Newsweek Slanders Entirely Rational Duke Co-eds?
Newsweek does a typical national media piece on the Duke lacrosse scandal ( I use this term only for clarity's sake, it could very well turn out to be the 'Race Baiting Durham District Attorney' scandal in time).
This little tidbit caught my eye: "Players frequently walk around with girls—sometimes called 'lacrosstitutes' by their peers—in tow,"
Got that. Females that attend Duke who date lacrosse players are akin to prostitutes. What slander. I would say that such females are quite normal and responding in line with what we know through our study of biology and economics. Presumably lacrosse players are quite athletic and in good physical condition, right? Precisely the sort of males that females would prefer to mate with, knowing what we know about biology and the female preference for strong offspring that have better chances at suvival. Do not females seek out and compete for the healthiest males to produce offspring with? Of course. Humans however have more advanced processes (or so we think) and we weigh other factors in such matters. Beyond the raw makeup of genes and chromosomes, we have a survival instinct for our offspring and we seek mates who can ensure the health and protection for our offspring so that they can mature and in turn produce offspring, thereby extending our genetic survival. Among species that structure themselves into family units, females look for males who have the skills to keep that structure intact. In human behavior it is mostly manifested in females seeking out males who can garner enough resources to apply to the family's ongoing survival. Newsweek makes much ado about how lacrosse is a sport played generally by the white and the wealthy. Given what we know about high rates of intact families among the population of whites, the wealthy, and combinatorially, wealthy whites, it would seem that playing lacrosse is a highly valuable signaling mechanism that aids in the problem of asymetric information. While there are surely other signals that might also convey the same information to females looking for potential male mates (i.e. studying computer science in our increasingly information-centric economy), if the demographics of lacrosse are as cut and dried as Newsweek makes them out to be, it is entirely rational for females to be attracted to lacrosse playing males. Such is why I deem Newsweek's characterization slanderous. It would seem that these females are acting entirely according to their biological and economic self-interest, yet they are demeaned as akin to prostitutes? Shame on Newsweek.
UPDATE: Here's a little bit more on signaling and asymetric information from an actual economist.
This little tidbit caught my eye: "Players frequently walk around with girls—sometimes called 'lacrosstitutes' by their peers—in tow,"
Got that. Females that attend Duke who date lacrosse players are akin to prostitutes. What slander. I would say that such females are quite normal and responding in line with what we know through our study of biology and economics. Presumably lacrosse players are quite athletic and in good physical condition, right? Precisely the sort of males that females would prefer to mate with, knowing what we know about biology and the female preference for strong offspring that have better chances at suvival. Do not females seek out and compete for the healthiest males to produce offspring with? Of course. Humans however have more advanced processes (or so we think) and we weigh other factors in such matters. Beyond the raw makeup of genes and chromosomes, we have a survival instinct for our offspring and we seek mates who can ensure the health and protection for our offspring so that they can mature and in turn produce offspring, thereby extending our genetic survival. Among species that structure themselves into family units, females look for males who have the skills to keep that structure intact. In human behavior it is mostly manifested in females seeking out males who can garner enough resources to apply to the family's ongoing survival. Newsweek makes much ado about how lacrosse is a sport played generally by the white and the wealthy. Given what we know about high rates of intact families among the population of whites, the wealthy, and combinatorially, wealthy whites, it would seem that playing lacrosse is a highly valuable signaling mechanism that aids in the problem of asymetric information. While there are surely other signals that might also convey the same information to females looking for potential male mates (i.e. studying computer science in our increasingly information-centric economy), if the demographics of lacrosse are as cut and dried as Newsweek makes them out to be, it is entirely rational for females to be attracted to lacrosse playing males. Such is why I deem Newsweek's characterization slanderous. It would seem that these females are acting entirely according to their biological and economic self-interest, yet they are demeaned as akin to prostitutes? Shame on Newsweek.
UPDATE: Here's a little bit more on signaling and asymetric information from an actual economist.
posted by Donny Baseball at 3:18 PM
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