Do women really prefer jerks?

Our ego differences may have been culturally molded. In ancient times, women were revered and worshipped and they were the ones deemed to have all of the power. Ego changed that. Men felt powerless over the women, because they did bring life forth-and they couldn’t, and women made men sexually want them in order to create that life. Men may have resented this power, and so looked for the ways in which they were more powerful. Physiologically speaking, men are stronger and physically capable, and intimidated with that power. Thus, a forced compromise was born. Men will gather, hunt and provide the food. Women will cook it, raise the children, and make some more…food and kids. Period.

In modern tribes in Africa and Brazilian rain forests-this exchange still occurs. These tribes who’s sole focus in life is to hunt food, build their houses, weave baskets, dance around a bit to appease the Gods and build families, still very much fall into the archetypically man vs. female roles. And when the Travel Channel took their cameras in to observe tribal life, so the rest of the world can be awe- struck that people like this still exist-the women there complained.

Here are women with no running water, electricity, clothing even-no access to modern life, no true knowledge of the world around them-who were complaining that their men did not respect them, that they were repressed and that their work was too difficult. One woman even rebelled against the traditional tribal ceremony of having her husband picked out for her. She refused to marry him, because she liked another guy. In the interview she was translated as saying “He’s not as handsome or as swift or as strong as the other, but he’s the one I just like. Don’t know why.”

Even without access to modern amenities and knowledge of anything else really happening in the world, and certainly no subscriptions to Cosmo, this shows that women really aren’t influenced by this macho type of mentality and archetypical roles. We really aren’t into it. Unlike animals, we also have something other than instinct to go by. Language, reason, logic, empathy and having a conscious, the ability to know right from wrong.

While other mammals can be observed and studied for our similar behaviors to them, we have as of yet to my knowledge, conducted any lab testing to see if the female rat would prefer the asshole rat over the really nice rat. Yet these primal drives are still used to explain why it is that women go for jerks, or why men are jerks. Even though we live in modern times, where women can go and hunt and gather their own food at the supermarket and if they wanted to, get pregnant without even having sex, it is still reasoned that as females, we must prefer an alpha male. By this logic, the fact that a man may act “alpha” would be because he is an animal, and devoid of the other instincts mentioned before. This over-simplifies and negates our very human and conscious side, because when it comes to human emotional connections and relationships, this mythology doesn’t belong. You‘d be hard-pressed to find anyone who ‘likes’, ‘wants’ or ‘desires’ to be treated like shit.