Survival of The Prettiest: Fertility

"Unlike with women, fertility is not written on the male body."
- Survival of the Prettiest by Nancy Etcoff, Page 72

This book was a fascinating read. It radically altered my views on beauty and, on a more personal level, self-esteem and the adolescent social environment. All because Nancy Etcoff provided the unexpected and insightful realization that attractiveness IS fertility. Everything we consider to be physically beautiful is related to our ability to reproduce.

With this concept comes a certain sense of indignation. All of our immense feminine efforts to enhance our "beauty" are really just attempts at broadcasting to our fellow humans that we are reproductively "open for business." These visible markers of fertility, whether natural or purchased, consequently affect the way we're acknowledged and assessed by the outside world.

As Etcoff describes, "fertility is not written on the male body." This is a powerful insight into interactions between the sexes and cultural attitudes toward gender roles. This fight for a fertile façade is one-sided, and that presents an intriguing imbalance. If women are the only ones expected to present an eternally beautiful exterior, what does that mean for our female expectations in the workplace, the home, the political sphere? 

A Norwegian proverb states, "That which is loved is beautiful." But beauty, in its raw, carnal and instinctive form, has nothing to do with love. This doesn't mean that nubile beauty is something to be ignored, repelled, or scoffed at in favor of more lofty forms of human appreciation. Rather, it's an aspect of human interaction of which we must be both thankful and wary.