Abstract
The present study examined women’s mate competition tactics in response to female and feminine-male rivals in two cultures in which competition against both occurs. In Samoa and the Istmo Zapotec (Southern Mexico), women not only compete with other women (intrasexually) but also compete with rival feminine males (intersexually) in order to access/retain the same masculine men as sexual/romantic partners. Using a mixed-method paradigm, women were asked about their experiences of intra- and intersexual mate competition, and these narratives were recorded. The tactics reportedly employed by participants, and those attributed to mate competitors, were categorized according to established taxonomies of mate competition tactics, and their frequencies compared. Within-culture, the likelihood that participant women had ever experienced intra- and intersexual mate competition did not differ. Furthermore, participants reported a similar pattern of behavioral tactics whether their rival was another woman or a feminine male. These included benefit provisioning tactics during mate acquisition and cost-inflicting tactics during mate retention. Similarly, the mate competition tactics attributed to rival women and rival feminine males bore a striking resemblance, focused on enticing target men. Results highlight the mate competition tactics employed by women outside of a Euro-American context, and the way cultural factors impact mating landscapes presumed to be exclusively heterosexual. The presence of feminine males, alongside masculine men’s willingness to engage in sexual activity with them, induces women in such cultures to compete intersexually in comparable ways to intrasexual competition with rival women.
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Data Availability
The summary data associated with this research, along with further supporting documentation, are available at https://osf.io/7wqsb/.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Notes
Samoans in general, and often fa’afafine themselves, refer to fa’afafine using both masculine and feminine pronouns, even within the same narrative or sentence, as illustrated in this passage. This is not intended as a slur toward fa’afafine by participant women, nor is it taken as insulting by fa’afafine; it simply reflects the fact that fa’afafine are readily acknowledged as being natal males.
Semenyna et al. (2020) report data on intersexual mate competition (i.e., the second and fourth columns in the data tables). Data pertaining to intrasexual mate competition (i.e., the first and third columns in the data tables) have not previously been reported, analyzed, or compared with intersexual mate competition.
Much like Samoan women, Istmo Zapotec women would frequently vacillate between masculine and feminine pronouns when referring to a muxe.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Government of Samoa, the Samoan Fa’afafine Association, as well as Trisha Tuiloma and Alatina Ioelu, without whom research in Samoa would not be possible. We thank the Office of the Municipal President in Juchitán, Mexico, as well as Felina Santiago and Julio C. Jiménez Rodríguez for their assistance in Juchitán. We thank Peter Mower, Kassey Wells, and Lindsay Holt for their contributions to qualitative data coding and entry.
Funding
SWS was funded by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Doctoral) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (grant number 767-2016-2485). FRGJ was supported by a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant (grant number HJ-017ER-17), and a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research (G2017031591840826). PLV was supported by grants awarded by the University of Lethbridge Research Fund (grant number 13261), and an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (grant number 435-2017-0866). These funding sources played no role in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation of data, writing of the report, or the decision to submit the article for publication.
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Semenyna, S.W., Gómez Jiménez, F.R. & Vasey, P.L. Intra- and Intersexual Mate Competition in Two Cultures. Hum Nat 33, 145–171 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09424-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09424-0