> > > Don't guys do this (dress up, comb hair, smell nice, get a tan, work out, etc.) to some extent?
> >
> > Do you have to spend nearly an entire hour doing your hair in the morning, then putting on makeup, *every* day? I don't, but many women do.
>
> I realize that I might have misunderstood everything, but this "have to" has always seemed kind of voluntary to me.

The misunderstanding is not really your fault. It was more due to lack of clarity in my avian mating-dance lampoon. Had I had more time, I would have detailed it more prudently.


> But then again, that "kind of" is probably underestimation: Many women (and men, I'll postulate, even if they aren't as many as the women) probably have to perform this circus to stay in touch with the life they strive towards. But now I'm back to the point which you and Sam are trying to make,

We were actually making separate points. Sam and Issachar were mutually deploring the lack of overt social indicators that distinguish an ordinary platonic conversation between friends, from a subtly s*xually-charged flirtation between male-female. I simply took the ideas tabled, then ran them to their logical conclusion -- namely exposing the unspoken assumptions in gender-oriented social expectations. When you reverse the roles, the hypocrisy of the double-standard becomes obvious. Of course it's unlikely there'll be revolutionary changes in the social status quo any time soon.


>I guess, namely that this is all a wicked consequence of the way society is structured, that there are certain things which we can only acheive using "dirty" methods.

Well put. :)

Wolfspirit