]evolution, psuedo-science, androcentric theories[/tags]