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I just have to say, I realize that you mean some of this ironically or perjoratively, but I am very appreciative for you being willing to respond. If you feel this way, it means many others probably felt this way as well but did not respond. So thank you for responding, and thank you for giving me the chance to clarify my own thoughts.
Munchies:
I have a background in debate and public speaking, and I studied human biology, psychology, and sociology in college. Your argument is flawed. If you wish to critique the societal concepts of beauty, doing it through a biological lens makes no sense.
Biological attractiveness is about which traits best encourage reproduction. This isn't a static feature. The basic concept of evolution necessitates this fluidity.
In addition, human attractiveness is best understood through sociology and psychology rather than biology. Since humans are very good at transforming our environment to suit our needs, our drive to reproduce is based on other factors (e.g. culture and personal taste).
That is an interesting and thought-provoking perspective, though I think the phrase "best understood" is a rather odd choice given your displeasure with my own subjective charges. That human attractiveness can and should be and is studied through sociology and psychology is absolutely correct and valid. That thinking of humans as not being animals, however, and as biology not also being an important and useful lens... seems an odd argument from someone that studied all of this stuff. Can you elaborate?
I find your so-called rant utterly fascinating. You claim that this is a critique of society, but you also clearly indicate a right way and a wrong way to be attractive as a woman.
You know, someone else said that too. Where did I say that, exactly?
Wherever it was, I certainly did not mean it to sound as it apparently sounded to you and others. Perhaps that is where your charge of misogyny originated from.
I do not think... that I think, that there is a right and wrong way to be attractive as a woman. I think... that it seems odd, or ironic - both, I guess - that society, certainly American culture and fashion, so promotes excessive thinness as the ideal body type for women. To the degree that yes, it very much fetishizes thinness. And that in turn makes it ironic to think of appreciating heavier women as itself a fetish, an irony then multiplied by the fact that, yes, biologically, fat on a female body has been a central indicator of fertility for much of human history and prehistory, afaik.
You may find this fascinating as well, but I actually did not mean for this rant to be about how women choose express themselves AT ALL. It was only envisaged and intended as a rebuke of the current societal norm of exulting female thinness, especially in reference to the further exclusion of other body types, and how this has gotten to the point where the vast majority of the fashion industry is focused on either completely ignoring women that aren't thin or, "at best", convincing women that aren't thin that they need to hide anything that isn't thin, and then selling to resulting socially-engineered demand to hide parts of the body that are totally natural, even laudable - those same parts that on a thin woman are encouraged by that same industry and culture to reveal or show off or use to tantalize, to look cute, etc. Personally, I do find it cute on thin women. I just ALSO find it cute on heavier women, and it seems like that focus on only thinness has gotten to the point where it is, VERY MUCH, a fetish. And not even (solely) a sexual fetish - a socionormative fetish, a fetish of what is generally seen as even acceptable, much less attractive. And personally, I find that disturbing and, frankly, offensive (though I acknowledge the irony considering how I have seriously offended you by how poorly I've expressed it, lol).
You say things like "A thin female body, on the other hand, has no biological reason to be attractive"
That I said; do you have an argument specifically about "biological reason to be attractive"?