Male Aggression Against Women - an Evolutionary Perspective

Yujia Zhang

Week 8

1. MALE AGGRESSION AGAINST WOMEN : An Evolutionary Perspective

Gender ideology also refers to societal beliefs that legitimate gender inequality. There is variation in different culture, but male aggression against women, male aggression, gender ideologies male domination of women and female sexuality are common; the aggregation usually linked to sex, and some male aggression against women is more usual and intense in some societies than in others. Male reproductive strategies in non-human primate and the male aggressive coercion also influences evolution of human pair bonds.

 First, the author focuses on Male aggression against women. Because males benefit by mating with multiple female but females do not benefit by mating with many male comes their way. The sexual conflict of interest contributes to male aggression. Some violence even involve killing babies of other males to put female's back to fertile. Female needs female kin or male friendship to reduce harassment, which is really similar both in human and other animals. Also, author uses nonhuman pri­mate as a source for hypotheses about how male aggressive behavior might influence the human pair bonds. pair bonds includes the exchange of inter-sexual resources exchange. Females benefited from pair bonds because they gained meat from males or protection from other males. What is interesting to me is male coercion might be the reason for monogamy social system in non-human apes since females can afford being solitary. For example, gorilla females rely for protection primarily on the silverback male.  After, the author gives many hypotheses to explain variation in male aggression to women across different culture from non-human evidences: like strong female alliances and naval support reduce male aggression like wife-beating; males will likely to be more aggressive in one community where male alliances are important. If male alliances are critical, men will sacri­fice bonds with their wives in order for benefits of male cooperation for inter group war. The last one is the more equal(political or parental investment) the males are in a society, the less aggressive response to wife adultery. I don’t really understand what author says “the loss of an offspring through cuckoldry would be balanced by the gain of an offspring through adultery”, however, it does make sense that men would be more jealous and mad if their wifes have affair with someone lower ranking than them in society in real life.

 After read this, I recalled the article about women sexuality and female dominance, so I wonder if these hypotheses still apply in female dominant society.

1.  Ellison (2001) The Body Builders

Ellison starts with the similarity between the sexual system of men and women. The central hormonal axis work similarly in males and females due to the identical gonadotropin molecule( FSH is called interstitial cell stimulating hormone and LH is called Leydig cell stimulating hormone). Males and females reproductive physiology shared the same early structures before transformation to ovary and the testis: in male reproductive axis, GnRH is from the hypo­thalamus, stimulating the pro­duction of FSH and LH from anterior pituitary.  FSH and LH stimu­late production of sperm, testosterone and inhibin. Tes­tosterone modulates hypotha­lamic and pituitary activity while inhibin suppresses the production of FSH. On the other hand, there are two major differences: The quantities of gametes production and size of maturation. An interesting fact is that, unlike females, males don’t lower their reproductive success under extreme circumstance or energy imbalance, and evidence shows that large differences in sperm and testicular hormone production make only small differences in fecundity. Furthermore, female reproductive success is limited by the availability of energy and time investment. Male reproductive success by mating opportunities. Testosterone helps males turn energy to mating opportunities by behavior and metabolism: gonadal steroids help to coordinate reproductive behavior. Like “ raging hormones” or hormone therapies for lagging sex lives.What the testosterone replacement and studies do suggest that testosterone is necessary to support normal