It is true that this places female preference or choice on a much
lower psychological plane than Darwin in some passages seems to
contemplate where, for example, he says that the female appreciates
the display of the male and places to her credit a taste for the
beautiful. But Darwin himself distinctly states[177] that "it is not
probable that she consciously deliberates; but she is most excited or
attracted by the most beautiful, or melodious, or gallant males." The
view here put forward, which has been developed by Prof. Groos,[178]
therefore seems to have Darwin's own sanction. The phenomena are not
only biological; there are psychological elements as well. One can
hardly suppose that the female is unconscious of the male's presence;
the final yielding must surely be accompanied by heightened emotional
tone. Whether we call it choice or not is merely a matter of
definition of terms. The behaviour is in part determined by
supplementary psychological values. Prof. Groos regards the coyness of
females as "a most efficient means of preventing the too early and too
frequent yielding to the sexual impulse."[179] Be that as it may, it
is, in any case, if we grant the facts, a means through which male
sexual behaviour with all its biological and psychological
implications, is raised to a level otherwise perhaps unattainable by
natural means, while in the female it affords opportunities for the
development in the individual and evolution in the race of what we may
follow Darwin in calling appreciation, if we empty this word of the
aesthetic implications which have gathered round it in the mental life
of man.
Regarded from this standpoint of sexual selection, broadly considered,
has probably been of great importance. The psychological
accompaniments of the pairing situation have profoundly influenced the
course of biological evolution and are themselves the outcome of that
evolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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