Controversial study provokes the mother of all fights

The mother of all fights has erupted over evolutionary psychologist Professor Satoshi Kanazawa's claims that more attractive women tend to have daughters, not sons.

Kanazawa's study, recently published in the journal Reproductive Sciences and widely picked up by the media, has journalists pondering the inconsistencies of his research, while mothers of sons are hot under the collar at the perceived personal slight. Many wrote into parenting websites with disgust. Comments on parentdish.comranged from "I have 2 boys. Are you telling me I'm ugly?" to "In a nutshell, my response to this adolescent research is a resounding - "horse hockey!" and "what about Cindy Crawford and her hubby? Their first child is a boy." Judith Woods agrees, citing beautiful mothers of sons only; Jemima Khan, Victoria Beckham and Elizabeth Hurley. (The Telegraph, Dec 1)

On that score, one might add that renowned beauty Princess Diana had two very good looking sons, while Fergie, ever the also-ran in the attractive stakes, despite her fervent dieting over the years, produced two daughters. Perhaps I should show my hand as the mother of two sons, and no daughters.

The evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics is no stranger to controversy. Kanazawa's claim that most suicide bombers are Muslim because they do not have enough sex; perhaps sits oddly with his view that men who cheat on their girlfriends or wives are less intelligent. These and other startling "discoveries" from Kanazawa's latest research were gleefully revealed by Mail Online (Dec 1).

The author of Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature is used to outraging audiences. The LSE professor's controversial views do not endear him to his students, earlier this year raising their ire on campus after his article in Psychology Today stated; “half of Muslims worldwide are terrorists or active supporters of terrorism”. Concerns were expressed at the Union General Meeting, but LSE Director Howard Davies declared he was not about to censor what the faculty writes. (The Beaver Online, Dec 7) There is even a Facebook page dedicated to the question; "Should LSE sack Satoshi Kanazawa?"

In his latest research, Kanazawa analyzed data from a survey of 17,000 babies born in Britain in March 1958 and tracked them at various points in their lives. He found that children rated as attractive (84 percent of the sample) were equally likely to have a son or a daughter as their first child, while the unattractive children were more likely to have sons. (The Daily Mail, Nov 30)

The question is, then, why do beautiful people have more daughters? According to a report on the study in The Independent, it is simply because beauty is more important for a woman than a man. (Nov 30). A woman uses her beauty to secure the best provider, ensuring she successfully breeds, fulfilling Richard Dawkins' selfish gene theory.

It seems that nothing has changed since Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex half a century ago and penned that when a woman is gazed upon by her beloved, "nothingness becomes fullness of being and is transmuted into worth". She also said that no man is truly free to love a fat woman; which perhaps proves Kanazawa's point.

Evelyn Tsitas is the co-author of the parenting book Handle With Care. She is a PhD student at RMIT University, Melbourne: evelyntsitas@gmail.com

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