The Anti-Feminists Were Right!

I've been wondering why that attractive lady at the mall pretzel store turned me down. I just thought she was crazy (look at my obvious wonderfulness!), but apparently she's actually under the effect of mind-altering substances!

Namely, birth control pills.

New research from Newcastle, England suggests that women who are taking birth control pills find certain biologically incompatible men more attractive. It has to do with particular genetic compatibility pheromones we all exude. A certain type of them, called major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, play a biological role in who we find attractive. Don't get the idea that this overwhelms personal choice or anything; these MHC-genes are basically a holdover from earlier times in our history when we were more influenced by natural selection.

Basically, the MHC genes describe how our bodies react in immune response. We are usually attracted to people with different MHC "smells" than we have, because our bodies know that should we combine our genes with the attractive person, the baby would be protected against more types of factors.

In essence, birth control pills put a woman's body into a state similar to pregnancy, changing the hormones to suppress ovulation. Women on birth control or who are pregnant seem to prefer men who have similar MHC genes. The theory says that the reaction is part of a pregnant woman's biological aversion to mating. In fact, the pregnant woman may be more disposed to seek family members (who would have genetically similiar MHC genes).

Again, this is just leftover biology. No one's destiny is controled by their biology. At least, not in love. Still, the latent tendencies of our more-animal past playing havoc with our current lifestyle choices makes for interesting conversation.
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