Hi everybody this is Scott Sad. Human beings are a sexually reproducing species

that possess sexually dimorphic traits. Sexually dimorphic traits means that

for some traits men and women have innate sex-based differences

due to selection pressures due to evolutionary pressures.

So on many things men and women are identical and other things they are not.

And the pattern of when they are similar or different is very well, if not perfectly explained

by evolutionary psychology and the evolutionary

lens more generally. For those of you who are familiar with my work, you will know

that I've written quite extensively about this. So take for example something

that men and women exhibit some similarities and some differences on.

So if you take universal mating preferences, some of the things that men and women desire and their ideal mates are exactly the same.

Kindness and intelligence are desired both by men and women in their ideal mates.

On the other hand, there are other traits that men uniquely

desire in women or much more so they desire in women than women desire in men.

So men place greater premium on youth, on beauty.

Women place much greater premium on social status,

capacity to engage or to ascend social status. You see this in disparate

cultures, cultures that couldn't be any more different from one another and yet

you see this consistent pattern of preferences.

Now why am I talking about all this today?

One of the traits that certainly women desire in men is masculinity. So contrary to what we now hear about toxic masculinity, women are not attracted

to men who take a fetal position, suck their thumb, are pear shaped, have

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