I wrote:
>>I've heard that in Brazil, where topless on the beach is no big deal,
rather
>smaller breasts than Western standards are generally preferred, but
wider
>hips.

Then in a brilliant deadpan, Fawn wrote:
>Apparently I need to move.

I live in California. And lately I've been a little troubled (in a raised
eyebrows way only) by the choices some women are making about cosmetic
surgery - massive breasts, huge upper lips, etc. Now, I've had a little
something or other done myself so I have little room to talk, but there
seems to be some predilection lately for downright caricature. It's like a
display of fecundity via flashing neon sign. But I'd think for any male with
any sense of subtlety, it would just seem strange.

To try and steer this post into something at least resembling a Paleo
discussion, I'll say it's interesting to me that such ancient - potentially
Paleo - sexual signals are of such import to some people these days. But I
wonder about the wisdom of sending crossed signals.

Say you've got a major histocompatibility complex that attracts you to
certain people of the opposite sex for all sorts of good reasons -
similitude and diversity, in the right mix. You see someone across the room,
you like what you see, and it's due to a huge number of complex interactions
that have been telling you THAT is the mate that may work for you.

Now, if that other person is wearing aftershave or perfume that masks their
pheromones, has altered their ethnicity through a nose job (saw pix of a
beautiful Persian woman who'd done this the other day - she no longer had
that beautiful, distinctive and modest high bridge), has inflat-a-breasts,
colored contacts, bleached hair, etc. etc. - oh, and say they're on The Pill
too, which tends to cause preference for those that are alike rather than
those that are suitably different in pheromone terms. How the heck is
evolution supposed to sort through THAT smokescreen?

Let me say that anyone is welcome to do whatever they like that makes them
feel better. And I'm guilty of having done more than one of the above. But
over time I find myself coming back to wanting to be just like I am at my
best naturally. People are actually nicer to me when my hair's lighter, but
I'm just not a blond. I don't feel like a blond, I don't look good as a
blond. I'm more me as a dark brunette, and strange though it may sound, it
has been really important to me to get back to that. I don't know if anyone
else can relate? It is, I suppose, an extension of the
getting-back-to-Paleo-basics thing. Instinct, IMHO, does a LOT more than the
modern world may still give it credit for.


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