GI Jane and Darwin

• Sex and Evolution: Bateman, Trivers-Willard, Coolidge, and Their Effects by James Brody, 6/20/97
  
  

I saw "GI Jane" several times. Seemed fairly Darwinian ... Demi Moore at one point screams "Suck my ____" to the Master Chief, her trainer for the Navy SEALS. The film was convincing, that these were real people instead of actors; however, there were several glitches.

First, there is a conversation with the base medic about female athletes losing their body fat (and menses) as a result of training. (There's speculation elsewhere these days that a monthly menses is a sign of over eating!) As hard as she trained, there was still a lot of body fat evident.

Second, she debates at one point, "Are you telling me that women's lives are more important than mens?" The answer should have been, "Yes" and likely will be when Hollywood catches up with the Neodarwinists and perhaps Bob Wright (The Moral Animal).

Basically:

a) Population levels are defined generally by the availability of females, not males.

b) Females make a larger investment in children and, therefore, are more cautious about their mating. We guys are easily had and replaced and less valuable.

c) Females have a higher percentage of genetic overlap with the children (if you count their mitochondrial component as well as their nuclear DNA that undergoes meiosis.)

d) Females have the defining word/behaviors that influence how we males spend our lives. We grow feathers, large muscles, or sports cars in order to impress them. We take foolish chances with our lives sometimes to steal them from another male, even for just a few minutes.

e) Most of the conquest and technology toys that we males enjoy have the goal of attracting the female or feeding her and the kids. We are, in a sense, an evolved adaptation, for meeting her needs. (Dawkins might consider us males to be an "extended phenotype" for female genes? And, vice versa.)

I understand that the males sit the kids and are conservative in mate selection in some species. Not ours.

The chance is that we guys will risk the combat mission for a female more than for a male. The film treats it as a historical prejudice. While the special training conditions of Moore's unit toughened them to let her be assaulted and without divulging intelligence secrets, moving her to another unit is not likely to transfer those training effects. In another scene, one of the politicians correctly remarks that "The country is not ready to see women come home in body bags."

Yes, a female life is more valuable than my own.

• XX most important? - Not to YOU? by John Fentress, 10/5/97