In a recent piece in Salon, Dr. Melvin Konner (original/prominent advocate of the Paleo diet, no less) analyzes the modern sexual marketplace in an eye-opening way. I urge you to take a few minutes to read it in entirety. It is profoundly enlightening.

(Yes, I directly linked it; archive.today truncates the body for some reason and only shows 20% of the text).

He cites dozens of scientific studies done by psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, and other academics or practitioners, as well as a sampling of pieces in major non-academic publications.

Key quote:

We now have overwhelming evidence that Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “difference in man and woman”—by which she meant behavioral, psychological, and moral dispositions—is in part grounded in biology. Scientists once reticent in their assertions have become very bold.

The real gems are the scientific evidence on how :

  • prenatal hormones have effects on gender
  • male and female become different in the hippocampus and amygdala—parts of the emotional brain outside the hypothalamus
  • exposure to high levels of prenatal androgens masculinizes later activity and occupational interests, sexual orientation, and some aspects of spatial ability
  • pubertal hormones appear to influence gender identity and perhaps some male-female differences in psychiatric illness

I hope you see how much of a treasure-trove the scientific information is and spend time absorbing it all.

Granted, there are a number of conclusions he steers away from as well as a few notable omissions (his comments on how rape is a nearly exclusively male crime have no mention of the societal pressure on men to "man up" and the resulting lower rate of men reporting female-perpetrated rape, for instance), but overall this is something that is a huge anomaly in today's era of political correctness.

Unfortunately he focuses largely on the psyche and self-esteem of women today. The conclusion is obvious: trading sex for attention has a detrimental effect on one's self-esteem. No shit.

The truism remains: women are the gatekeepers of sex, and men are the gatekeepers of commitment.