Hey, who doesn’t like a good mammoth fighter?
A study has also found the length of women’s hemlines reflect the times.
“In a boom the hemline was likely to rise, but in a recession the hemline was likely to fall,” Mr Salt said.
And as women lower the hemlines, their preferences for men change too.
“The recession will see the demise of the metrosexual,” Mr Salt said.
“In a boom, women are not worried about their financial security and are attracted to attractive, slim, weedy, geeky, metrosexual hairless males,” he said.
“Whereas in a downturn, evolutionary theory kicks in for survival, and women are concerned about their food supply and look for someone a little more muscular, more primal, a little more hairy.
“They want someone who can fight off a mammoth – and a metrosexual ain’t gonna do it.”
[via Maclean’s]
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Tanya adds: Wow… So I was way off base when I suggested we release the men’s PET-P shirts in pink and lavender. Grey was a good choice after all! (I’ll never second-guess you again, Brigitte.)
by 
Oh, good, I’m tired of seeing those silly fauxhawks everywhere! I knew SOMETHING positive would have to come out of all this. (I don’t know about that whole “hairy” thing though, I don’t think I want to see a bunch of men wandering around who look like Wookies!)
Oh noooes! Anthropogenic Global-market Waning has been caused by high-hemline levels for too many years! Someone call Al Gore!
This is bad news for Beta-males, not just metrosexuals. Just when it looked like they were going to benefit from the Alpha-males’ loss of status in the declining banking industry, now this happens. Software developers don’t stand a chance against Wolverine!
I see some of these evolutionary psychology studies, or whatever they call them, that try to explain some pragmatic aspect of life, and I really wonder how much of these relationships with ancient history are just made up. How do you even verify these claims/linkages?
I can see easier explanations: The man who’s not pouring money into designer suits or showy things he doesn’t really need is probably going to end up looking more like a man’s man. Men can’t afford to be metrosexual in a bust, neither can women afford to pour so much into their wardrobe. A recession probably levels the playing field a lot for men, as advancement prospects thin out and money becomes tight. The decline of money and status allows wisdom and stability to become more enviable qualities in mates. It probably encourages women to become less risky with men, thus the more conservative hemlines.
The fact that some women complain about their husbands going fishing all the time is proof to me that women aren’t hard-wired to be attracted to men because of their hunting kills!
And Deborah, what have you against Wookies? 🙂
Matthew — tough to trust a guy whose face is completely hidden, and too many hairballs to vacuum up! 🙂
(This is bad, I just remembered that last week in choir rehearsal at church for some reason I started making wookie sounds. It turns out I’m really . . . talented.)
Now I TRULY have seen it all.
‘course, I said that last time.
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I still curious about what it might say about Americans for our part that Naomi Wolff was, for all practical purposes, considering at one point training Al Gore to be the “Alpha Male.”
And does this mean (in the downturn) that guys who’re big and tough and can whip anyone’s tail on the Jerry Springer show now get the evolutionary prime pickings of females?
Revenge of the jocks?
**walks outside and howls at the mooney sheen in the east….**
Hope you folks have your HA HA on. Ladies be carful of all that hair! There can only be two reasons for it, (a) His family has not been that long out of the trees. (b) Although it takes a good man to grow hair on his chest it takes a better one to keep it all wore off. Signed “Not Much Hair” except on my head.