Dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference (observable characteristics or traits), between males and females of the same species, differences in morphology (the form and structure of organisms), size, ornamentation and behavior.

As I’m watching my sister put on make up I remember how women are expected to take such care for their appearance. Women have make up, different hair style (many more than men) different types of clothing, and shoes etc. society expects you to put more efforts in looking pretty and attractive. It seems understandable and logic that woman have to be the one to attract male attention for a suitable partner, especially in this time when there seem to be more women than men. The point in changing one’s appearance usually is to attract someone, ideally a partner for life, a good mate and father. However many times women just want the attention or just a partner, whether they are suited together, or not, is irrelevant to some as long as they are not alone (stupid right).

Well just as women are expected to clean up and make themselves pretty, men are expected to be strong and clean up of course but not with as much detail as women. We can add exceptions here for social celebrities; but usually is like that and we even classify men who do take care and are meticulous about his appearance, as metro sexual (usually urban heterosexual male given to enhancing his personal appearance by fastidious grooming, beauty treatments, and fashionable clothes).

Is kind of funny that in the animal kingdom most of the animals (except humans) males are the ones who have something to show off and attract females. Sexual dimorphism made some male animals with long hair, tail, different and more attractive colors, a song, or a something that’ll make the female population see them as suitable partners, (suitable as in they can reprocduce their next -strong- generation, and they are strong/smart enough to protect them and their offspring) even made them smaller in some cases (spiders).

These differences do have a purpose and is not just to make one or the other look pretty. Of course it is to attract, but also to let the females know they are the best suitor. Some differences indicate how strong they are, or their capacity to reproduce and protect and provide for their family; though in some cases the female is the one that hunts for food (lioness, or penguins)

2 questions:

-Why are men the only ones (it seems) in the animal kingdom that expect the women to change their appearance to attract them?

-How some people think that humans, men and women, are so different, when we see in the animal kingdom the same species have so different even if they are the same exact species and even if they are perfectly suited for reproduction?

Ok I grant it that even though we are still animals, or species in the animal kingdom, we are homo sapiens (“wise man” “or thinking man” or whatever) so we tend to think different, not just from other species but among our own. Our behavior and different ways of thinking makes us different from one another. Fortunately or unfortunately, those ways of thinking and behaving are much more divers among human, and it makes us more different from one another than the dimorphism seen in certain animals.