The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Evolutionary Strippers

Meghan, Anne,

Here's another recent study to add to the pile of questionable evolutionary psychology findings about women's sexual signaling—the evo psychs are obsessed with proving that women on their fertile days actually do experience estrus like other mammals. Sure, you may be sitting around a conference table discussing the last sale's quarter, but really you're just repressing the urge to lift your buttocks like a baboon in heat. Researchers at the University of New Mexico decided to actually look into fertile women's buttocks' movements, so they tracked the tips 18 lap dancers earned at various points during their menstrual cycle (and wouldn't you be pleased if your UNM tuition was helping pay for this study). Surprise! The lap dancers' tips dropped considerably during menstruation, even though, the male researchers point out, "menstruating dancers can wear tampons (with strings clipped short or tucked up) and change them often during heavy flow days, without revealing any visual signs of menstruation." The findings, say the researchers, are "the first direct economic evidence for the existence and importance of estrus in contemporary human females. ...These results have clear implications for human evolution, sexuality, and economics." Or, another way to look at it is that the results have no meaning beyond the fact that contemporary human female lap dancers know g-strings and tampons are not a good combination.