Why Are Most Animals Male and More Beautiful, While Humans Are the Opposite?
Do you all notice that males are generally more beautiful than females in the animal kingdom? For example, male peacocks have colorful and vibrant tail feathers, while female peacocks have no tail feathers and their feathers are dull and mottled. However, this is the opposite in human society, where the word ‘beautiful’ is generally used to describe women, and rarely used to describe men. So, what caused this deviation?
Research shows that this is due to sexual selection. Existing species on Earth have evolved through genetic mutations and then been preserved by natural selection. Why are male peacocks more beautiful than female peacocks?
The reason is simple: male peacocks need their beautiful tail feathers to attract the attention of female peacocks, thereby gaining the right to mate. This is a common phenomenon in the animal kingdom, and it leads to male peacocks, and other male birds, becoming increasingly beautiful because unattractive males will go extinct due to losing mating opportunities, and the descendants of the remaining beautiful male birds inherit their parents' genes, thus maintaining their beautiful appearance.
Besides birds displaying beautiful feathers, other animals attract the attention of female animals by showing off their strong bodies. Many people might ask, why do most animals have female animals holding the right to mate?
This is closely related to producing offspring. In the animal kingdom, many male animals leave female animals after mating, and the subsequent gestation and upbringing are all undertaken by female animals. In this situation, female animals naturally have the right to choose their favorite mating partners.
Of course, this is not the case for all animals. There is a penguin species in Antarctica called Emperor penguins, which follow a monogamous system, and they jointly raise their offspring, so the appearance of male and female Emperor penguins is not much different.
Besides Emperor penguins, wolves also follow a monogamous system in the canine family, which is rare. Therefore, it can be seen that male animals have to be more beautiful than female animals, because if they are not beautiful, they will be eliminated, and producing offspring is an innate instinct of animals. It is impossible for them to abandon this instinct, so they must constantly improve themselves. However, beautiful male animals also have their own dangers in the wild, as beauty makes them more noticeable, so these beautiful male animals are targeted by predators, while unattractive female animals can avoid such dangers.
As for why women are considered more beautiful than men in human society, this is a misunderstanding. Compared to animals, the human world is more complex, although ‘beautiful’ is used to describe women, ‘handsome’ is used to describe men, and the two words have the same meaning, so it does not mean that women are inherently more beautiful than men.
Furthermore, the equality of men and women in modern society allows both men and women to have the right to choose autonomously. This two-way selection is more conducive to human development than the one-way selection in animals, such as in this trend, modern humans are more beautiful and tall women, and men are more handsome and magnificent.
Besides humans, in the animal kingdom, whether male or female animals, who holds the right to choose mates is determined by who contributes more in the process of producing offspring.
