Excellent response. All power to you. I doubt ill be able to respond to everything.
I think the danger is, if you try to create moral stances without taking into account evolutionary psychology, you’re basically left flapping around in the dark. You can tell society “Cheating is evil!” But then how can individuals reconcile with their natural inner attraction to cheating?
People need to understand why they feel the way they feel and then decide how they want to act.
I want to make it clear, I am definitely not suggesting that we should act on our reptilian impulses. I am only suggesting that they’re taken into account.
Men should not be commenting stupid remarks on women’s photos. I mean duh. But you can’t expect to put sexual stimuli out into an internet of millions of people and not expect some of your audience to respond to that stimuli. Men vary in levels in intelligence and some will always be more prone to acting with their reptilian brain.
It’s this idea that “Oh my god I posted sexual photos of myself on social media and now I’m getting sexual responses! What a shock!” It’s not a shock. It’s inevitable.
“I’ll state my case — her photos aren’t for you, they’re for HER”
No. She posted the photos into an audience of millions of people. They’re not for her, they’re for her audience. If they were truly for her she would have kept them for herself. Posting on social media is human advertising. All of the content an individual posts is designed for their audience. Otherwise what the hell would be the point in posting it.
“fall back on ‘evolutionary psychology’ to tell them what YOU want THEM to be intending. It’s abusive, dismissive, and patriarchal”. No. It’s not patriarchal. It applies to both genders. Is it matriarchal when I apply evolutionary psychology onto men? No.
Having said all that. Men should not be harassing women (Or anyone) online because they posted a photo. These men are stupid. We can agree on that. And attractiveness for likeability rather than sexuality is interesting. And if men think you’re saying “Don’t flirt” then they’re not reading your article properly.
