The war men are only dimly aware of

This was a second entry commenting on the article mentioned in my last post. It raises a new topic, however. Men: you may get an "aha" experience reading this. Women: you may blush at me breaking The Rules by revealing to other men the covert war you're engaged in. Here goes:

The word "objectification" is a cultural artifact masquerading as scientific fact.

it stems from a cold war that's been going on since our ancestors clambered down out of the trees, about six million years ago.

The war is between what I call Plan A females and Plan B females.

Plan A are are the Good Girls--born on the right side of the tracks, skilled in all the domestic arts.

Plan B are the Bad Girls from the other side of the tracks, excluded from birth at any chance at wedding the Alpha males of a given society.

In many societies their only route up is on their backs--and the only domestic skill they need to master is the kind that made Ellliott Spitzer (and so very many others) stray from their Plan A mates. Their attire and body language advertise what their claimed expertise, just as Plan A females' fashionable dress and perfect coiffures advertise their suitability as Alpha males' mates.

All this was clearing before the 1960s, but it would be obtuse not to see that all this is still around--and always will be.

There's also a Plan B male--sometimes known as Bad Boys but that's too narrow, because it includes what used to be called Back Door Johnnies, who are often as androgynous as David Bowie.

Like Plan B girls, their only demonstrable skill is often romantic/sexual. You wouldn't expect them to be able to balance a budget or bring home much bacon.

"Objectification" is the term of opprobrium used by educated Plan A females to try to banish their Plan B competition to the outer darkness.

What's funny is that apparently Plan A females are as likely to stray as Plan A males--only Plan A females lie about it, while Plan A males brag about it. That's the conclusion British researchers came to a few years ago, as cited in the BBC documentary "The Sexes."

But Plan A males don't have a term like "objectification" to lambaste Plan B males, because most Plan A males don't perceive Plan B males as compeition.

All this is found across the animal kingdom. Smaller sea elephants wait in the surf until an Alpha male starts combat with another Alpha wannabe beachmaster. Then the Plan B male sneaks in and has fun with the harem until the fight is over, then scampers back into the sea.

Female chimpanzees one-up this by pretending to be in heat to attract Plan A dominant males--but still sneak off with the cute guys when they're really in heat.

Numerous other examples show that the Plan A females' war on Plan B females is won that they're never win. It's a war of generalists against specialists. The generalists will get the big prize in most cases, but the specialists are playing for a different prize, as i've detailed here.

We all are bidden to serve our biological master: the insensate desire of our gene pool to thrive. Those Plan B females win from the gene pool's point of view if they bear children by the Alpha male--doubly so if they can get him to support her and them, and the tradition of mistresses in many societies indicates that they often do.

And they'll continue to succeed as long as the Plan A males know they can hook up with such women, and, as they embrace, the Plan B female whispers "What would you like to do...?" and he knows what she means by that is vastly outside the operating parameters of his Plan A mate.

Same goes the other way, of course. Which is why so many apparently sound marriages would break apart if all children got DNA paternity testing.

I'm not advocating for either side of this war. Honest. I'm just the messenger. I'm completely monogamous myself.

As for Lady Gaga...she is a Plan B female. She was an outcast in high school--the "regular" kids thought she was weird. And she's not very pretty--amazing that the professor didn't notice this--so what she has to sell is outré sexuality, and sell it she does.

She's also largely self-made, and a very good singer, pianist and songwriter. I don't actually think much of her videos, but her musical skills are undeniable--far better than those of Madonna, who she visually emulates. I hope people see this.