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Masculinity, Culture, and the Paradox of the Lek

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The Body Beautiful

Abstract

Explaining why males vary in their attractiveness and ability to garner mates is a long-standing problem in evolution (Darwin, 1871, Fisher, 1930). A well-accepted solution posits that ‘attractive’ traits, such as bright feathers, are costly to produce and, thus, truthfully signal high mate quality (Andersson, 1994). High quality males may confer direct or indirect benefits to their offspring. Direct benefits are essentially phenotypic in nature, such as nuptial gifts, parental care, or territory, and if such benefits vary across males, then female choice is easy to explain (Kokko, Jennions, & Brooks, 2006;Thornhill, 1976). Indirect benefits are genetic;a mate is chosen because it can pass on ‘good’ (versions of) genes, such as those involved in disease resistance (Evans & Magurran, 2000;Jennions & Petrie, 2000;Milinski, 2OO6;M0ller & Alatalo, 1999).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of East Anglia, UK

    Douglas W. Yu (behavioural and spatial ecologist) & Glenn H. Shepard (medical anthropologist)

  2. Iowa State University, USA

    Stephen R. Proulx (theoretical evolutionary biologist)

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  1. Douglas W. Yu
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  2. Stephen R. Proulx
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  3. Glenn H. Shepard
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, UK

    Viren Swami (Research Associate) (Research Associate)

  2. University College London, UK

    Adrian Furnham (Professor of Psychology) (Professor of Psychology)

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© 2007 Douglas W. Yu, Stephen R. Proulx, and Glenn H. Shepard

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Yu, D.W., Proulx, S.R., Shepard, G.H. (2007). Masculinity, Culture, and the Paradox of the Lek. In: Swami, V., Furnham, A. (eds) The Body Beautiful. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596887_6

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