Humans offer an interesting example of sexual selection. In many traditional societies men go to considerable lengths to control the sexual and therefore reproductive potential of women, including enforcing celibacy until marriage, dire penalties for adultery and even surgical procedures such as clitoridectomy. While such attempts can never have been entirely successful, there’s no doubt that historically they have limited the mate choices available to women. Within the last few decades in western societies, however, women have, by and large, gained control of their reproduction. Liberated and armed with contraceptives, they now represent a powerful evolutionary force that is busy shaping the men of tomorrow. That’s because, through the men they choose to father their children, women are manifesting in flesh the ideal mate (or as close as they can attain to it) that exists in their minds. Over evolutionary time this selection must and will change the nature of men.
- Tim Flannery, from Here On Earth
In what ways is sexual selection being influenced by men?
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