Posted on 01/19/2003 11:24:47 AM PST by theFIRMbss
TODAY’S MOST DESIRABLE LOOK REFLECTS A SPECTRUM OF FEATURES AND SKIN TYPES. UCLA BIOLOGIST JAY PHELAN EXPLAINS THE SCIENCE OF BEAUTY IN A MELTING-POT CULTURE
If biology is destiny, then Jay Phelan believes the inevitable fate of America will be to make peace by making love. With Census figures revealing that mixed-race marriages in the U.S. number 1.5 million and are doubling every decade, and one survey showing that 40 percent of us have dated someone of another race, it seems possible that soon, as Alice Walker has said, there will be “one race . . . that will call itself the American race.”
The controversial UCLA biology professor’s ideas are impeccably well-timed. In an era when society has embraced a long roster of multiracial stars like Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, Shakira, and Alicia Keys, when models with dazzlingly varied combinations of skin tone and eye color gaze out from magazine spreads, Phelan has found compelling scientific justification for the cultural moment. In short, he believes people of multiracial heritage are not just inherently more attractive than those who aren’t, but they are stronger and healthier, too.
The intersection of race and sex is a fittingly high-octane topic for Phelan, whose rock-star good looks and affinity for motorcycles are every bit as attention-getting as his theories about human genetics. (Mean Genes, the best-selling book he co-authored on the evolutionary forces underlying sexuality and other human impulses, landed him on Howard Stern.)
His take on race is based on the idea that mixed or “heterozygous” populations are physically more symmetrical than their purebred cousins. Phelan first noticed this phenomenon in mice as a Harvard grad student. Later, curious to see how this distinction would bear out in humans, he calculated the symmetry of ninety-nine students of same- and mixed-race parentage by measuring both sides of each subject’s body with calipers: wrist and ear width; ear and finger length; ankle, elbow, and foot size. He was struck by the marked differences between the two groups. “It was clear that the biracial people were so much more symmetrical,” Phelan says.
In the natural world, symmetry is a compelling force. On one hand, it has long been correlated with physical attraction—for instance, hungry bees prefer more symmetrical flowers. In the human realm, numerous studies have found that people who are perceived as good-looking tend to have more symmetrical body parts. When subjects are asked to rank photographs of faces, the ones judged most attractive tend to be most symmetrical. It’s as if the brain is wired to subconsciously value symmetry, even when we can’t perceive it. “The connection between symmetry and attractiveness is real,” says Nancy Etcoff, PhD, author of Survival of the Prettiest, about the biology of beauty. “Whether you’re studying horns, antlers, earlobes, or feet, symmetry is considered beautiful in nature.”
What’s more, physical symmetry may also be indicative of an innate biological heartiness, or “developmental stability.” Genes—the body’s instruction manual for growth—come in pairs, one from each parent. Scientists generally agree that heterozygous populations are better equipped to to deal with toxins, parasites, and other disruptions to normal growth than purebred ones, because their genetic makeup contains different versions of each gene and so weaknesses in one can be corrected by another. So it may be no coincidence that symmetrical men are taller and more muscular than others, Phelan maintains. Even more surprising, one famous study that asked women to rate the scents of T-shirts worn for two nights by forty-one men, found that women nearing ovulation showed a significant preference for more symmetrical men. Another concluded that women achieve more frequent orgasms with symmetrical mates. “Symmetry is a measure of overall Darwinian fitness,” says Arizona State University evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves, MD. Adds Etcoff, “If we’re looking for healthy, fertile mates, symmetry is a good indicator.” In other words, if Phelan’s thesis bears out, people of mixed race just might have won the genetic lottery.
Phelan knows he’s picked up a hot potato. Attempts to study race have long been tainted by association with the Nazi brand of eugenics; the 1994 publication of The Bell Curve proved the issue had lost none of its potency. Phelan has yet to publish his results in a professional journal, but his findings will no doubt raise hackles among his peers. “Right wing, left wing—everyone’s going to hate my idea,” Phelan predicts. “But I think the movie Bulworth put it best: ‘Everybody’s just got to keep f---ing everybody ’til they’re all the same color.”
Small differences
are not necessarily
"trivial." Complex
systems can sometimes
amplify (rather than damp)
small modifiers.
Mixed versus pure, both
camps ignore the mental and
the spiritual.
And both camps, I think,
ignore modern lessons from
complex systems math.
And, I win the bet, don't I? You put up or shut up. You did not do the former, now did you?
You refuse to put up or shut up. Now you can do the latter.
Go back to your "baloney" comment. All you had to do was back up your own word but you didn't.
What's so hard about it?
Perhaps you don't have any to wager.
Most Americans are of mixed race. You say you are not but won't say what your background is.
Weird. Why did you even say it in the first place?
I merely said "baloney" to your claim that most Americans are of mixed race. You could have said "many" Americans are of mixed race, which is not disputable. Your response is what I found to be strange. Instead of backing-up your assertion that "almost all" Americans are of mixed race, you decided to propose a bet regarding my own personal racial background. You then failed to agree to any terms of the bet and at the same time question my integrity. Even stranger is someone using an aol e-mail address on a conservative forum. Why don't you just send your monthly ISP fee directly to Sarah Brady or the DNC?
Most Americans are mixed race.
At least you now seem to no longer say that is baloney.
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