Quote Originally Posted by Kathryn Martin View Post
I think that survival of the fittest is also a misnomer in a sense because we tend to equate it with physical fitness, when Darwin was really talking about adaptability. So Mysogyny, sexism, chauvinism, patriarchy is definitely not hardwired but rather a dead end of human evolution.
It has to do with more than adaptability to the physical environment. Don't evolutionary psychologists believe that our brains are hard wired a certain way and this is what influences our behaviors? For example, wouldn't have man's need to be strong in order to protect the tribe resulted in a rejection of any "weaker" traits both in himself and others? And what about man's need to pass down his genes, thus acquiring and enforcing something similar to harems? Isn't this a root of the subjugation of women?

I know these thoughts are beyond the scope of your thread, but if the majority of cultures have historically cultivated sexist attitudes, it's got to be for deeper reasons than an error in human evolution. These behaviors were adaptive.

I'm glad that attitudes have and continue to change, and that more and more men don't feel they are lesser men by abandoning traditional behaviors.