Walk like a stripper?
So, it seems that strippers make more money when they’re ovulating. A paper by Geoffrey Miller et al. from the University of New Mexico in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, shows that strippers working while in the most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, the oestrus phase, made an impressive $70 an hour. In the less fertile luteal phase they made $50 and when they were menstruating, they made $35. Those on the pill made on average less because there was no peak in their earnings at the oestrus phase.
Oestrus is a state of obvious fertility that attracts potential mates. Accepted wisdom is that it was lost as humans evolved. Women developed “concealed ovulation” along with month-long sexual receptivity to keep men in the dark. This study, however, shows that a women’s fertile state may not be so secret after all – at least according to the results from the eighteen strippers who took part. The authors think that men can tell a woman’s fertility by subconscious behavioural signals, after having ruled out factors like types of dance moves or conversational content.
Karl Grammer of the Ludwig Boltzman Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna agrees. He thinks that oestrogen modulates motion abilities and so it is body motion, not pheromones, which tells men what is going on. So, women may have developed stealthy oestrus, but their sexy walk still gives them away. Definitely useful if you’re on the pull on a night out.
However, this paper raises a few questions. Firstly, in my limited (read: nonexistent) experience of strip clubs, I can’t imagine much ‘conversation’ going on, over and above the basics such as “how much, love?” Secondly, how on earth did this project get funding? I personally would love to read the research proposal, just to giggle and read between the lines. And thirdly, the paper was written by three men. I wonder why…
