Quote of the day

To claim that girls and women want to look like blonde bombshells because of the billboards, movies, TV shows, music videos, and magazine advertisements makes as little sense as to claim that people become hungry because they are bombarded with images of food in the media. If only the media would stop inundating people with images of food, they would never be hungry! Women’s desire to be blonde preceded the media by centuries, if not millennia.

- Ben Casnocha, in his notes on Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters, by Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa.

Comments

[IOV]

I try not to do this to much, but what is the "women" stuff? Do people seriously believe that being blonde is a desire for all women? What about women from places where blonde hair is extremely rare to non-existent? Have they, too, been dreaming of the treasures life would bring if they suddenly woke with yellow hair?

I swear to god people need to learn they are not the center of the world. Or, at the very, least consider that you're not a the center of all things beautiful.

Thank you.

[Jackie]

It's called evolutionary psychology. Maybe you can read the book quoted before telling us why it's all so wrong.

[Maria Luisa]

I personally would not be interested in reading a book which features, according to the positive reviews in Amazon.com, "thin research." And those are, again, the positive remarks, so you can imagine the negative...

[Jackie]

That's interesting, Maria Luisa: Such comments only make me want to read the book even more, and judge for myself, rather than taking the word of people I don't know and whose own ability to evaluate research is a further unknown quantity to me.

[IOV]

No, Jackie, that claim is not based on evolutionary psychology. It's based on gendered ethnocentrism. And no, Jackie, I am not going to purchase this book.

[Jackie]

IOV, I never asked you to purchase anything. Libraries are wonderful places where you can learn all sorts of things about points of view other than your own, which can enrich your appreciation for your own opinion or sometimes cause you to take in new information and alter your own viewpoint. I highly recommend, in general, taking the time to examine arguments which differ from your own.

By the way, Satoshi Kanazawa saw this comments thread and has offered to send me a free copy of the book so I can make up my own mind. Thanks, Satoshi!

[Bion]

Jackie, your efforts on IOV are wasted. She's very sure she knows it all. Perhaps she can start her own blog and lecture us there on subjects she hasn't studied.

[cross woodfield]

BRILLIANT.

my friend and i always talk about this!! everyone blames things on "modern society," but art, beauty, these things are arguably pre-historic!

love u, jack & hill... such yummy food for thought :)