(Sorry for jumping all over your LJ like this, but, um, Bujold, construction of gender, how it interacts with status...how could I NOT?)
Note that both genders are focusing on guys.
??? *tilts head, squinches up eyebrows, concentrates*
Sorry, but I don't see that. The two parallel gender-specific sentences do appear in all important aspects to be exactly that...parallel. The precise choice of words differs, and the final clauses of the sentences don't exactly track, but ISTM that each of them can be boiled down to:
A attracts B by competing with other A's for status.
The final clauses, as noted, are not parallel, but if I may be allowed some indulgence I'll posit that in each case the conclusion is that "and the higher-status A's then attract B's more because of the status itself than because of any particular inherent quality of the A's" (this is more or less explicit in the "guys attract girls" example, but requiring rather more of a "leap of faith" in the "girls attract guys" example).
It is, as always, quite possible that I've thrown out the baby with the proverbial bathwater when I tweaked the statements to enhance their parallelism, but if so I'd muchly appreciate it if someone could point out where I went wrong.
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Date: 2006-12-08 09:59 pm (UTC)Note that both genders are focusing on guys.
??? *tilts head, squinches up eyebrows, concentrates*
Sorry, but I don't see that. The two parallel gender-specific sentences do appear in all important aspects to be exactly that...parallel. The precise choice of words differs, and the final clauses of the sentences don't exactly track, but ISTM that each of them can be boiled down to:
A attracts B by competing with other A's for status.
The final clauses, as noted, are not parallel, but if I may be allowed some indulgence I'll posit that in each case the conclusion is that "and the higher-status A's then attract B's more because of the status itself than because of any particular inherent quality of the A's" (this is more or less explicit in the "guys attract girls" example, but requiring rather more of a "leap of faith" in the "girls attract guys" example).
It is, as always, quite possible that I've thrown out the baby with the proverbial bathwater when I tweaked the statements to enhance their parallelism, but if so I'd muchly appreciate it if someone could point out where I went wrong.